Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/761

 S. W A S W A 729 SWABIA, STJABIA, or SUEVIA (Germ. Sckivaben}, is the name of an ancient duchy in the south-west part of Germany, afterwards transferred to one of the ten great circles into which the empire was divided in the reign of Maximilian I. (1493-1519). At present the official use of the name is confined to a province of Bavaria (capital, Augsburg), comprising a mere fragment of the former Swabia, but in common use it is still applied to the districts included in the old duchy. The duchy of Swabia was bounded on the N. by the Rhenish Palatinate, on the E. by the Lech (separating it from the duchy of Bavaria), on the S. by Switzerland, the Lake of Constance, and Vorarl- berg, and on the W. by the Rhine. It corresponds roughly to the modern Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Hohenzollern, with part of Bavaria. The circle of Swabia coincided more nearly than most with the duchy from which it was named, but was rather more extensive. It was bounded by Switzerland, France (after the cession of Alsace), and the circles of the Upper and Lower Rhine, Franconia, Bavaria, and Austria. Its area was about 1 3,500 square miles. The Swabian circle contained more independent states of the empire than any other, including the countship (after- wards duchy) of Wiirtemberg, the margraviate of Baden, the principalities of Hohenzollern and Liechtenstein, a whole series of smaller secular and ecclesiastical principalities, and upwards of thirty free imperial towns (Augsburg, Ulm, <kc.). Swabia is intersected from west to east by the Danube, and is one of the most mountainous (Black Forest, Swabian Jura) and picturesque parts of the German empire. It is also very fertile. The Swabians are a strong, big-framed, and good-humoured race, and, though in several popular legends the " Schwab " plays the part of a " wise man of Gotham," he is probably no denser than his neighbours. The use of the name of Swabia in connexion with the south-west part of Germany, previously called Alemannia (see ALEMANNI), begins with the 5th century of our era, when the Suevi poured into the country and amalgamated with the Alemanni. It was not, however, till the 8th century, when the dukedom of Alemannia was abolished and Rhretia and Alsace separated from it, that Swabia became the recognized name of the district, henceforth administered by nuncii camera, as representatives of the Frankish emperors. One of these nuncii, who usurped the ancient title of duke of Alemannia, was executed in 917, but two years later Henry I. yielded to the popular will in allowing Count Burkhard I. to style himself duke of Swabia. The dukedom thus founded, which lasted for more than three centuries, repeatedly changed hands, and was generally conferred by the emperors and kings of the Saxon and Franconian lines on members of their own families. In 1079 it passed into the hands of Frederick I. of Hohenstaufen, the progenitor of a line of German monarchs, and under his successors Swabia had the reputation of being the most civilized and pro- sperous part of Germany. As, however, the Hohenstaufen line gradually lost strength in its hopeless struggle with the papacy, the Swabian nobles increased in power at the expense of the dukes, and several of them became "immediate." No duke of Swabia was appointed after the death of Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen, in 1268, and his place was henceforth filled in some degree by the count of Wiirtemberg as primus inter pares. For the next 250 years or so the history of Swabia consists of an endless series of feuds between the different members of the duchy, mingled with more or less abortive attempts of the German emperors and others to restore peace. The lesser nobles fought with the greater nobles, the towns banded themselves together against both, and alliances and counter-alliances were formed and dissolved with bewildering rapidity. The " Schlcglerkrieg " is the name given to a bloody contest between the counts of Wiirtemberg and the lesser noblesse in 1367. The most important of the various leagues formed by the towns was the " Schwabischer Stadtebund" of 1376, the point of which was directed against Wiirtcinberg. In 14S8 the Swabian estates, nobles, prelates, and towns, weary of constant dissension, joined in the Great Swabian Confederation, the object of which was to maintain peace throughout the country. This league possessed a carefully drawn up constitu- tion and exercised executive and judicial functions throughout the whole of Swabia, maintaining a standing army to give force to its decrees. Though not successful in completely abolishing war within Swabia, the confederation was by no means a failure. It was, for instance, the general of the confederation that put an end to the calamitous Peasants' War of 1525. The Reformation found ready acceptance in Swabia. Wiirtemberg, Ulm, and some of the other estates even joined in the Schmalkald League ; but for this they afterwards had to pay large fines to the emperor, while the towns lost their democratic constitution, and with it most of their political importance. The outstanding feature of Swabian history for some time afterwards may be said to be the struggle for supre- macy between the Protestant Wiirtemberg and the Roman Catholic Austria. In 1512, when all Germany was divided into ten circles, one of them was named the Schwabischer Kreis, or Swabian Circle (see above). The circle received its complete organization in 1563, and retained it practically unchanged till the dissolution of the empire in 1806. Swabia suffered severely in the Thirty Years' War, and it was also one of the scenes of the struggles con- sequent on the French Revolution. But its modern history must be sought for under such headings as WURTEMBERG and BADEN. SWAHILI (Wa-Swahili, i.e., "Coast People," from the Arabic sdhil, coast), a term now commonly applied to the inhabitants of Zanzibar and of the opposite mainland between the parallels of 2 and 9 S., who are subjects of the sultan of Zanzibar, and whose mother-tongue is the Ki-Swahili language. According to present local usage no person would be called a Swahili unless he verified these two conditions. The Swahili are essentially a mixed people, in whom the Bantu and Arab elements are mingled in the proportion of about three to one ; and the same is true of their speech, which of all the Bantu dialects has been most affected by Arab and other influ- ences. The interest attaching to the Swahili people, who have figured so largely in the history of African enterprise during the last half century, is thus of a social rather than of a strictly scientific character. The energy and intelligence derived from a large infusion of Semitic blood has enabled them to take a leading part in the develop- ment of trade and the industries, as shown in the wide diffusion of their language, which, like the Hindustani in India and the Guarani in South America, has become the principal medium of intercommunication throughout most of the continent south of the equator. During his journey from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Commander Cameron found that a knowledge of this language enabled him everywhere to dispense with the aid of an interpreter, as it was understood by one or more persons in all the tribes along the route. Owing to this circumstance the intelligent and enterprising natives of Zanzibar have been found indispensable assistants in every expedition pene- trating from the eastern seaboard to the interior since they began to be employed by Speke and Burton as porters and escorts. Missionary enterprise has been at work amongst the Swahili, who are all Mohammedans, but with poor results. The language, however, has been carefully studied, and is now better known than perhaps any other member of the Bantu family. There are several varieties, of which the chief are the archaic Ki-Ngozi in the north about the river Tana, mostly free from foreign elements ; the Ki-Mvita of the Mombasa district, reduced to writing by Krapf ; and the Maneno Unguya of Zanzi- bar, which is most affected by Arabic, Persian, Indian, and other foreign influences, but which, nevertheless, is now the literary standard ; of it complete grammatical treatises have been published, and into it portions of the Bible have been translated by Bishop Steere. 1 SWALLOW (A.-S. Swalewe, Icel. Swla, Dutch Zioaluw, Germ. Schwalbe), the bird which of all others is recognized as the harbinger of summer in the northern hemisphere ; for, though some slight differences, varying according ^ to the meridian, are constantly presented by the birds which have their home in Europe, in northern Asia, and in North America respectively, it is difficult to allow to them a specific value ; and consequently^ zoologist of wide views, 1 The language was first reduced to writing by the Arabs, who still use the Arabic character. But the European missionaries have wisely replaced this by the Roman system, which is far more suited for the transliteration of most African, and especially of the Bantu, tongues. XXII. 92