WESTPHA'LIA. A province of Prussia, bounded on the north and east by Hanover, on the east by Schaumburg-Lippe, Lippe, Bruns wick, Hesse-Nassau, and Waldeck, on the south east by Ile-se-Nassau, on the southwest by the Rhine Provinee, and on the northwest by the Netherlands (Map: Prussia, 11 3), Area, 7803 square miles. It is nearly altogether mountain ous and hilly, the highest point being about 2700 feet above the sea. The region belongs to the basins of the Rhine, Ems, and Weser.
WestIdialia is rich in iron and coal. The out put of coal in 1900 was valued at 890,000.000. Dortmund is the chief coal centre. In iron the province leads all the others in Prussia, the value of the output for 1900 having been $'_8.0011. 000. Westphalia also ranks among the first Prus sian provinces in the production of zinc and cop per. Load and other ores are also mined. The stone output is heavy and the salt industry eon siderable. The supply of coal and iron has lent great impetus to manufacturing interests. There are numerous iron works, and maehinery and all varieties of metal wares are largely manufac tured. The region between the Weser and the Lippe has for centuries been the seat of impor tant linen industries. Woolen cloths, hosiery. and cottons are among the conspicuous manu factures. Paper, leather, and wood carvings also figure extensively in the shipments. In 1900 sugar was produced to the amount of 17,020 tons.
About 40 per cent. of the total area of West phalia is in farms. gardens. and vineyards, about 2S per cent. in woodland, and about 25 per rent. in meadows, ]lye and oats lead in importance among the cereals. Potatoes and wheat are pro duced in considerable quantities, and the prov ince is noted for excellent flax. Dairying and gardening thrive, and the cattle and swine in dustries are prominent.
The provinee embraces the three administrative districts of Mtinster, Minden, and Arnsberg,.
Minster is the capital. It sends 17 members to the and 31 to the Prussian Eandtag. The population in 1900 was 3,187.777—about evenly divided between Protestants and Catholics. At the head of the excellent provineial education system stands the Academy of Minister.
HisToay. The ancient duchy of the Saxons was divided into Westfalen (Westphalia) in the west, Ostfolen (Eastphalia) in the cast. and F.ngern, between the two. With the dissolution of the Saxon duchy at the close of the twelfth century the name Westphalia came to designate a duchy ruled by the arehldshops of Cologne. Its territory lay in the southeastern part of what is now• the Province of Westphalia. The arch bishops held sway till '1803. The distriet then passed to Hesse-Darmstadt. which in ISIS trans ferred it to Prussia. This duchy was one of many sovereignties which arose in the Middle Ages in the present Province of \Vestphalia. In the seventeenth Brandenburg acquired dominion in the region by obtaining possession of the counties of Mark and ltavensberg and the See The Congress of Vienna (1814 IS) assigned to Prussia the whole of West phalia within its present limits. One of the circles into which the 11 oly Roman Empire was divided was called the Westphalian Circle. It embraced an extensive region between the Rhine and Weser, extending northward to the North Sea, and a large territory wort of the Rhine, com prising part of the modern Netherlands and Bel gium. See WESTPHALIA. NiNCDOM or•.
Consult: Weddigen, West/a/en, Land ilml Lente (Paderborn. 1S96) ; Selitieking and Ereiligrath, Das mulerische atria nomatii,ehe Westfalen (ib., 18!1S) ; Sehulze, Die Prorinzl Westfalen (Minden, 1900),