CASTILE, ka-sti•l' (Sp. Castillo, from cos tato, castle, from Lat. cost..•Mini, fort, on account of the numerous castles erected on the fron tiers). A former kingdom of Spain, occupying an area of about 53,500 square miles in the central part of the peninsula (about one-fourth of the kingdom), and divided into the two old provinces of Old Castile. or Cost Wu la rieja, and New Castile, or Castilla la Xucra. The former occupies the northern part and forms an elevated plateau. all. average elevation of about 2500 feet. It is walled in on all sides—on the north by the highest masses of the Cantabrian mountains, which separate it from the Basque provinces and Asturias; on the south by the high ridge forming the watershed between the Duero and the Tagus; while the Sierras de Ocejdn, de Urbion. and Moncayo, and the heights of Leon and Tras-os-Montes bound it on the east and west. The high plateau of Old Castile is but scantily watered, and its natural characteristics are far from inviting. The chief rivers are the Duero and its tributaries. which are generally shallow during the summer. In many parts nothing is presented to the eye but a wide, almost treeless ,waste of land, unre freshed by streams, in some parts monotonously covered with stunted grasses, and in others al most destitute of vegetation. The traveler may walk many miles without finding a village or even a solitary farmhouse. Not all of Old Castile is, however, an arid desert. In the southern part are found fertile tracts which yield tine grain, and even the olive can be cultivated under favorable climatic conditions. Iron and other minerals exist in plenty, but are not worked to any great extent, the chief industries being stock-breeding and cotton and linen weaving.
New Castile constitutes the southern part of Castile, and includes the Moorish Kingdom of Toledo. It lies between Aragon and Valencia on the east and Estremadura on the west, and has Murcia and Cindaluria on the south. It belongs
to the basins of the Tagus., Guadiana. and Ricar. It has a less elevated surface, but in many other respects is not unlike Old Castile. It is mostly sterile in the more elevated parts, such as the elevated plateau of Madrid Toledo, but very fertile in the deep river valleys. olives, corn, pulse, and saffron are cultivated in some neighborhoods. but more attention is paid to the raising of domestic animals. In dustry is almost entirely restricted to manu factures of coarse woolen goods. The yield of the salt-mine; in the south is considerable, and quicksil cr. especially at Almaden (q.v.) , aml iron, are plentiful. The commerce is insignificant and is greatly impeded by the lack of adequate transportation facilities.
Under the present administrative division of Spain, Old Castile is divided into the eight provinces of Burgos, Logrofio, Santander, Avila, .Segovia, Soria, Palencia, and Valladolid, with a total population of 1,764.41(1 in 1S97. Sonic authorities include also the provinces of Lea, Zamora, and Salamanca in Old Castile. New Castile is divided into the provinces of Madrid, Guadalajara, Toledo, Cuenca. and Ciudad Peal. and had a total population of 1.S53.314 in 1897. Besides these provinces, the principality of As turias, and the districts of Estremadura. Anda lusia, ra nada a nil Murcia, :11,4) belonged to the crow n of Castile.
The Kingdom of Castile was an offshoot of the Kingdom of Leon, with which it was permanently united in 1230. Tt played the leading part in the reconquest of the Peninsula from the Mohammedans, and as such its history is in separably identified with that of Spain (q.v.). Consult: .Nyala, dc ha flea de Cas tilla (2 vols., Madrid, 1770-80) : and llistoria de las communidadcs de Castilla (Madrid, 1897).