The History of Alsace begins when the area was inhabited by nomadic hunters in antiquity,
and includes several changes in political control of the area between Germany and France.
Pre-Roman Alsace By 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace,
clearing and cultivating the land. Alsace is a plain surrounded by the Vosges mountains
and the Black Forest mountains . It creates Foehn winds which, along with natural irrigation,
contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always
been a rich region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history.
Roman Alsace By 58 BC, 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. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania
Superior.
Alemannic and Frankish Alsace With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace
became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and
their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper
Rhine . Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating
with the Battle of Tolbiac, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis'
Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized. Alsace remained under Frankish
control until the Frankish realm, following the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, was formally
dissolved in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun; the grandsons of Charlemagne divided the realm
into three parts. Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, which was ruled by the eldest
grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts.
The part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothar's son. The rest was shared
between Lothar's brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German . The Kingdom of Lotharingia
was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after
the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the
Rhine into the stem duchy of Swabia.
Alsace within the Holy Roman Empire At about this time, the surrounding areas
experienced recurring fragmentation and reincorporations among a number of feudal secular and ecclesiastical
lordships, a common process in the Holy Roman Empire. Alsace experienced great prosperity
during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors. Frederick I set up Alsace as a province
to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants. The idea was that
such men would be more tractable and less likely to alienate the fief from the crown
out of their own greed. The province had a single provincial court and a central administration
with its seat at Hagenau. Frederick II designated the Bishop of Strasbourg to administer Alsace,
but the authority of the bishop was challenged by Count Rudolf of Habsburg, who received
his rights from Frederick II's son Conrad IV. Strasbourg began to grow to become the
most populous and commercially important town in the region. In 1262, after a long struggle
with the ruling bishops, its citizens gained the status of free imperial city. A stop on
the Paris-Vienna-Orient trade route, as well as a port on the Rhine route linking southern
Germany and Switzerland to the Netherlands, England and Scandinavia, it became the political
and economic center of the region. Cities such as Colmar and Hagenau also began to grow
in economic importance and gained a kind of autonomy within the "Decapole" or "Dekapolis",
a federation of ten free towns.
As in much of Europe, the prosperity of Alsace came to an end 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 pogroms of 1336 and 1339. In 1349, Jews of Alsace were accused of poisoning
the wells with plague, leading to the massacre of thousands of Jews during the Strasbourg
pogrom. Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town. An additional natural
disaster was the Rhine rift earthquake of 1356, one of Europe's worst which made ruins
of Basel. Prosperity returned to Alsace under Habsburg administration during the Renaissance.
Holy Roman Empire central power had begun to decline following years of imperial adventures
in Italian lands, often ceding hegemony in Western Europe to France, which had long since
centralized power. France began an aggressive policy of expanding eastward, first to the
rivers Rhône and Meuse, and when those borders were reached, aiming for the Rhine. In 1299,
the French proposed a marriage alliance between Philip IV of France's sister Blanche and Albert
I of Germany's son Rudolf, with Alsace to be the dowry; however, the deal never came
off. In 1307, the town of Belfort was first chartered by the Counts of Montbéliard. During
the next century, France was to be militarily shattered by the Hundred Years' War, which
prevented for a time any further tendencies in this direction. After the conclusion of
the war, France was again free to pursue its desire to reach the Rhine and in 1444 a French
army appeared in Lorraine and Alsace. It took up winter quarters, demanded the submission
of Metz and Strasbourg and launched an attack on Basel.
In 1469, following the Treaty of St. Omer , Upper Alsace was sold by Archduke Sigismund
of Austria to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Although Charles was the nominal landlord,
taxes were paid to Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. The latter was able to use this tax
and a dynastic marriage to his advantage to gain back full control of Upper Alsace in
1477 when it became part of the demesne of the Habsburg family, who were also rulers
of the empire. The town of Mulhouse joined the Swiss Confederation in 1515, where it
was to remain until 1798.
By the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Strasbourg was a prosperous
community, and its inhabitants accepted Protestantism in 1523. Martin Bucer was a prominent Protestant
reformer in the region. His efforts were countered by the Roman Catholic Habsburgs who tried
to eradicate heresy in Upper Alsace. As a result, Alsace was transformed into a mosaic
of Catholic and Protestant territories. On the other hand, Mömpelgard to the southwest
of Alsace, belonging to the Counts of Württemberg since 1397, remained a Protestant enclave
in France until 1793.
German Land within the Kingdom of France This situation prevailed until 1639, when
most of Alsace was conquered by France to keep it out of the hands of the Spanish Habsburgs,
who by secret treaty in 1617 had gained a clear road to their valuable and rebellious
possessions in the Spanish Netherlands, the Spanish Road. Beset by enemies and seeking
to gain a free hand in Hungary, the Habsburgs sold their Sundgau territory to France in
1646, which had occupied it, for the sum of 1.2 million Thalers. When hostilities were
concluded in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, most of Alsace was recognized as part of France,
although some towns remained independent. The treaty stipulations regarding Alsace were
complex. Although the French king gained sovereignty, existing rights and customs of the inhabitants
were largely preserved. France continued to maintain its customs border along the Vosges
mountains where it had been, leaving Alsace more economically oriented to neighbouring
German-speaking lands. The German language remained in use in local administration, in
schools, and at the University of Strasbourg, which continued to draw students from other
German-speaking lands. The 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau, by which the French king ordered the suppression
of French Protestantism, was not applied in Alsace. France did endeavour to promote Catholicism.
Strasbourg Cathedral, for example, which had been Lutheran from 1524 to 1681, was returned
to the Catholic Church. However, compared to the rest of France, Alsace enjoyed a climate
of religious tolerance.
The warfare that had partially depopulated the region created opportunities for a stream
of immigrants from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Lorraine, Savoy and other lands that continued
until the mid-18th century. France consolidated its hold with the 1679
Treaties of Nijmegen, which brought most remaining towns under its control. France seized Strasbourg
in 1681 in an unprovoked action. These territorial changes were recognised in the 1697 Treaty
of Ryswick that ended the War of the Grand Alliance.
From French Revolution to the Franco-Prussian War
The year 1789 brought the French Revolution and with it the first division of Alsace into
the départements of Haut- and Bas-Rhin. Alsatians played an active role in the French Revolution.
On 21 July 1789, after receiving news of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris, a crowd
of people stormed the Strasbourg city hall, forcing the city administrators to flee and
putting symbolically an end to the feudal system in Alsace. In 1792, Rouget de Lisle
composed in Strasbourg the Revolutionary marching song "La Marseillaise" , which later became
the anthem of France. "La Marseillaise" was played for the first time in April of that
year in front of the mayor of Strasbourg Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich. Some of the most famous generals
of the French Revolution also came from Alsace, notably Kellermann, the victor of Valmy, Kléber,
who led the armies of the French Republic in Vendée and Westermann, who also fought
in the Vendée.
At the same time, some Alsatians were in opposition to the Jacobins and sympathetic to the restoration
of the monarchy pursued by the invading forces of Austria and Prussia who sought to crush
the nascent revolutionary republic. Many of the residents of the Sundgau made "pilgrimages"
to places like Mariastein Abbey, near Basel, in Switzerland, for baptisms and weddings.
When the French Revolutionary Army of the Rhine was victorious, tens of thousands fled
east before it. When they were later permitted to return , it was often to find that their
lands and homes had been confiscated. These conditions led to emigration by hundreds of
families to newly vacant lands in the Russian Empire in 1803–4 and again in 1808. A poignant
retelling of this event based on what Goethe had personally witnessed can be found in his
long poem Hermann and Dorothea.
In response to the "hundred day" restoration of Napoleon I of France in 1815, Alsace along
with other frontier provinces of France was occupied by foreign forces from 1815 to 1818,
including over 280,000 soldiers and 90,000 horses in Bas-Rhin alone. This had grave effects
on trade and the economy of the region since former overland trade routes were switched
to newly opened Mediterranean and Atlantic seaports.
The population grew rapidly, from 800,000 in 1814 to 914,000 in 1830 and 1,067,000 in
1846. The combination of economic and demographic factors led to hunger, housing shortages and
a lack of work for young people. Thus, it is not surprising that people left Alsace,
not only for Paris – where the Alsatian community grew in numbers, with famous members
such as Baron Haussmann – but also for more distant places like Russia and the Austrian
Empire, to take advantage of the new opportunities offered there: Austria had conquered lands
in Eastern Europe from the Ottoman Empire and offered generous terms to colonists as
a way of consolidating its hold on the new territories. Many Alsatians also began to
sail to the United States, settling in many areas from 1820 to 1850. In 1843 and 1844,
sailing ships bringing immigrant families from Alsace arrived at the port of New York.
Some settled in Illinois, many to farm or to seek success in commercial ventures: for
example, the sailing ships Sully and Iowa brought families who set up homes in northern
Illinois and northern Indiana. Some Alsatian immigrants were noted for their roles in 19th-century
American economic development. Others ventured to Canada to settle in southwestern Ontario,
notably Waterloo County.
Jews By 1790, the Jewish population of Alsace was
approximately 22,500, about 3% of the provincial population. They were highly segregated and
subject to long-standing antisemitic regulations. They maintained their own customs, Yiddish
language, and historic traditions within the tightly knit ghettos; they adhered to Talmudic
law enforced by their rabbis. Jews were barred from most cities and instead lived in villages.
They concentrated in trade, services, and especially in money lending. They financed
about a third of the mortgages in Alsace. Official tolerance grew during the French
Revolution, with full emancipation in 1791. However, local antisemitism also increased
and Napoleon turned hostile in 1806, imposing a one-year moratorium on all debts owed to
Jews. In the 1830–1870 era, most Jews moved to the cities, where they integrated and acculturated,
as antisemitism sharply declined. By 1831, the state began paying salaries to official
rabbis, and in 1846 a special legal oath for Jews was discontinued. Antisemitic local riots
occasionally occurred, especially during the Revolution of 1848. The merger of Alsace into
Germany in 1871-1918 lessened antisemitic violence.
Struggle between France and united Germany The Franco-Prussian War, which started in
July 1870, saw France defeated in May 1871 by the Kingdom of Prussia and other German
states. The end of the war led to the unification of Germany. Otto von Bismarck annexed Alsace
and northern Lorraine to the new German Empire in 1871. France ceded more than 90% of Alsace
and one-fourth of Lorraine, as stipulated in the treaty of Frankfurt. Unlike other members
states of the German federation, which had governments of their own, the new Imperial
territory of Alsace-Lorraine was under the sole authority of the Kaiser, administered
directly by the imperial government in Berlin. Between 100,000 and 130,000 Alsatians chose
to remain French citizens and leave Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen, many of them resettling
in French Algeria as Pieds-Noirs. Only in 1911 was Alsace-Lorraine granted some measure
of autonomy, which was manifested also in a flag and an anthem . In 1913, however, the
Saverne Affair showed the limits of this new tolerance of the Alsatian identity.
During the First World War, to avoid ground fights between brothers, many Alsatians served
as sailors in the Kaiserliche Marine and took part in the Naval mutinies that led to the
abdication of the Kaiser in November 1918, which left Alsace-Lorraine without a nominal
head of state. The sailors returned home and tried to found an independent republic. While
Jacques Peirotes, at this time deputy at the Landrat Elsass-Lothringen and just elected
mayor of Strasbourg, proclaimed the forfeiture of the German Empire and the advent of the
French Republic, a self-proclaimed government of Alsace-Lorraine declared its independence
as the "Republic of Alsace-Lorraine". French troops entered Alsace less than two weeks
later to quash the worker strikes and remove the newly established Soviets and revolutionaries
from power. With the arrival of the French soldiers, many Alsatians and local Prussian/German
administrators and bureaucrats cheered the re-establishment of order.
Although U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had insisted that the région 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, France would allow no plebiscite, as granted by the
League of Nations to some eastern German territories at this time, because the French regarded
the Alsatians as Frenchmen liberated from German rule. Germany ceded the region to France
under the Treaty of Versailles.
Policies forbidding the use of German and requiring French were promptly introduced.
However, propaganda for elections was allowed to go with a German translation from 1919
to 2008. In order not to antagonize the Alsatians, the region was not subjected to some legal
changes that had occurred in the rest of France between 1871 and 1919, such as the 1905 French
law on the separation of Church and State. Alsace-Lorraine was occupied by Germany in
1940 during the Second World War. Although it was never formally annexed, Alsace-Lorraine
was incorporated into the Greater German Reich, which had been restructured into Reichsgau.
Alsace was merged with Baden, and Lorraine with the Saarland, to become part of a planned
Westmark. During the war, 130,000 young men from Alsace and Lorraine were conscripted
into the German army, allegedly against their will , and in some cases volunteered for the
Waffen SS. Some of the latter were involved in war crimes, such as the Oradour-sur-Glane
massacre. Most perished on the eastern front. The few that could fled to Switzerland or
joined the resistance. In July 1944, 1500 malgré-nous were released from Soviet captivity
and sent to Algiers, where they joined the Free French Forces.
After World War II Today, the territory is in certain areas subject
to some laws that are significantly different from the rest of France – this is known
as the local law.
In more recent years, the Alsatian language is again being promoted by local, national,
and European authorities as an element of the region's identity. Alsatian is taught
in schools as one of the regional languages of France. German is also taught as a foreign
language in local kindergartens and schools. However, the Constitution of France still
requires that French be the only official language of the Republic.