ALSACE AND ITS STORY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2225, 11 August 1914, Page 6

ALSACE AND ITS STORY

iLAND OF MANY:WARS'

STUBBORN RESISTANCE IN 1870 RECALLED ■ Alsace :is one of the most fertile and beautiful districts in "Central Europe, and ever since the 'days of - the Homans it kasv.olso been one of the most disputed pieces: of teititory. on the Continent!';!! -is,founded'on'the north by the Rhenish Palatinate,; on the east by the Rhine, oil the • south, by Switzerland,- and on' the west .by-the.Vpsges mbuntains. There are several-ranges of hills, but' no point SvitHinithe.'province. attains a great el&-' • vation.The' only liver of importance ,is which falls into tho- Rhine after a','oourse' oi more than, a hundred miles, ' and -'is' navigable' '.below Colmar. The' hills are generally ! richly wooded, chiefly 'with; fir, and oak. The agricultural i:prpducts are corn, flax, grape?, r'and various- other fruits. The country : has a great wealth of minerals, silver ..having been found, y and copper, lead,; iron,'- coal, " and rock-salt being with profit! There are,'considerable, manufactures chiefly of cotton and linen!" The chief towns ' are Mul'hau6en and in. the upper district, and Strassburg. in the - lower. The province is" traversed from east to -wist by the railway from Strassburg to, Nancy- and from:'.north'-to south:by the. main line .tetweehi ( Bd?el'and.Strassburg. - : . ! 'Hundred years Alsace was held by'"the' RomaMv and then' it" fell under. the sway - of'. the Franks, from whom it eventually, .passed to the House of Atis-,-taia'.^:l&\L64B,-1 a largo part of ; Alsace 'wos ceded .to.iiiranco by the '■ Treaty >of-. West-' ph'aliaj, '.after having been 1 educed to a state;of,.desolation • during--the " Thirty Years War. In .1681 Louis XIV seized. -Strassburg,- and the rest of the province, and, aftsjbrithe : Revolution in 1769 ■ tho' town.'. of:; Mnlhausen, which had been, a republic,jellied to -Switzerland, was ac-. quirtxl byj^'raiice. : 'The population' was mainlyt Teutonic and the people spoke ft- German dialect; -but' in process o-> . time they.,had lost all/ desire, for reunion l?rehcb;3: v ','' ;■ ■ .^AlaicbV'^wereda good-, deal in ' the KariovPrusaian -, waj ' .of ' 1870-1; ' The earlier 'battles .. of the-campaign were fought there; Strassburg atad either of - its .fortified. towns were , besieged;; and taken f;ancClits f»»ple were compelled to ,su'bniit'''B>A'very. severe . exactions.- The civil : atfd|ymilitary (jtovernrnjentof the; province'- ris . well as that of : Lorraine, 1 was;.'assumed by the Germans.as-soon as they obtained, - possession of'.those. parts- ■; of .Fr&iiSe,. which- was; very"' shortly after the' beginning of the ..mat.' 'The Alsatian : railways, „were reorganised . and: provided with 'of German officials. - man stamps-were inti-oduoed from Ber- ' lin; the occupied towns were garrisoned by ;tho T Londivelir; (and requisitions on <Vj lMge,isp ; ale;were demanded, and'-'paid for in cheques which, at the close of ! the'. war ■. .were; to be honoured by whichever people should stand in the unpleasant .position, of,- the .conquered.- ' The people, notwithstanding their Ger- • man J -origin, \'-slh6wed/.a' very strong' feeling- against the- invaders, and in no part of?; France"' was- the. enem'j\ resisted- with-, greater stubbornness. It was evident , from' an - early period of the war, however, that Prussia was resolved to annex ! AlsaceV'to": German territory. -.' When the •preliminaries of peace came, to be dis-.cussedii'at.-'Versailles in February, 1871, the cession of Alsace, together, with what is <oalled» German 1 " Lorraine, was' ono of . the earliest conditions laid down by Bis--1 raarck - and accepted by Thiers. Bismarckadmitted the aversion of the population to: German rulebutsaid everything possible would; bo done to ; conciliate the people. 5 Many of the inhabitants -of tho conquered districts, however, still clung to the old connection,-and on September 30, JB72—the day by which the -people : were required to determine"'whether , they would consider themselves German subjects r and v remain, or French subjects and«trarisfer their; .domicile - to . France— . 45,000 elected to ba still French, and sorrowfully took: their departure. i