Tirol

In 15-14 B.C. the country, later known as the Tirol, then inhabited by the Rhaetians (probably a Celtic race), was con quered by Drusus and Tiberius. The frontier of Italy was then advanced to a line running approximately from Gargazon to the Klausen Pass, the country north of this being organized into the province of Rhaetia. After 500 years of Roman rule, during which the country was probably almost completely Romanized, it fell a prey to the Teutonic invasions. The rich valleys of the upper Adige were colonized by Ostrogoths, from whom the present inhabitants are descended. A little later the Germanic Bajuvarii conquered and occupied the whole northern district, which was quickly Germanized. The Lombards, who entered the country almost simultaneously from the south, establishing a duchy in Trent, came in smaller numbers, and were absorbed in the Latin population ; from this difference sprang the later ethnographical and political controversy. Lombardy became part of the Frank empire of the Carolingians in A.D. 774, Bavaria definitively in 788, but the Imperial administrative system developed with time into the feudal rule of semi-independent counts. In 1004 the emperor Henry II. granted the county of Trent to the bishop of Trent. In 1027 Conrad II. enlarged this fief by the counties of Bozen and Vintschgau, bestowing the counties north of this line on the bishop of Brixen.

Unable themselves to exercise temporal authority, the bishops delegated their governmental powers to lay lords. The most pow erful of these was a family deriving its name from the castle of Tirol, near Meran, who as early as 1150 were counts and baili wicks of Trent, acquired extensive lands from the bishop of Brixen in 1248, and by 1271 had practically replaced the ecclesi astical power by their own throughout Tirol. This family became extinct with the famous Margaret Maultasch, and Tirol passed by arrangement to Duke Rudolph IV. of Austria (1363). From this date until 1918 Tirol formed part of the Habsburg monar chy. At first Tirol was held as an appanage of a junior branch of the family, but was finally united with the main Austrian possessions in 1665.

Tirol's geographical situation, the highway over the Brenner from northern to southern Europe, and the Arlberg route from east to west meeting at Innsbruck, gave it a great strategic im portance, since command of the Brenner dominates the gate to Italy. Tirol was therefore frequently the theatre of severe fight ing. Its sturdy population, however, guarded its liberties well. The spread of Protestantism in Germany occasioned a great peasants' rising in 1525, which forced concessions from the emperor. Although the Counter-Reformation afterwards made of Tirol the most wholly Catholic of all Austrian crownlands, the estates (in which, alone in Austria, the peasants were repre sented), always preserved an unusual de gree of liberty, and Tirol always cherished a strong feeling of unity and local patriot ism. The most famous incident in the

stormy history of the Tirolese was their insurrection in 1809 against the French and Bavarian rule established by Napo leon after the treaty of Pressburg (1805).

Led by Andreas Hofer, the sturdy peasants frequently defeated numerically superior forces; but, after the disastrous peace of Schonbrunn (1809) had given Tirol (ex cept its southern fringe, assigned to Italy) definitely to Bavaria, the revolt was ruth lessly crushed by weight of numbers. Hofer was arrested, and finally shot at Mantua by Napoleon's express order (Feb. 16, i8 o). The Treaty of Paris (1814) reunited Tirol and restored it to Austria.

The South Tirol Question.

During the World War the val leys of the South Tirol were the scene of fierce fighting, and the Tirolese poured forth their blood and their money in defence of the Habsburg monarchy. Nevertheless they were doomed to suf fer even more severely at the hands of the victorious Allies than did their Austrian rulers. An irredentist agitation for the annexa tion of the Italian-speaking Trentino had begun in Italy even before 1848, growing stronger as time went on. From the com mencement of the war the Italian Government negotiated with both Austria and the Allies for a price for the co-operation of Italy in the struggle. The Austrian cabinet agreed to cede the Trentino, but refused to yield to any further Italian demands. Italy therefore concluded the Treaty of London (May, 1915) with the allied powers by which she was promised, among other rewards, the Brenner frontier, which she claimed on strategical grounds. The Treaty of St. Germain (q.v.) handed over to Italy not only the Italian-speaking Trentino but also the Upper Adige, inhabited by a population of purely German origin and speech, and numbering about 215,00o souls. As there were some 13,500 Germans in the Trentino, the total German population included within the new Italy amounted to approximately 229,000. This departure from the principle of national self-determination elicited strong but fruitless protests from the Tirolese communes. That a miscarriage of justice had been committed was subse quently ackriowledged by one—President Wilson—of the states men responsible for it. If Italy could put forward a case for her acquirement of the Brenner frontier, based on strategical neces sity, she could not honestly advance any racial or political claims to the Upper Adige ; nor, indeed, did she advance such claims until the advent of the Fascist Government.