Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/344

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. South America, of which 818,310 went to North America, 41,210 to Brazil, and 25,000 to Argentina. According to the report of the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration, the number of immigrants coming to the United States from Austria-Hungary increased from 62,491 in 1898-99 to 114,847 in 1899-1900, the most numerous nationalities in order of importance in the latter year being Slovaks (29,000), Poles (22,000), Croatians and Slavonians (17,000), Jews (17,000), Hungarians (14,000), Germans (7000), and Czechs or Bohemians (3000). Immigration is very small, and principally comes from Germany, Rumania, and Servia.

Nationalities. The population of Austria- Hungary embraces a greater number of races, distinct in origin and language, than that of any other European country except Russia. The Slavs are the most numerous race, amounting to over 40 per cent. of the whole population. Next in order come the Germans, then the Magyars, while the Wallachs (Rumans) occupy the fourth place. The Slavs form the bulk of the population of Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, Carniola, Dalma- tia, Croatia, Slavonia, and the north of Hungary. The Slavs are split up into a number of national- ities, differing greatly in language, religion, cul- ture, and manners; so that their seeming prepon- derance in the monarchy is lost. These nation- alities include the Czechs (the most numerous of all) in Bohemia and Moravia, the Poles in Galicia, the Ruthenians in Galicia and Northern Hungary, the Croats and Serbs in Croatia and Slavonia, the Slovaks mainly in northwestern Hungary, the Slovens in Carniola, Styria, etc., the Morlaks in Dalmatia, and some Bulgarians. The Slavs con- stitute more than half of the population of Cis- leithania. The Germans number only about 25 per cent. of the total population. They are dis- persed over the monarchy, predominating numer- ically in Upper and Lower Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol, Styria and Carinthia. The Magyars, or Hungarians proper, constitute only about one- sixtlii of the population of the monarchy, and less than 43 per cent. of that of the Kingdom of Hun- gary. One-seventh of the population of Trans- leithania consists of Rumans, who constitute the bulk of the people of Transylvania. The Rumans are also numerous in Bukowina. The other Romanic peoples of Austria-Hungary are the Ital- ians, inhabiting the south of Tyrol, Istria, Trieste, and Dalmatia; the Ladins (Latins), occupying some valleys in Tyrol; and the Friauls about Görtz, north of Triest. The number of Jews in the monarchy is not far from 2,000,000. which is about one-fifth of the total Jewish population of the globe. The Gypsies are estimated to num- ber about 100,000. There are more than 10,000 Armenians scattered over the eastern half of the monarchy.

As to religion, the great bulk of the nation is Roman Catholic. By the census of 1890 there were 27,754,000 Roman Catholics; of Greeks and Armenians in union with the Church of Rome, 4,485,000; of Orthodox Greeks, 3,178,000. The Protestants of all denominations numbered 3,933,000; and of Israelites there were 1,808,000. The monarchy is divided into archbishoprics, bishoprics, Protestant superintendencies, and parishes. The statutes regulating the relations of State and Church insure the sovereign certain rights arising from the dignity of his office, but the law insures religious liberty and the independence of the Church from the State. There is no religious test as a qualification for the possession of civil and political rights, and liberty of conscience is secure. The religious bodies have a legal right to manage their own affairs and to possess funds, estates, or endowments for the purposes of worship, instruction, or charity. But they must first secure their legal recognition from the minister of ecclesiastical affairs, which is granted to all sects whose doctrines and practices are not inimical to the laws of the State.

The nucleus of the dual monarchy was that part of the archduchy of Austria that lies below the Enns. In the earliest times, what is now the archduchy of Austria was inhabited by the Taurisci, a Celtic people, subsequently replaced by the Noriei. After the conquest of the Norici by the Romans (B.C. 14), the country to the north of the Danube belonged to the Marcomanni. On the south of the river lay the Roman provinces of Noricum and Pannonia, in the latter of which was the municipal city of Vindobona (Vienna). Tyrol formed part of Rhætia. All these bounda- ries were swept away by the irruption of the northern peoples, and the regions in question were occupied in succession, during the Fifth and Sixth centuries, by the Boii, Vandals, Goths, Huns, Longobards, and Avars. After the Longo- bards had settled in Italy, the Enns came, about 568, to be the boundary between the tribes of Ger- man origin and the Avars, a people who had come from the East. The Avars in 788 crossed the Enns, and fell upon Bavaria, then part of the Frankish Empire; but Charlemagne drove them back (796) as far as the Raab, and brought the district from the Enns to that river under his rule. He sent colonists, mostly Bavarians, into the new province, and appointed a margrave over it. It came into the possession of the Hunga- rians in 900, but was reconquered by Otho I. in 955, and reunited with the German realm.

About 976 the Emperor Otho II. appointed Leopold of Babenberg margrave of the recon- quered province, and his dynasty ruled this fron- tier region of the Holy Roman Empire for about 270 years. Their possession came to be known as Oesterreich. or Eastern Realm, a name Latinized into Austria. Under Henry Jasomirgott (1141- 77) the Mark above the Enns was annexed to the lower Mark, the enlarged province raised to a duchy, and important privileges were conferred on the new duke and his heirs. Duke Henry re- moved his capital from the Leopoldsberg to Vien- na. He beautitied the city, and began the build- ing of the cathedral of Saint Stephen. Under his successors Styria was united with Austria. Under Leopold VI., the Illustrious (1198-1230), the Austrian realm reached a high stage of pros- perity. The Babenberg line became extinct with his successor, Frederick, who fell in battle with the Magyars (1246). An interregnum ensued. The Emperor Frederick II. treated the duchy as a lapsed fief of the Empire, but claims to its pos- session were set up while the Empire was dis- tracted by the contests between rival emperors. The States of Austria chose Ottokar, King of Bohemia, as duke in 1251, and in 1260 this powerful monarch made himself master of Styria. He subsequently came by inheritance into pos- session of Carinthia. Ottokar refused to ac- knowledge Rudolph of Hapsburg as Emperor, and