Alsace: Encyclopedia II - Alsace - History

Alsace - History

In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, but by 1500 B.C. Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. By 58 B.C., the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture. To protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day.

With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Alamanni. The Alamanni were agricultural people, and their language formed the basis of the modern-day Alsatian dialect. The Franks drove the Alamanni out of Alsace during the 5th century, and Alsace then became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Alsace remained under Frankish control until the Frankish realm was formally dissolved in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun in which the grandsons of Carl the Great – formally known as the founder of the Frankish realm – divided the realm into three parts. The Benelux states, Alsace and Lorraine formed the new Frankish Middle realm which was ruled by the youngest grandson Lothar. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts. The part known as Lorraine was given to Lothar's son. The rest was shared between Lothar's brothers Carl the Bald (ruler of the West Frankish realm) and Ludwig the German (ruler of the East Frankish realm) Lorraine was annexed later by the Holy Roman Empire.

In time, Alsace became part of the Holy Roman Empire as western part of the duchy of Swabia and was later under the administration of the Austrian House of Habsburg. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under the Hohenstaufen Emperors, but this prosperity was terminated in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death. These hardships were blamed on Jews, leading to the vicious pogroms of 1336 and 1339. During the Renaissance, prosperity returned to Alsace under Habsburg administration.

Most of Alsace was ceded to France at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the conclusion of the Thirty Years War, which marked its start, along with Lorraine, as a contested territory between France and Germany.

The City of Strasbourg was annexed by France during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Since 500, the area had been predominantly populated by Germans and they resisted efforts to have the French language and customs imposed upon them. Both Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to the new German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871 causing an estimated 50,000 people (of a total population of about a million) to emigrate to France. Alsace remained a part of Germany until the end of World War I, when Germany ceded it back to France under the Treaty of Versailles. However, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson believed that the region was self-ruling by legal status, as its constitution had stated it was bound to the sole authority of the Kaiser and not to the German State. Correspondingly, the regional government of Alsace-Lorraine declared independence, but could not resist the French who took it over a week later. They offered no chance of a plebiscite, granted to some eastern German territories at this time.

After World War I the re-establishment of German identity in Alsace was reversed, as Germans who had settled in Alsace since 1871 were expelled. Policies forbidding the use of German and requiring that of French were introduced. Curiously, the region was not considered to be subject to some changes in French law from 1871 to 1919, such as the Law of Separation of the Church and the State.

The region was effectively annexed by Germany in 1940 during World War II and reincorporated into the Greater German Reich. Alsace was merged with Baden and Lorraine with the Saarland. The annexation, while putting a halt to the anti-German discrimination, subjected the region to the Nazi dictatorship, which was loathed by most of the people. The German government never negotiated or declared a formal annexation, however, in order to preserve the possibility of an agreement with the West. France regained control of the war-torn area in 1944 and resumed its policy of promoting the French language with uncompromising vigour. For instance, from 1945 to 1984 the use of German in newspapers was restricted to a maximum of 25%.

In more recent years, as nationalistic emotions have receded, cultural freedom has gradually been restored. Thus for instance, isolated citizens' initiatives promoting the teaching of German in some form in local kindergartens and schools have been tolerated by the Paris government. At the same time however, its strict measures during the past decades have borne fruit in that the younger generations of Alsatians now speak and feel French.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki