SARDINIA, an island of Italy, after Sicily the largest in the Mediterranean; 135 miles W. of the mouth of the Tiber, and immediately S. of Corsica, being separated from it by the Strait of Boni facio, 71/2, miles wide. In shape it re sembles an oblong set on end, with a deep wide bay, the Gulf of Cagliari, in the S., and another, the Gulf of Porto Torres, in the N. Area, 9,299 square miles. The surface is generally mountainous, the configuration that of a table-land run ning up into ranges and isolated peaks. The highest points occur along the E. side of the island, and reach 6,365 feet in Gennargentu in the center, and 4,468 in the mountains of Limbara in the N. The W. side of the island ranges at about 1,240 feet, though the extinct vol cano of Monte Ferru reaches 3,400. The S. W. corner is separated from the main mass of the island by the low alluvial plain of Campidano, which stretches from the Gulf of Cagliari to the Gulf of Oristano, on the W. coast; at both ex tremities of it there are extensive salt lagoons.
Sardinia is in nearly all respects a backward island. It has fine natural resources---fertile soil, valuable mines, extensive forests, rich fisheries, and ex cellent facilities for manufacturing in dustry. But owing to the old-fashioned conservatism of the people, their apathy, their primitive methods of agriculture, lack of enterprise and capital, and want of means of communication, its resources have not been developed as they might be. Feudalism was not finally abolished in the island till 1856. Of the total area about one-third is arable land, one-third pasture, and nearly one-third (28 per cent.) forest. The principal produce is wheat, barley, beans, potatoes, wine, olive oil, oranges, lemons, tobacco, flax and hemp, cheese, butter, and wool. The breeding of horses is an important in dustry; and large numbers of cattle, sheep, swine, and goats are kept. There are over 4,000 industrial establishments employing about 34,000 persons. To bacco and gunpowder made in large quantities are government monopolies.
Besides being in ancient times the granary of Rome, Sardinia was re nowned for its mineral wealth. After lying unused from the fall of the Ro man empire the mines were again worked by the Pisans in the 14th and 15th centuries; but work was not re sumed in them with any degree of en ergy till toward the middle of the 19th century. Iron, copper, lead, zinc, anti mony, manganese, and lignite exist. Granite, marble, and clay for pottery are quarried. Salt is manufactured from sea water. The center and N. of the island are chiefly covered with forests, though they are being all too rapidly diminished. The commonest as well as the most valuable trees are the oak.
ilex, cork, and wild olive, which yield timber, cork, bark for tanning, acorns, and charcoal.
The seas yield large quantities of tunny, sardines, anchovy, and coral, though the fisheries, except for tunny, are not prosecuted by Sardinians, but by Italians; the native fishermen pre fer to catch trout, eels, lobsters, crabs, etc., in the rivers and inland lagoons. Sardinia has no extensive manufactur ing industries, though there is some tan ning and making of cigars, aerated waters, macaroni, flour, and spirits. There are, however, a variety of do mestic industries for home use; most of the women still ply the spinning wheel.
Till the year 1828 Sardinia had no roads for wheeled vehicles, the Roman roads having gone to ruin centuries ago. Now there are good roads throughout the island; and they are supplemented by railways.
The island has numerous fairly good ports—Cagliari (the capital), Porto Tor res, Terranova, Tortoli, Alghero, Carlo forte, and Bosa—most of which have been improved by the construction of harbor works. The inhabitants are for the most part of mixed race, Spanish and Italian elements predominating. Pop. about 881,000. Education is in a very backward state, about 75 per cent of the population being unable to read and write. There are universities at Cagliari and Sassari. The practice of the vendetta and brigandage have now almost entirely ceased. The language is a mixture of Latin, Spanish, and Italian. The mouflion or wild sheep, with red deer, fallow deer, wild boar, and an abun darsce of smaller game, such as hares, partridges, woodcock, snipe, etc., are the creatures chiefly hunted. Administra tively the island is divided into the two provinces of Cagliari and Sassari. There are three archbishoprics, Cagliari, Sas sari, and Oristano, and eight bishoprics.
History.—The aboriginal inhabitants are believed to have been of Iberian stock, though this is by no means cer tain. They seem to have been conquered by the Phcenicians at an early period; but little authentic is known before the conquest by the Carthaginians in 512 B. C. For two centuries and a half this people bitterly oppressed the native in habitants, so that when the Romans came in the 3d century they were hailed as de liverers. But the Sardinians did not at first bear the Roman yoke very patiently, thou* afterward, from the reign of Tiberius onward, they enjoyed 300 years of continuous peace and prospered greatly. After the fall of the Roman empire evil days again fell on the island; it was overrun by Vandals and Goths, and then for many years was incessantly harassed by the Saracens. During this time its nominal masters were the Byzan tine emperors (till 774) and the Popes. In the beginning of the 11th century the Pisans and Genoese undertook the task of driving out the Saracens and holding the island against them; but they had a hard task for 20 years or more. Then, the Moslems beaten off, they took to quarreling with one another, and only agreed to divide the island between them in 1299, Genoa taking the N., Pisa the S. But the real internal government was in the hands of four "judges" or chiefs, each ruling a separate province; this arrangement existed several centuries before the Pisans came, and continued to exist for several centuries longer. The Pope, who still claimed the over-lordship, at this time gave Sardinia to the king of Aragon; and he made himself defi nitely master of it in 1416. The Ara gonese and their sovereign successors, the Spaniards, kept possession of it till the treaty of Utrecht (1713); it then passed to Austria, but in 1718 was given to the House of Savoy in exchange for Sicily. United with Savoy and Pied mont, it gave title to a new kingdom, the kingdom of Sardinia. See SAVOY.