SECTION III. FOREIGN COUNTRIES 



Note. For convenience, the following accounts are given in the alphabetical order 

 of the headings. Dependencies are dealt with under their sovereign country. For 

 Greece, Bulgaria, Servia and Rumania, see under " Greece and the Balkan States." 

 For Hungary see " Austria-Hungary." For the various " Latin Republics " of South 

 and Central America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, etc. together with Mexico, etc. and 

 Cuba, etc.) see that general heading. 



ABYSSINIA 



The outstanding feature in the history of Abyssinia in 1909-12 the only remaining 

 independent native state in the whole of Africa, for Liberia, if independent, can hardly 

 be regarded as a " native " state is that despite the incapacity of the Emperor Menelek 

 (E. B. xviii, 128), owing to an incurable malady, to take any part in state affairs, the 

 country has not fallen into a condition of anarchy. Toward the end of 1910 the 

 Empress Taitu, who had controlled the council of regency, was deposed, as the result of 

 a palace revolution, and all the chiefs of Shoa, the hereditary dominion of Menelek, took 

 oaths of fidelity to Lij Yasu, the grandson of the negus. Ras Tessama, the regent, died 

 in April 1911, when Lij Yasu, then about 16 years old, took control of the administration. 

 The authority of the central government continued, with a few exceptions, to be en- 

 forced in the most distant provinces. Friendly relations have been maintained with all 

 the neighbouring powers, and during 1911 the boundary separating Abyssinian and 

 Italian Somaliland was delimited from Dolo to the Webi Shebeli. 



Lack of easy means of communication hindered the development of trade, and the 

 commercial resources of Abyssinia are as yet scarcely tapped. The continuation of the 

 Jibuti railway (E. B. i, 95a) from Dire Dawa to Adis Ababa (the capital) made slow progress, 

 but the line reached the Hawash river in 1912. Jibuti remained the chief avenue of trade, 

 with Massawa next in importance, while Gambela, the new trade centre for Western Abys- 

 sinia, has in a short period become a thriving town. Gambela is a port on the river Baro, 

 one of the chief headstreams of the Sobat, and lies 60 m. E. of the Sudan-Abyssinian frontier. 

 It is an enclave leased to the Sudan government in 1907. From June to November, when 

 the Sobat is in flood, a monthly steamer service is maintained between Gambela and Khar- 

 tum, 880 m. distant. The trade figures for Gambela were E 43,000 in 1910, E 65,000 in 

 1911 and E 75,000 in 1912, mainly representing the export of coffee (for consumption in the 

 Sudan) and of beeswax in transit to Europe. With the rise of Gambela, the town of Gore, 

 65 m. E. of Gambela, became the chief market of Western Abyssinia, controlling the rich 

 provinces of Jimma, Wallega and Kaffa. In 1912 a branch of the Bank of Abyssinia was 

 opened at Gore. The total trade, estimated in 1905 at 1,000,000, had increased by 1910 

 to over 2,000,000. About 50 % of this is via Jibuti. Hides and skins, coffee, rubber 

 and wax are the chief exports; cotton goods the principal imports. 



See the Consular reports issued by the Foreign Office, London, on Abyssinia, Harrar and 

 Gambela; Capt. Stigand, To Abyssinia through an Unknown Land (London, 1910); Major 

 C. W. Gwynn "A Journey in S. Abyssinia" (with excellent map) in Geog. Jnl. Aug. 1911; 

 G. Montandon, "A Journey in S. W. Abyssinia" in Geog. Jnl. Oct. 1912. For N. Abyssinia 

 consult the Bolletino Soc. Geografia Italiana. (F. R. CANA.) 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 2 



I. ECONOMIC PROGRESS 



The total population of the Monarchy in 1910 was 51,352,429. Its component 

 parts, Austria, Hungary, and Bosnia-Herzegovina (annexed in 1908), are separately 

 dealt with below; but it is necessary to deal first with the progress of finance, and defence, 

 and trade, which represent the common affairs of the Monarchy under the political 

 Ausgleich of 1867 and the commercial agreement last renewed in 1907. 



The Whole Monarchy. 



Finance. The finances of the Monarchy were complicated by the cost of the 

 annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1908-10. The net expenditure during 

 these three years amounted to ^76,670,779 (,22,240,730 in 1908; ^26,318,505 in 1909; 

 E. B. i, 82 et seq. 2 See E. B. iii, 2 et seq. 



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