CARINTHIA (in German, Kdmten or Kamthen), a duchy, and since 1849 a crown-land of Austria, is bounded on the E. by Styria, on the N. by Styria and Salzburg, on the W. by Tyrol, and on the S. by Italy, Görtz, and Carniola. It has an area of 4006 English square miles, and the population in 1869 amounted to 336,400. The surface is for the most part mountainous, being occupied in the north by part of the Norian Alps, and in the south by those named the Carinthian Mountains, or the Karawanken. The principal river is the Drave, which flows from W. to E. through the length of the duchy, and receives in its course the waters of all the other streams, except the Fella, which reaches the Adriatic by junction with the Tagliamento. In its eastern half, the valley opens out into a considerable plain, which cpntains the important lakes of the Wörthersee and the Ossiachersee. According to official statistics, 337,246 acres of arable land were in cultivation in 1870; 280,581 acres were occupied by gardens and meadows, 593,040 by pasture, and 1,033,807 were under wood. In the same year there were in the duchy 22,979 horses, 232,791 head of cattle, 176,832 sheep, and 36,630 goats, while the bee-stocks amounted to 62,615. The mineral produce consisted of 145,940 tons of iron ore, 5,047 of lead ore, 71,264 of coal, 4,220 of zinc ore, and nearly 26 of graphite. The duchy is divided into the seven districts of Hermagor, Klagenfurt, Spittal, St Veit, Villach, Völkermarkt, and Wolfsberg,—the capital Klagenfurt forming an independent and eighth division. There are in all ten towns, twenty-eight market villages, and 2,911 hamlets,—the most populous places, besides the chief towns of the districts, being Bleiberg, Friesach, and Feldkirchen. With the exception of 19,000 Lutherans, the ...inhabitants are Roman Catholics; and more than two-thirds of them are of German race. The rest are of Slavonic origin, and for the most part occupy the districts conterminous with Carniola and Styria, though a considerable Slavonic enclave is situated in the heart of the German area between Malborget and Tarvis. German is used in 255 of the village schools, and Slavonic in 24, while both are employed in 70. The Carinthian diet consists, according to the law of 1861, of thirty-seven members, including, besides the bishop of Gurk, ten appointed by the landed proprietors, seven by the towns, fourteen by the rural communes, and three by the commercial authorities at Klagenfurt. Five members are sent to the imperial diet.
Carinthia is so called from the Carni, a Celtic people who have perhaps also left their name to the neighbouring district of Carniola; and in the time of Augustus it formed part of Noricum. After the fall of the Roman empire, it was the nucleus of the kingdom of Carentania, which was founded by Sarno, a Frankish adventurer, but soon fell to pieces after his death. Under Charlemagne it constituted a margravate, which in 843 passed into the hands of Louis the German, whose grandson Amulf was the first to bear the title of Duke of Carinthia. The duchy was held by various families during the llth, 12th, and 13th centuries, and at length in 1335 was bestowed by Louis the Bavarian on the Dukes of Austria. It was divided into Upper or Western Carinthia and Lower or Eastern; of these the former fell to France in 1809, but was reconquered in 1813, and joined in 1814 to the kingdom of Illyria. See Austria, vol. iii.
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