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 AUSTRASIA AUSTRIA 135 ness of all kinds was momentarily suspended. Agriculture was for that year almost aban- doned. Every article of food and clothing was imported from Europe, labor and merchandise advanced to prices to which there seemed to be no probability of a limit, and much time was required to bring Australian affair^ into their ordinary channel. Among the indus- tries which have grown up, the raising of sheep has the most prominent place. The great sheep runs, occupying immense tracts of land, have become a principal feature of the country. Merino and other fine breeds, im- ported early into the colonies, have increased with great rapidity in Queensland alone from three to nine million head in the last ten years and the statistics show the extraordinary amount of wool annually yielded, and nearly all exported. The recent progress of the coun- try has been uninterrupted and rapid. The era of speculation seems to have nearly passed away, and the affairs of the colonies are grad- ually assuming the settled aspect of those of older states. Explorations are constantly made in the interior, and the large tracts still un- settled near the coast are attracting a consid- erable immigration, which, now that the re- sources of the continent are properly devel- oped, is not likely to be discontinued. For more specific information, see the articles on the different colonies. Al STR isi I (old Ger. Oesterrych, i. e., Oett- reich), the eastern kingdom of the Franks of the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries, under the Me- rovingians, comprising in its flourishing period the countries on both sides of the Rhine, from the Marne to the Saale and from the North sea to the Danube (the ancient kingdoms or duchies of Metz, Champagne, Thuringia, Alemannia, Frisia, and others). The first king was Sieg- bert, to whom this territory fell in 561 on the partition of the dominions of his father Clo- taire I., king of the Franks. Austrasia was in conflict with Neustria, the western Frankish kingdom, and with the Burgundians. Among celebrated Austrasian rulers were Queen Brnne- haut or Brunehilde (567-613), King Dagobert (628-'38), whose successors are called lea row faineants (idle kings), and the mayor of the palace Pepin of He'ristal, who was succeeded in 714 by his natural son Charles Martel. In 752 Charles's son Pepin the Short became sovereign of both the eastern and western Prankish king- doms, and Austrasia ceased to play a distinct part in history. Under Charlemagne's succes- sors most of the former Austrasian countries were merged into Germany, and those of Neus- tria into France. See Hutoire du royaume merovingien d'Austrasie, by Haguenin (Paris, 1863). I STKI I (Ger. Oestreieh or Oesterreieh, east- ern empire), officially designated since 1868 as the AusTBo-HuNOABiAN MONABCHY, an empire of southern central Europe, bounded N. by the German empire and Russia, E. by Russia and European Turkey, S. and S. W. by Turkey, the Adriatic sea, and Italy, and W. by Switzerland and the German empire. It now consists of two main divisions, Austria proper and Hungary, each of which has its own special legislation and administration, though they are united under one monarch and have a single ministry for all matters of common interest. As the river Leitha constitutes a part of the frontier, Austria is also called Cisleithania, and Hungary Transleithania. But while in the higher polit- ical sense the Austro-Hungarian monarchy con- sists of these two divisions, the term is in fact the collective designation of several states, com- prising a number of distinct nationalities, all under the rule of the house of Hapsburg. It is only since the accession to the throne of the em- peror Francis Joseph that these countries have been actually consolidated. The centralizing policy of the crown was, however, partly de- feated by the resistance of the Hungarians, who demanded and finally obtained the recog- nition of the historical rights of the Hungarian monarchy. In this article we shall treat only of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy as a whole, and of the Cisleithan half of the empire. For the rest, see HUNGARY. The total area of the empire is 240,381 sq. m., extending from lat. 42 10' to 51 4' N., and from Ion. 9 35' to 26 35' E. Its population, according to the census of 1869, amounted to 35,904,435. The empire is a continuous territory, only two districts (Cattaro and Ragusa) being separated from the main body by small strips of Turkish territory. Of the 21 states or provinces (Kronla/nder or crown lands) which, according to the reorgan- izing statutes of 1849 and 1851, were to con- stitute the united Austrian monarchy (Oestrei- chische Gesammtmonarchie), the following 14, according to the new arrangement made in 1867, belong to the " countries represented in the. Reichsrath," or to the Cisleithan provinces : 1, the archduchy of Lower Austria (Oestreieh unter der Enng), 7,655 sq. m., pop. 1,990,708; 2, the archduchy of Upper Austria (Oestreich ob der Ennt), 4,633 sq. m., pop. 736,557; 3, the duchy of Salzburg, 2,767 sq. m., pop. 153,159; 4, the duchy of Styria (Steiermark), 8,671 sq. m., pop. 1,137,990; 5, the duchy of Carinthia (Karnthen), 4,006 sq. m., pop. 337,- 694 ; 6, the duchy of Carniola (rain), 3,857 sq. m., pop. 466,334 ; 7, the Coastland or Lit- torale, embracing the counties of Gorz and Gradisca, the margraviate of Istria, and the district of Trieste, 8,085 sq. m., pop. 600,525 (the three last-named provinces form the king- dom of Illyria) ; 8, the county of Tyrol with Vorarlberg, 11,325 sq.m., pop. 885,789; 9, the kingdom of Bohemia (Sohmen), 20,064 sq. m., pop. 5,140,544; 10, the margraviate of Mora- via (ifahren), 8,585 sq. m., pop. 2,017,274; 11, theduchy of Silesia (Schlesien), 1,988 sq. m., pop. 513,352 (these 11 states were until 1866 mem- bers of the German confederation) ; 12, the king- dom of Galicia, including the former republic of Cracow (annexed by Austria in 1846), and the duchies of Auschwitz and Zator, both of