Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/808

 783 EUROPE tation ; 36 per cent, is devoted to agriculture or cattle raising ; and over 40 per cent, is in forests, of which Russia alone has more than 1,000,000 sq. m. The best cultivated countries are Great Britain, Germany, and France. The introduction of scientific methods of agriculture into these countries has tended steadily to in- crease the productive capacities of the soil. The average crop of grain to the acre is con- siderably larger than in the United States. The last trustworthy estimate of the number and value of domestic animals in Europe, as computed by Reden about 1860, gives the statistics as follows: Horses 27, 000,000, valued at $775,470,000; horned cattle 80,000,000, value $864,720,000; sheep 191,000,000, value $687,600,000 ; asses 1,800,000, value $12,- 600,000; goats 16,800,000, value $36,450,- 000 ; hogs 37,500,000, value $108,240,000; mules 800,000, value $17,160,000; aggregate value of domestic animals, $2,502,210,000. The average yearly mineral production was esti- mated as follows by Kolb in 1871 : gold, 53,000 Ibs. ; silver, 470,000 Ibs. ; iron, 177,000,000 cwt. ; copper, 916,000 cwt.; lead, 4,510,000 cwt. ; coal and brown coal, 3,450,000,000 cwt. ; salt, 100,000,000 cwt. The industrial produc- tion is largest in Great Britain, Belgium, France, and Germany. The total annual value of Eu- ropean commerce was estimated by Kolb in 1871 at $7,960,000,000; but he called atten- tion to the fact that as all goods are counted in one country as imports and in another as exports, and many in a third also in the tran- sit trade, the real value must be considerably less than half the apparent value above stated. Christianity is almost exclusively the religion professed by the nations of Europe. The three principal denominations, Roman Catholic, Prot- estant, and Greek, correspond nearly to the three principal races, Latin, Teutonic, and Slavic. Geographically, the Roman Catholic is the dominant religion in the south and south- west, the Greek Catholic in the east and south- east, and the Protestant in the north and northwest. The number of Mohammedans is about 5,000,000 (3,500,000 in Turkey, the re- mainder in S. Russia), of Jews 5,000,000, of Buddhists about 10,000 (Mongolian nomadic tribes in S. Russia), and of pagans less than 1,000,000 (in the extreme north of Russia). Popular education, measured by the proportion of schools and pupils to the entire population, is more general in the countries inhabited by the Teutonic race than among the Latin na- tions, and it holds the lowest place among the Slavic nations. In Germany, Sweden, Nor- way, and Denmark the proportion of pupils to the population is 1 to 6 ; in Belgium, 1 to 8'8 ; in Great Britain, 1 to 9'1 ; in France, 1 to lO'l ; in Holland, 1 to 10'9; in Austria, 1 to 11-2; in Spain, 1 to 14'3 ; in Italy, 1 to 15'1 ; in Russia, 1 to 66*6. Among the nations of Eu- rope almost every form of government exists, from that having at its head an almost absolute personal ruler, to the several systems of the most restricted monarchy and the republic. The nature of the government of each is indi- cated in the following table, which exhibits the states of Europe as constituted in 1874, with their areas and the number of their popu- lation ; and shows also their division, made for purposes of diplomatic intercourse, into four ranks according to their power and general status a distinction which, however, is now less strictly marked than formerly : NAMES OF STATES. Form of government. Area in q. miles. Population. Date of census. States of the first rank. Russia in Europe Empire. 2 059 225 71 195405 1867 The German empire. . Empire. . 208 619 41 058 189 1871 France Republic 204,091 36 102 921 1872 The Austro-Hungarian monarchy Empire 240,848 35,904,485 1869 121 115 81 977 477 1871 Italy Kingdom 114,295 26 716 809 1871 States of the second rank. Spain* Republic 195 774 16.641,880 1867 Turkey in Europe (exclusive of Roumania) Empire 152,508 12,000,000 estimated. 292863 5 921 525 1870 Belgium 11 872 5 021 386 1869 Portugalf ... .... Kingdom 85813 4 360,974 1868 Holland (with Luxemburg) Kingdom 18,678 8,885,841 1871 Denmark .' Kingdom. . 55,021 1,864,496 1870 States of the third rank. Switzerland. . . Republic 15991 2 669 147 1870 Greece Kingdom 19853 1,457,894 1870 States of the fourth rank. Roumania (under Turkish suzerainty) Principality 46,708 4,500,000 estimated. Andorra Republic 148 12000 estimated. Liechtenstein Principality 62 8820 1867 San Marino Republic 22 7,803 1869 Monaco Principality 6 8127 18*57 The present political systems of Europe are the product of nearly 20 centuries of strife and war among the different races inhabit- ing the continent. Though at certain periods t Including the Azores and Madeira. of peace political philosophers and statesmen have endeavored to demonstrate the exis- tence of a certain balance of power, which, by keeping in check the ambition of con- querors, should serve as a guarantee for the continuance of the actual state of things, there
 * Including the Canary islands.