1531 and 1542 the Portuguese published the existence of a land which they
called Great Java, and which corresponded to Australia, and probably the
first discovery of the country was made by them early in the sixteenth
century. The first authenticated discovery is said to have been made in
1601 by a Portuguese named Manoel Godinho de Eredia. In 1606 Torres, a
Spaniard, passed through the strait that now bears his name, between New
Guinea and Australia. Between this period and 1628 a large portion of the
coastline of Australia had been surveyed by various Dutch navigators. In
1664 the continent was named New Holland by the Dutch Government. In 1688
Dampier coasted along part of Australia, and about 1700 explored a part of
the W. and N.W. coasts. In 1770 Cook carefully surveyed the E. coast, named
a number of localities, and took possession of the country for Britain. He
was followed by Bligh in 1789, who carried on a series of observations on
the N.E. coast, adding largely to the knowledge already obtained of this
new world. Colonists had now arrived on the soil, and a penal settlement
was formed (1788) at Port Jackson. In this way was laid the foundation of
the future colony of New South Wales. The Moreton Bay district (Queensland)
was settled in 1825; in 1835 the Port Phillip district. In 1851 the latter
district was erected into a separate colony under the name of Victoria.
Previous to this time the colonies both of Western Australia and of South
Australia had been founded--the former in 1829, the latter in 1836. The
latest of the colonies is Queensland, which dates from 1859. The discovery
of gold in abundance took place in 1851 and caused an immense excitement
and great influx of immigrants. The population was then only about 350,000,
and was slowly increasing; but the discovery of the precious metal started
the country on that career of prosperity which has since been almost
uninterrupted. Convicts were long sent to Australia from the mother
country, but transportation to New South Wales practically ceased in 1840,
and the last convict vessel to W. Australia arrived in 1868. Altogether
about 70,000 convicts were landed in Australia (besides almost as many in
Tasmania).
The record of interior exploration forms an interesting part of Australian
history. This has been going on since early last century, and is as yet far
from complete. There is still a large area of the continent of which little
or nothing is known, comprising especially a vast territory belonging to
Western Australia, and a portion of South Australia. Among the men who have
won fame in the field of Australian exploration are Oxley (1817-23), who
partly explored the Lachlan and Macquarie, discovered the Brisbane, &c.;
Hume and Hovell (1824), who crossed what is now the colony of Victoria from
north to south; Cunningham (1827), who discovered the Darling Downs; Sturt
(1828-9), who examined the Macquarie, part of the Darling, and the
Murrumbidgee, which he traced to the Murray, sailing down the latter to
Lake Alexandrina; in 1844 he penetrated to near the middle of the continent
from the south; Mitchell (1831-6) made extensive explorations in New South
Wales and Victoria; McMillan (1839) explored and traversed Gippsland; Eyre
(1840) travelled by the coast from Adelaide to King George's Sound;
Leichhardt in 1844-5 travelled from Brisbane to Port Essington, discovering
fine tracts of territory and the numerous rivers flowing into the Gulf of
Carpentaria; in 1848 he was lost in the northern interior, in attempting to
cross Australia from east to west, and nothing further regarding his fate
has been discovered; Kennedy (1848) was killed in exploring Cape York
Peninsula; A. C. Gregory (1855-6) explored part of North-Western Australia,
and crossed from that to the Brisbane district, an important exploring
journey; McDouall Stuart (1859-60-2) crossed the continent from south to
north and back again nearly in the line of the present overland telegraph;
Burke, Wills, Gray, and King (1860-1) crossed from Melbourne to the Gulf of
Carpentaria, but Burke, Wills, and Gray perished on the return journey;
F. T. Gregory (1861) explored the region of the Ashburton, Fortescue, and
other rivers of North-West Australia; Warburton (1873) travelled with
camels from the centre of the continent to the north-west coast; J. Forrest
(1874) made an important journey in Western Australia; Giles (1874-6)
explored Central Western Australia; Favenc (1878-9) travelled from Brisbane
to Port Darwin; A. Forrest (1879) explored part of Northern Australia;
Mills (1883) traversed with camels a considerable stretch of new ground in
Western Australia; Winnicke (1883-4), also with camels, explored and mapped
about 40,000 sq. miles of the unknown interior; Lindsay (1885-6) travelled
north-west from Lake Eyre, and then north-east to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Among subsequent explorations mention may be made of Carnegie's eight
months' journeyings in W. Australia (1896-7). (See articles on the separate
colonies.)--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Wall, _Physical Geography of Australia_; Aflalo,
_Natural History of Australia_; T. A. Coghlan, _A Statistical Account of
the Seven Colonies of Australasia_ (Sydney); G. W. Rusden, _History of
Australia_.
AUSTRA'LIOIDS, one of the five groups into which Professor Huxley
classifies man, comprising the indigenous non-Aryan inhabitants of Central
and Southern India, the ancient Egyptians and their descendants, and the
modern Fellahs.
AUSTRIA, or GERMAN AUSTRIA, a republic formed out of the fragments of the
old Austro-Hungarian Empire. The republic was proclaimed on 12th Nov.,
1918, and the government was taken in hand by the National Constitutional
Assembly. The new republic, the frontiers of which were provisionally
defined by the treaty of St. Germain (q.v.), includes Upper Austria, Lower
Austria, Salzburg, and parts of Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg,
some districts having been assigned to Yugo-Slavia and Italy. German
Austria now has an area of 30,716 sq. miles, and a pop. of 6,130,197.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY (in Ger. _Oesterreich_, that is, Eastern Empire), previous
to the changes resulting from the European War (1914-18), a Central
European monarchy, inhabited by several nationalities, and consisting of
the Austrian Empire, the Hungarian monarchy, and the territory of Bosnia
and Herzegovina annexed by Austria on 5th Oct., 1908. The States had
together a total area of about 261,242 sq. miles, and were bounded S. by
Turkey, the Adriatic, and Italy; W. by Switzerland, Bavaria, and Saxony; N.
by Prussia and Russian Poland; and E. by Russia and Roumania. On 12th Nov.,
1918, the German-Austrian Republic was proclaimed, and the government was
taken in hand by the National Constitutional Assembly. The account given in
the following pages applies to the countries only as they existed before
the end of the European War.
The population of Austria proper in 1913 was estimated at 29,193,293.
The prevailing character of the Austrian dominions is mountainous or hilly,
the plains not occupying more than a fifth part of the whole surface. The
loftiest ranges belong to the Alps, and are found in Styria, Salzburg, and
Carinthia, the highest summits being the Ortlerspitzen (12,814 feet) on the
western boundary of Tyrol, and the Grossglockner (12,300 feet) on the
borders of Salzburg, Tyrol, and Carinthia. Another great range is that of
the Carpathians. The chief rivers are the Danube, with its tributaries, and
the Dniester. The Danube is navigable for pretty large vessels; the
tributaries also are largely navigable. The lakes are numerous and often
picturesque, the chief being Lake Balaton or the Plattensee. The climate is
exceedingly varied, but generally good. The principal products of the north
are wheat, barley, oats, and rye; in the centre vines and maize are added;
and in the south olives and various fruits. The cereals grow to perfection,
other crops being hops, tobacco, flax, and hemp. Sheep and cattle are
largely reared.--Wild deer, wild swine, chamois, foxes, lynxes, and a
species of small black bear are found in many districts, the fox and lynx
being particularly abundant.--In mineral productions Austria is very rich,
possessing, with the exception of platinum, all the useful metals, the
total annual value of the mineral products of Austria being estimated at
upwards of L15,000,000, the principal being coal, salt, and iron.
Before the European War, manufactures were in the most flourishing
condition in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lower Austria; less so in the
eastern provinces, and insignificant in Dalmatia, Bukowina, Herzegovina,
&c. Among the most important manufactures were those of machinery and metal
goods, Austria holding a high place for the manufacture of musical and
scientific instruments, gold and silver plate and jewellery; of stone and
china-ware and of glass, which is one of the oldest and most
highly-developed industries in Austria; of chemicals; of sugar from beet;
of beer, spirits, &c.; and especially the manufactures of wool, cotton,
hemp, and flax.
In addition to the general import and export trade, Austria carried on a
very considerable amount of business in the transit of goods through her
territory. In 1914 the total value of imports into Austria-Hungary was
L114,716,000, of exports L83,996,000; the value of imports in 1913 was
L141,433,000, the exports L115,129,000. Among imports were cotton and other
fibres, textile goods and yarn, metals, machinery, drugs, chemicals, oils,
fats, hides, skins, &c. The chief exports were cereals, animals, metallic
goods, woven fabrics, pottery and glass manufactures. Nearly two-thirds of
the commerce are with Germany, next in importance being the trade with
Roumania, Italy, and Russia. The exports direct to the United Kingdom in
1913 were L7,705,949; the imports of British produce direct, L4,480,760;
but these amounts do not include indirect exports and imports through other
countries. The staple exports to the United Kingdom were corn and flour.
The chief imports from it were cotton manufactures, machinery and metals,
woollen goods, fish, &c. In 1913 the mercantile navy of Austria had a total
burden of about 471,252 tons. The principal ports were Trieste, in Austria,
and Fiume, in Hungary.
None of the European States, except Russia, exhibited such a diversity of
race and language as the former dual monarchy. The Slavs--who differ
greatly, however, amongst themselves in language and civilization--amounted
to above 20,000,000, or 46 per cent of the total population, and formed the
great mass of the population of Bohemia, Moravia, Carniola, Galicia,
Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia, and Northern Hungary, and half the
population of Silesia and Bukowina. The Germans, about 9,950,266, formed
almost the sole population of the archduchy of Austria, Salzburg, the
greatest portion of Styria and Carinthia, almost the whole of Tyrol and
Vorarlberg, large portions of Bohemia and Moravia, the whole of West
Silesia, &c.; and they were also numerous in Hungary and Transylvania. The
Magyars or Hungarians (10,061,549) formed nearly half of the inhabitants of
the former Kingdom of Hungary and the connected provinces.
The State religion of the former dual monarchy was the Roman Catholic. In
1910 there were in the Austrian portion of the monarchy 22,530,000 Roman
Catholics, 3,417,000 Greek Catholics united to the Roman Church, 689,000
non-united, 589,000 Protestants, and 1,314,000 Jews.
The intellectual culture of the people was highest in the German provinces,
but in some of the other provinces the percentage of uneducated was very
high. Attendance at the elementary schools was compulsory on all children
from their sixth to the end of their fourteenth year in most of the
Austrian provinces; to at least the twelfth year in the whole empire. There
were numerous gymnasia and 'real schools', the gymnasia being intended
chiefly to prepare pupils for the universities, while in the real schools a
more practical end was kept in view, and modern languages and physical
science formed the groundwork of the educational course. The technical high
schools in Austria were very important institutions, and there are many
other special schools where the students received training in mining,
agriculture, industries of all kinds, art, music, commerce, &c. In 1917
there were eight universities maintained by the State, viz. in Vienna,
Prague (2), Gratz, Cracow, Lemberg, Innsbruck, and Czernowitz. Most of
these have four faculties--Catholic theology, law and politics, medicine,
and philosophy.
Before the revolution of 1918 the ruler of the dual monarchy had the title
of emperor in his Austrian dominions, but he was only king of Hungary. The
Parliament of the Austrian division of the empire was known as the
Reichsrath, or council of the realm, consisting of an Upper House
(Herrenhaus), composed of princes of the imperial family, nobles with the
hereditary right to sit, archbishops, and life-members nominated by the
Emperor; and a Lower House (Abgeordnetenhaus) of 516 deputies elected on
the basis of universal suffrage. There were seventeen provincial Diets or
Assemblies, each provincial division having one. In the Hungarian division
of the Empire the legislature was a Parliament consisting of an Upper House
or House of Magnates and of a Lower House or House of Representatives, the
latter elected by all citizens of full age paying a small amount in taxes,
or otherwise qualified. Its powers corresponded to those of the Austrian
Parliament or Reichsrath. All matters affecting the joint interests of the
two divisions of the monarchy, such as foreign affairs, war, and finance,
were dealt with by the Parliaments of the two States. There were three
Budgets, viz. one for common affairs, one for Austria, and one for Hungary.
The Budget estimates for the former Austrian kingdom in 1913 were
L130,716,773 (the revenue balancing the expenditure). In 1918 the estimates
were: expenditure 24,321,140,000 crowns, revenue 4,854,789 crowns.
Austria's special debt in Feb., 1918, was placed at 54,081,765,681 crowns,
of which 29,274,603,300 crowns were war debt. On 20th Nov., 1918, the
Provisional Government of the Austrian Republic passed a law adopting the
Budget of 1918-9, and empowering the Minister of Finance to make good the
difference between revenue and expenditure.
Military service was compulsory and universal throughout the dual monarchy.
The old Austro-Hungarian army numbered about 820,000 men on a peace
footing.
_History._--In 791 Charlemagne drove the Avars from the territory between
the Ens and the Raab, and united it to his empire under the name of _the
Eastern Mark_ (that is, March or boundary land); and from the establishment
by him of a margraviate in this new province the former Austrian Empire
took its rise. On the invasion of Germany by the Hungarians it became
subject to them from 900 till 955, when Otho I, by the victory of Augsburg,
reunited a great part of this province to the German Empire, which by 1043
had extended its limits to the Leitha. The margraviate of Austria was
hereditary in the family of the Counts of Babenberg (Bamberg) from 982 till
1156, in which year the boundaries of Austria were extended so as to
include the territory above the Ens, and the whole was created a duchy. The
territory was still further increased in 1192 by the gift of the duchy of
Styria as a fief from the Emperor Henry VI, Vienna being by this time the
capital. The male line of the House of Bamberg became extinct in 1246, and
the Emperor Frederick II declared Austria and Styria a vacant fief, the
hereditary property of the German emperors. In 1282 the Emperor Rudolph
granted Austria, Styria, and Carinthia to his two sons, Albert and Rudolph.
The former became sole ruler (duke), and since then, until 12th Nov., 1918,
Austria remained under the House of Habsburg. Albert, who was an energetic
ruler, was elected emperor in 1298, but was assassinated in 1308. The first
of his successors whom we need specially mention was Albert V, son-in-law
of the Emperor Sigismund. He assisted Sigismund in the Hussite wars, and
was elected, after his death, King of Hungary and of Bohemia, and German
emperor (1438). Ladislaus, his posthumous son, was the last of the Austrian
line proper, and its possessions devolved upon the collateral Styrian line
in 1457; since which time the House of Austria furnished an unbroken
succession of German emperors.
In 1453 the Emperor Frederick III, a member of this House, had conferred
upon the country the rank of an archduchy before he himself became ruler of
all Austria. His son Maximilian I, by his marriage with Mary, the surviving
daughter of Charles the Bold, united the Netherlands to the Austrian
dominions. After the death of his father, in 1493, Maximilian was made
Emperor of Germany, and transferred to his son Philip the government of the
Netherlands. He also added to his paternal inheritance Tyrol, with several
other territories, particularly some belonging to Bavaria, and acquired for
his family new claims to Hungary and Bohemia. The marriage of his son
Philip to Joanna of Spain raised the House of Habsburg to the throne of
Spain. Philip, however, died in 1506, and the death of Maximilian, in 1519,
was followed by the union of Spain and Austria, his grandson (the eldest
son of Philip), Charles I, King of Spain, being elected Emperor of Germany
as Charles V. Charles thus became the greatest monarch in Europe, but in
1521 he ceded to his brother Ferdinand all his dominions in Germany.
Ferdinand I, by his marriage with Anna, the sister of Louis II, King of
Hungary, acquired the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, with Moravia,
Silesia, and Lusatia, the appendages of Bohemia. To oppose him the woywode
of Transylvania, John Zapolya, sought the help of the Sultan, Soliman II,
who appeared in 1529 at the gates of Vienna, but was compelled to retreat.
In 1535 a treaty was made by which John Zapolya was allowed to retain the
royal title and half of Hungary, but after his death new disputes arose,
and Ferdinand maintained the possession of Lower Hungary only by paying
Soliman the sum of 30,000 ducats annually (1562). In 1556 Ferdinand
obtained the imperial crown, when his brother Charles laid by the sceptre
for a cowl. He died in 1564, leaving his territories to be divided amongst
his three sons.
Maximilian II, the eldest, succeeded his father as emperor, obtaining
Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia; Ferdinand, the second son, received Tyrol
and Lower Austria; and Charles, the youngest, obtained Styria, Carinthia,
Carniola, and Goerz. Maximilian died in 1576, and was succeeded on the
imperial throne by his eldest son Rudolph II, who had already been crowned
King of Hungary in 1572, and King of Bohemia in 1575. Rudolph's reign was
distinguished by the war against Turkey and Transylvania; the persecutions
of the Protestants, who were driven from his dominions; the cession of
Hungary in 1608; and in 1611 of Bohemia and his hereditary estates in
Austria to his brother Matthias. Matthias, who succeeded Maximilian on the
imperial throne, concluded a peace with the Turks, but was disturbed by the
Protestant Bohemians, who took up arms in defence of their religious
rights, thus commencing the Thirty Years' War. After his death in 1619 the
Bohemians refused to acknowledge his successor, Ferdinand II, until after
the battle of Prague in 1620, when Bohemia had to submit, and was deprived
of the right of choosing her king. Lutheranism was strictly forbidden in
all the Austrian dominions. Hungary, which revolted under Bethlem Gabor,
Prince of Transylvania, was, after a long struggle, subdued. During the
reign of Ferdinand III (1637-57), successor of Ferdinand II, Austria was
continually the theatre of war; Lusatia was ceded to Saxony in 1635; and
Alsace to France in 1648, when peace was restored in Germany by the Treaty
of Westphalia.
The Emperor Leopold I, son and successor of Ferdinand III, was victorious
through the talents of Prince Eugene in two wars with Turkey; and Vienna
was delivered by Sobieski and the Germans from the attacks of Kara Mustapha
in 1683. In 1687 he united Hungary to Transylvania, and in 1699 restored to
Hungary the country lying between the Danube and the Theiss. It was the
chief aim of Leopold to secure to Charles, his second son, the inheritance
of the Spanish monarchy, and in 1701, upon the victory of French diplomacy
in the appointment of the grandson of Louis XIV, the War of the Spanish
Succession commenced. Leopold died in 1705, but Joseph I, his eldest son,
continued the war. As he died without children in 1711, his brother Charles
was elected emperor, but was obliged to accede in 1714 to the Peace of
Utrecht, by which Austria received the Netherlands, Milan, Mantua, Naples,
and Sardinia. In 1720 Sicily was given to Austria in exchange for Sardinia.
This monarchy now embraced over 190,000 sq. miles; but its power was
weakened by new wars with Spain and France. In the peace concluded at
Vienna (1735 and 1738) Charles VI was forced to cede Naples and Sicily to
Spain and part of Milan to the King of Sardinia; and in 1739, by the Peace
of Belgrade, he was obliged to transfer to the Porte Belgrade, Serbia, &c.,
partly in order to secure the succession to his daughter, Maria Theresa, by
the Pragmatic Sanction. He died in 1740.
On Maria Theresa's marriage to Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine (the
dynasty henceforth being that of Habsburg-Lorraine), and her accession to
the Austrian throne, the Empire was threatened with dismemberment.
Frederick II of Prussia subdued Silesia; the Elector of Bavaria was crowned
in Lintz and Prague, and in 1742 chosen emperor under the name of Charles
VII; Hungary alone supported the heroic and beautiful queen. Charles,
however, died in 1745, and the husband of Theresa was crowned Emperor of
Germany as Francis I; but a treaty concluded in 1745 confirmed to Frederick
the possession of Silesia, and by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748,
Austria was obliged to cede the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla
to Philip, Infant of Spain, and several districts of Milan and Sardinia. To
recover Silesia, Maria Theresa formed an alliance with France, Russia,
Saxony, and Sweden, and entered upon the Seven Years' War; but by the Peace
of Hubertsberg, 1763, Silesia was recognized as Prussian territory. On the
death of Francis I, in 1765, Joseph II, his eldest son, was appointed to
assist his mother in the government and elected Emperor of Germany. The
partition of Poland (1772) gave Galicia and Lodomeria to Austria, which
also obtained Bukowina from the Porte in 1777. At the death of the Empress
in 1780 Austria contained 235,000 sq. miles, with a pop. estimated at
24,000,000.
The liberal home administration of the Empress was continued and extended
by her successor, Joseph II, who did much to further the spread of
religious tolerance, education, and the industrial arts. The Low Countries,
however, revolted, and he was unsuccessful in the war of 1788 against the
Porte. His death took place in 1790. He was succeeded by his eldest
brother, Leopold II, under whom peace was restored in the Netherlands, and
in Hungary, and also with the Porte. On the death of his sister and her
husband Louis XVI of France he formed an alliance with Prussia, but died in
1792, before the French revolutionary war broke out.