In preparation for the peace conference that was expected to follow World War I, in the spring of 1917 the British Foreign Office established a special section responsible for preparing background information for use by British delegates to the conference. Carniola, Carinthia and Styria is Number 9 in a series of more than 160 studies produced by the section, most of which were published after the conclusion of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria were provinces of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, which came under Habsburg control as early as the 13th and 14th centuries. All three territories are located in or near the easternmost ranges of the Alps, the Julian Alps in particular. The book includes sections on physical and political geography, political history, and economic conditions, with separate treatments of each of the three provinces. For social and political conditions, readers are referred to Number 13 in the series, The Slovenes. The economies of all three provinces were dominated by agriculture and a system of land tenure based on small peasant proprietors. Forestry was also an important industry. After World War I, Carniola became part of the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia from 1929), while the other two provinces became part of Austria. Carniola is today part of Slovenia; Carinthia and Styria are two of the nine states in the federal Republic of Austria.