Part 31 (2/2)
The Danube and Balkan states derive their coe area in which bread-stuffs may be produced, and also because the valley of the Danube has beco importance between the Suez Canal and the North Sea
=Austria-Hungary=--This eary, each practically self-governed, but united under a single general governes of the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains
The region known as the Tyrol is topographically continuous with Switzerland, and the people have Swiss characteristics Galicia, northeast of the Carpathian Mountains, the fragment of Poland that fell to Austria at the tireat Russian plain Bohemia, which derives its name from the Keltic peoples, whom Caesar called the Boii, comprises the upper part of the Elbe river-basin
Its natural commercial outlet is Germany, but the race-hatred which the Czechs have for the Gerary is a country of plains occupying the lower basin of the Danube The Huns are of Asian origin Austria proper occupies the upper valley of the Danube, adjoining Germany; the country and the people are Germanic
To the student of history it is a surprise that a country of such diverse peoples, having but little in coether under the saovernraphy of the region The basin of the Danube is a great food-producing region, and the upper valley of the Elbe River fore froraphy therefore gives the greater part of the country commercial unity
The cliary are rowing and stock-raising are the chief e haul, and the competition of Russia and Roumania have retarded the developrain-growing country, and the easy route into Gerh the Elbe Valley makes the industry a profitable one Bohear-beet area
There is an abundance of coal in Austria, but most of it is unfit for the manufacture of iron and steel Steelprotected by the distance fro centres The lead- (or ”Leadville”) are very productive; at Idria are the only quicksilver-mines in Europe that compete with those of Almaden, Spain The salt-mines near Krakow are in a mass of rock-salt twelve hundred feet thick
Most of the manufactured products are for horoool supply the greater part of the textiles The flour-mills are equipped with the very best of machinery, and much of the product is for export to Germany and the countries to the south The loves and glassware, both of which are widely exported The sand, fluxes, and coloring ion, and the wares, therefore, cannot be iarian sheep and goats
The railways are not well organized, and theCanal (in Gerable tributary of the Rhine; the Elbe is navigable froue to the Baltic; the Moravian Gate opens a passage froh which the Danube flows, is the route to the Black Sea; Seateway to the ports of the Adriatic These great routes practically converge at Vienna, which also is the great railway centre of the en trade consists s are heavy items), fine cabinet ware, woollen textiles (lassware Much of the German and Italian wine is sent to oes mainly to Italy The iypt, wool, silk, and tobacco Coal is both exported and iary cotton, pork, and corn--buying porcelain ware, glassware, and gloves, a to about one-fifth the value of the exports
_Vienna_, the capital, is the financial centre and co-house of central Europe; it has also extensive reat focal point of Hungarian railways and colass trade of Bohe_ is the metropolis of Galicia The states of Liechtenstein, Bosnia, and Herzegovina are commercially under the control of Austria
=The Lower Danube States=--Rouaria, the plain of the lower Danube, are enclosed by the Carpathian and Balkan ranges They constitute a great wheat-field whose chief commercial outlets are the Iron Gate into Germanic Europe, and the Sulinaof maize for home consumption and wheat for export forrain is shi+pped up the Danube and sold in Great Britain and Germany
From the Iron Gate to the Black Sea the Danube is held as an international highway, and the control of its navigation is directed by a co its head-quarters at Galatz, Roumania
[Illustration: TURKEY AND GREECE]
In the Balkan Mountains is the famous Vale of Roses which furnishes about half the world's supply of attar-of-roses The petals of the damask rose are pressed between layers of cloth saturated with lard The latter absorbs the essential oil, from which it is easily removed About half a ton of roses are required to s, is the great rain-markets and river-ports; from the latter a railway extends to _Varna_, the chief port of the Black Sea Froarian frontier, a trunk line of railway extends through Budapest to western Europe
=Turkey-in-Europe=--The European part of the Otto been politically known as the ”Sick Man” of Europe, and so far as the industries and commerce of the state are concerned, there is no excuse for its separate existence as a state Its political existence, however, is regarded as a necessity, in order to prevent the Russians fro military and naval control of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and thereby beco a menace to all western Europe Less than one-half the people are Turks; the greater part of the population consists of Aryars, and Latins
Most of the country is rugged and unfit for grain-growing The internal governricultural resources are undeveloped, and every sort of farrowing crops become practical confiscation when they are collected Much of the cultivable land is idle because there are nothe crops to market
Grapes and wine, silk, opiu leather), figs, hides, cigarettes, and carpets are the leading exports, and these about half pay for the Aar, and other food-stuffs imported Choice Mocha coffee is irades are exported Most of the foreign colish and French merchants Armenians, Jews, and Greeks are the native middlemen and traders
The native population is subject to the Sultan, whose rule is absolute; n merchants and residents are perulations of the consuls
_Constantinople_ is the capital Its situation on the Bosphorus is such that under any other European governn commerce It is naturally the focal point of the trade between Europe and Asia A trunk line of railway connects the city with Paris
_Salonica_ is the port of western Turkey, and is likewise connected by rail estern Europe A great deal of the foreign commerce of the state is now landed at this port
[Illustration: HARBOR OF CONSTANTINOPLE]