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MORAVIA 817 >n of the preceding, born in Madrid, March 10, 1760, died in Paris, June 21, 1828. He worked as a jeweller till he was 23 years old. At 18 he obtained the second prize of the academy for his poem La toma de Granada. [n 1780 he published a satire entitled Leccion ttica, and in 1787 he was made secretary to 3 Spanish embassy at Paris ; and he was af- jrward sent at the public charge to study the Irama of Germany, England, Italy, and France. 3n his return an office in the department of foreign affairs was assigned him. About this ime he published a translation of Hamlet, and >rought out in the theatre El laron (1803), La -ogigata (1804), and El si de las niilas (1806), le most popular of his plays, performed for nights consecutively, reprinted four times in le same year, and translated into many lan- lages. After many misfortunes he went to 'aris in 1827, and died in poverty. Other 3lebrated works of Moratin are the comedies 11 viejo y la nifla and La comedia nueva, and ^ igenes del teatro espafiol. He has been led the Spanish Moliere. A complete edi- ion of his works has been published. MORAVIA (Slav. Morawa; Ger. Mdkreri), a rgraviate and crown land of Austria, situa- between lat. 48 40' and 50 15' K, and >n. 15 10' and 18 28' E., bounded N. and N. by Prussian and Austrian Silesia, E. and 5. E. by Hungary, S. by Lower Austria, and ' T . and N". W. by Bohemia; area, 8,585 sq. m.; >p. in 1872, 2,030,975. The country is most- mountainous, the principal ranges being tie Moravian mountains, the Sudetic range dth its eastern continuation the Gesenke, and le Carpathians, which respectively separate it Bohemia, Silesia, and Hungary. The val- sys and the southern districts, which are most- level, are fertile. The principal rivers are March or Morawa, which rises in the north- corner of the country, flows S. S. E. and S. W. through its entire breadth, receiving Imost all other watercourses, and after form- ig a part of the Hungarian boundary falls into ie Danube ; the Beczwa, E. of the March, and Hanna, Zwittawa, Schwarza, Iglawa, and mya, W. of it. The Oder, which flows N. into Silesia, has its head waters S. of the ike range. The climate is comparative- mild. Moravia yields excellent grains and fruits, hemp, flax, and wine, and vast quanti- ties of timber, iron, coal, marble, alum, vitriol, sulphur, lead, and pipe clay, and some silver. Some of the mines have been known since the 8th century. Gold and silver were formerly extracted, but little attention has been paid to these ores since the 16th century, and the iron and coal mines are not worked to their full extent. Pasturage covers a considerable extent of the country, and large numbers of cattle, sheep, and horses are reared. Wool- len, linen, cotton, thread, leather, arms, nee- dles, domestic utensils, porcelain, pottery, glass, paper, beet sugar, and chemical products are manufactured. Railways intersect the coun- try, connecting it with Austria proper, Bohe- mia, Silesia, and Galicia. The inhabitants are mainly of Slavic origin (about 72 per cent), including Slovaks on the confines of Hungary, Hannaks in the fertile central region watered by the Hanna, and the Czecho-Moravians in the districts adjoining Bohemia. The Germans (26 per cent.) and Jews (2 per cent.) mostly inhabit the towns, the former being most nu- merous in the regions adjacent to Silesia and Austria. The bulk of the inhabitants are Ro- man Catholics, the number of the Protestants amounting to 57,000, and that of the Jews to 42,000. Previous to 1848 the latter were sub- ject to the most oppressive obligations and restrictions. The Roman Catholics are under the archbishop of Olmiitz and the bishop of Briinn ; the Lutherans and Reformed have each one superintendent. Educational institutions of a high grade are numerous, and about 99 per cent, of the children of proper age attend school. The university of Olmtitz has been abolished. The provincial diet is composed of the Landeshauptmann, the archbishop of Ol- miitz, the bishop of Brunn, and 97 deputies. Next to Bohemia and Lower Austria, Moravia has the largest number of manufactories of any Austrian province, the aggregate annual value of the manufactures being estimated at about $74,000,000. In politics and literature the Moravians, mainly according to national lines of division, partake in the movements of the Czechs in Bohemia or of the Germans in Aus- tria. Before the close of the 6th'century the country was successively occupied by the Qua- di, Rugii, Heruli, and Longobardi, and in the following period by Slavic tribes, who, after the decline of the kingdom of the Avars, found- ed the empire of Great Moravia, the name be- ing derived from the river Morawa (March). Charlemagne conquered it, and he and his suc- cessors exacted tribute and the adoption of Christianity, of which St. Cyril became the great apostle among the Moravians. Swato- pluk, who rebelled against the German emperor toward the close of the 9th century, made Mo- ravia a powerful state ; but it soon after suc- cumbed to the combined attacks of the Hunga-. rians and Germans. Moravia was now often invaded by Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, and Germans. In the llth century it was attached to Bohemia, and about the end of the follow- ing century constituted a margraviate of the empire, though dependent as a fief upon the Bohemian crown. After numerous divisions, it came with Bohemia into the possession of the house of Hapsburg by the death of King Louis II. of Hungary and Bohemia in the bat- tle of Mohacs (1526), his crowns being inher- ited by Ferdinand I. of Austria. The Austrian constitution of 1849 made it a separate crown land, as well as Austrian Silesia, which was formerly united with it. (See AUSTRIA, and BOHEMIA.) In 1866 Moravia was invaded by the Prussians. See Dudik, Mahrerfs allge- meine Gesckichte (4 vols., Brtinn, 1860-'65).