Transylva'nia, formerly an Austrian principality, since 1868 an integral part of Hungary, is fenced by the Carpathians from Galicia and Roumania. The interior, a plateau crossed by mountain-chains, is drained by the tributaries of the Theiss and the Pruth. The Latin name ('Beyond the Forest') refers to the woods dividing it from Hungary; the Hungarian name Erdely (' Forest Land') is justified by its extensive forests (37 1/2 per cent. of the total area of 21,512 sq. m.). Nevertheless 49 per cent. of the soil, mostly very fertile, is under cultivation or grass. The mineral wealth is great - salt, gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, iron, and lead. Mineral springs abound. The pop., 2,084,048 in 1880, and 2,500,000 in 1900, consists of Roumanians (members of the Greek Church), Hungarians and Szeklers, and Saxons or Germans. Kronstadt, Klausenburg, and Hermannstadt are the chief towns. Transylvania (Dacia) was subdued by Trajan in 107. King Stephen of Hungary (997-1038) began to reduce it; King Geisa II. (1141-61) brought in German (Saxon) colonists from the lower Rhineland, who exercised local self-government; and from the land being divided into seven principal divisions it acquired the name Sieben-Mrgen - i.e. the Seven Strong Towns. See works by Boner (1865) and Gerard (1888).