Alsace–Lorraine

Alsace–Lorraine, now called Alsace–Moselle, is a historical region located in France. It was created in 1871 by the German Empire after it had seized the region from the Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War with the Treaty of Frankfurt. Alsace–Lorraine reverted to French ownership in 1918 as part of the Treaty of Versailles and Germany's defeat in World War I.

When created in 1871, the region was named the Imperial Territory of Alsace–Lorraine (german: Reichsland Elsaß–Lothringen or ; gsw-FR, 's Richslànd Elsàss–Lothrìnga; Moselle Franconian/ lb, D'Räichland Elsass–Loutrengen) and as a new territory of the German Empire. The Empire annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle department of Lorraine, following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River, east of the Vosges Mountains; the section originally in Lorraine was in the upper Moselle valley to the north of the Vosges.

The territory encompassed almost all of Alsace (93%) and over a quarter of Lorraine (26%), while the rest of these regions remained parts of France. For historical reasons, specific legal dispositions are still applied in the territory in the form of a " local law in Alsace–Moselle". In relation to its special legal status, since reversion to France, the territory has been referred to administratively as Alsace–Moselle ( gsw-FR, 's Elsàss–Mosel).

Since 2016, the historical territory has been part of the French administrative region of Grand Est.

Geography

Alsace–Lorraine had a land area of . Its capital was Straßburg. It was divided in three districts (''Bezirke'' in German):
* Oberelsaß (Upper Alsace), whose capital was Kolmar, had a land area of and corresponds exactly to the current department of Haut-Rhin
* Unterelsaß, (Lower Alsace), whose capital was Straßburg, had a land area of and corresponds exactly to the current department of Bas-Rhin
* Bezirk Lothringen, (Lorraine), whose capital was Metz, had a land area of and corresponds exactly to the current department of Moselle

Towns and cities

The largest urban areas in Alsace–Lorraine at the 1910 census were:
* Straßburg (now ''Strasbourg''): 220,883 inhabitants
* Mülhausen (''Mulhouse''): 128,190 inhabitants
* Metz: 102,787 inhabitants
* Diedenhofen (''Thionville''): 69,693 inhabitants
* Colmar: 44,942 inhabitants

History

Background

The modern history of Alsace–Lorraine was largely influenced by the rivalry between French and German nationalism.

France long sought to attain and then preserve what it considered to be its "natural boundaries", which it considered the Pyrenees to the southwest, the Alps to the southeast, and the Rhine River to the northeast. These strategic claims led to the annexation of territories located west of the Rhine river in the Holy Roman Empire. What is now known as Alsace was progressively conquered by France under and in the 17th century, while Lorraine was incorporated from the 16th century under Henry II to the 18th century under (in the case of the Three Bishoprics, as early as 1552). These border-changes, at the time, meant more or less that one ruler (the local princes and city-governments, with some remaining power of the Holy Roman Emperor) was exchanged for another (the King of France).

German nationalism on the other hand, which in its 19th century form originated as a reaction against the French occupation of large areas of Germany under Napoleon, sought to unify all the German-speaking populations of the former Holy Roman Empire into a single nation-state. As various German dialects were spoken by most of the population of Alsace and Moselle (northern Lorraine), these regions were viewed by German nationalists to be rightfully part of hoped-for united Germany in the future.

From annexation to World War I

File:Alsace Lorraine departments evolution map-en.svg,
File:Alsace Lorraine.jpg,
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File:Deutsch-französische Grenzländer, mit genauer Einzeichnung der französischen Befestigungs-Anlagen.jpg,

In 1871, the newly created German Empire's demand for Alsace from France after its victory in the Franco-Prussian War was not simply a punitive measure. The transfer was controversial even among the Germans: The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, was initially opposed to it, as he thought (correctly) it would engender permanent French enmity toward Germany. Some German industrialists did not want the competition from Alsatian industries, such as the cloth makers who would be exposed to competition from the sizeable industry in Mulhouse. Karl Marx also warned his fellow Germans:
: "If Alsace and Lorraine are taken, then France will later make war on Germany in conjunction with Russia. It is unnecessary to go into the unholy consequences."

Bismarck and the South German industrialists proposed to have Alsace ceded to Switzerland, while Switzerland would compensate Germany with another territory. The Swiss rejected the proposal, preferring to remain neutral between the French and Germans.

The German Emperor, Wilhelm I, eventually sided with army commander Helmuth von Moltke, other Prussian generals and other officials who argued that a westward shift in the French border was necessary for strategic military and ethnographic reasons. From a linguistic perspective, the transfer involved people who for the most part spoke Alemannic German dialects. At the time, ethnic identity was often based primarily on language, unlike the more multifaceted approach focusing on self identification in use today. From a military perspective, by early 1870s standards, shifting the frontier away from the Rhine would give the Germans a strategic buffer against feared future French attacks. Due to the annexation, the Germans gained control of the fortifications of Metz and Strasbourg (Straßburg) on the left bank of the Rhine and most of the iron resources of Lorraine.

Creating a new Imperial Territory () out of formerly French territory would achieve this goal: Although a Reichsland would not technically be part of the Kingdom of Prussia, being governed directly by the Empire (headed by the King of Prussia as Emperor, and the minister-president of Prussia as Imperial Chancellor) would in practical terms amount to the same thing. Thus, by annexing Alsace–Lorraine, Berlin was able to avoid complications with Baden and Bavaria on matters such as new fortifications.

Memory of the Napoleonic Wars was still fresh in the 1870s. Wilhelm I himself had had to flee with the Prussian royal family to East Prussia as a nine year old in 1806 and had served in the Battle of Waterloo. Until the Franco-Prussian War, the French had maintained a long-standing desire to establish their entire eastern frontier on the Rhine, and thus they were viewed by most 19th century Germans as an aggressive and acquisitive people. In the years before 1870 the Germans feared the French more than the French feared the Germans. Many Germans at the time thought that the creation of the new Empire in itself would be enough to earn permanent French enmity, and thus desired a defensible border with their long-standing enemy. Any additional enmity that would be earned from territorial concessions was downplayed as marginal and insignificant in the overall scheme of things.

The annexed area consisted of the northern part of Lorraine, along with Alsace.
* The area around the town of Belfort (now the French Territoire de Belfort

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