Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/469

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BAVARIA
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tion as Austria, or any part of the south of Germany; but latterly considerable efforts have been made to lessen the prevailing ignorance. At Munich there are scientific and literary academies, as well as a university, a lyceum, a gymnasium, and other public schools. The university has a very numerous attendance of students, ranking third in the new German empire ; and there are two provincial universities on a small scale, one (Catholic) at Wiirzburg, the other (Protestant) at Erlangen in Franconia. In the kingdom at large there are ten lyceums, twenty-eight gymnasia, about sixty progymnasia, besides ten normal, twenty-six trade, three polytechnic, and upwards of 7000 common schools. These certainly form a great contrast to the indifference and neglect of former times ; and the Government continues to evince much solicitude for the diffusion of instruction. Technical schools here, as in other parts of Germany, have been established for the purpose of affording to mechanics more suitable education than they could otherwise obtain, including mathematics, mechanics, drawing, chemistry, architecture, &c. These schools are supported by the commune, aided when necessary by the province, and commissioners are annually sent by Govern ment to examine and report upon them to the minister of trade. The course extends over three years, from the age of twelve to fifteen, after which pupils may enter one of three polytechnic schools, where a still higher course of instruction is imparted, also extending over three years ; but engineers have a special fourth year s course. A build ing school was established at Munich in 1823, and is chiefly intended for carpenters and masons, who are there instructed in architecture, drawing, geometry, stone-cutting,

modelling ornaments, &c.

The duchy of Bavaria during the Middle Ages consisted of the southern half of the present kingdom, and lay almost all to the south of the Danube, extending about 100 miles from that river to the Tyrol, and somewhat more from Swabia on the west to Austria on the east. The addition in 1623 of the Upper Palatinate, a province of full 3000 square miles, to the north of the Danube, gave the elector a territory of about 15,000 square miles, with a population of less than 1,000,000, which in a century and a half had increased to about 1,500,000. In 1778 the succession of the Rhenish branch of the reigning family added the Pala tinate of the Rhine, and in 1806 a large augmentation was effected by Napoleon, who presented the king with the districts of the Lower Main and the Rezat, and with part of those of the Upper Main and the Upper Danube ; not to mention Tyrol, which was afterwards restored to Austria. Some slight changes have taken place in the extent of the kingdom since then ; but its general character has not been affected. The most important cession of recent years was that of part of Franconia in 1866 to Prussia, amounting to 291 square miles, with a population of 32,976 inhabitants. The following table gives the present and former division of the kingdom and its population in 1818, 1846, and 1871 respectively:—

Area Population. Old Circles. JMiles. 1813. 1846. 1871. Isar Upper Bavaria 6556 585,467 705,544 841,707 Lower Danube Lower Bavaria 4141 450,895543,709 603,789 Regen. Upper Palatinate 3717 403,481 487,606 497,861 Upper Main Upper Franconia 2692 394,954501,163541,063 Rezat Middle 2906 437,838:527,866:583,666 Lower Main Upper Danube Rhine Lower ,, S vabia Rhine Palatinat 3230501,2121592,080 3651487,951558,436 22821446,168608,470 586,132 582,773 615,035

The total population in 1871, including the troops then absent in France, amounted to 4,863,450. The density of population varies considerably in the different districts from about 273 inhabitants to the square mile in the Pala tinate to 128 in Upper Bavaria. As represented by the increase of each successive census the growth of the popu lation is rather slow, but a large amount of emigration to America and elsewhere has to be taken into account. A very considerable number of the people are urban, as may be seen from the following list of principal towns (arranged in the order of the circles) with their populations:—

Upper Palatinate Upper Franconia , Middle Franconia Lower Franconia. Swabia. Palatinate of Rhine , ( Landshut 14,140 Lower Bavaria < Passau 1 3, 379 ( Straubing 11,150 Ratisbon (or Regensburg).. 29,185 Ainberg 11,688 Bamberg 25,738 Bayreuth 17,841 Hof 16,010 Nuremberg 83,214 Fiirth 24,577 Ansbach 12,636 Erlangen 12,510 Wiirzburg 40,005 Schweinfurt 10,325 Aschaffenburg 9,212 Augsburg 51,220 Kempten 11,223 Kaiserslautern 17,896 Spire 13,223 Neustadt 9,320

The name in German, Bayern, or Baiern, is derived, like Latin Boiaria, from Boii, the name of a Celtic people by whom the country, which then formed part of Rhsetia, Vindelicia, and Noricum, was inhabited in the time of Augustus. After the fall of the Roman power the natives were governed by chieftains of their own till the era of Charlemagne, who subjugated this as well as most other parts of Germany. After his death Bavaria was governed by one of his grandsons, whose successors bore the title of Margrave, or Lord of the Marches. In the year 920 the ruling margrave was raised to the rank of duke, which continued the title of his successors for no less than seven centuries. During this period Bavaria was connected with Germany nationally by language and politically as a frontier province, but in civilization was almost as back ward as Austria, and was greatly behind Saxony, Franconia, and the banks of the Rhine. At last, in 1620, the reign ing duke, having rendered great service to Austria against an insurrection in Bohemia, received an important accession of territory at the expense of the Elector Palatine, and was appointed one of the nine electors of the empire. His successors continued faithful members of the Germanic body and allies of Austria until 1771, when the elector Max Emanuel began to assist Louis XIV. of France by threatening and attacking Austria, so as to prevent her from co-operating efficiently with England and Holland. This induced the duke of Marlborough, in the spring of 1704, to march his army above 300 miles from the banks of the Meuse to invade Bavaria, the fate of which was decided by the battle of Blenheim on the 13th August 1704. For ten years from this date the elector and his remaining forces served in the French armies, and his country was governed by imperial commission until the peace of Utrecht, or more properly that of Baden, in 1714, reinstated him in his dominions.

His son Charles Albert, who succeeded him in 1726,

untaught by these disasters, renewed his connection with France; and, in 1740, on the death of the emperor of Germany, came forward as a candidate for the imperial crown. He obtained the nomination of a majority of the electors, and overran a considerable part of the Austrian territory; but his triumph was of short duration, for the

armies of Maria Theresa not only repulsed the Bavarians,