From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 58604
Date: 2008-05-18
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick McCallister" <gabaroo6958@...>
>> I hadn't about that vote. I can't find it in
>> Wikipedia
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace-Lorraine
>> Tell me about it.
>>
>>
>> Torsten
>>
> Keep in mind that France stole Alsace from Germany c.
> 1700, which set off a wave of Protestant refugees to
> Germany, including many French-speaking Huguenots
> among them. Most probably ultimately ended up the US
> but many went to Prussia and took their animosities
> with them.
>
=======
The wikipedia reference of Torsten does not support your absurd statement.
Just read it more thoroughly.
That was about Spanish Habsbourgs
Alsatian protestantism was not repressed.
Germany did not exist at that time.
Actually, it's the first time you make such an inadequate and aggressive
statement.
Arnaud
===========
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.
This situation prevailed until 1639 when most of Alsace was conquered by
France to prevent it falling into the hands of the Spanish Habsburgs who
wanted a clear road to their valuable and rebellious possessions in the
Netherlands. This occurred in the greater context of the Thirty Years War.
So, in 1646, beset by enemies and to gain a free hand in Hungary, the
Habsburgs sold their Sundgau territory (mostly in Upper Alsace) to France,
which had occupied it, for the sum of 1.2 million thalers. Thus, when the
hostilities finally ceased in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, most of
Alsace went to France with some towns remaining independent. The treaty
stipulations regarding Alsace were extremely byzantine and confusing; it is
thought that this was purposely so that neither the French king or the
German Emperor could gain tight control, but that one would play off the
other, thereby assuring Alsace some measure of autonomy. Supporters of this
theory point out that the treaty stipulations were authored by Imperial
plenipotentiary Isaac Volmar, the former chancellor of Alsace.
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) had been one of the worst periods in the
history of Alsace and other parts of Southern Germany. It caused large
numbers of the population (mainly in the countryside) to die or to flee
away, because the land was successively invaded and devastated by many
armies (Imperials, Swedes, French, etc.). After 1648 and until the mid-18th
century, numerous immigrants arrived from Switzerland, Germany, Austria,
Lorraine, Savoy and other areas. Between 1671-1711 Anabaptist refugees came
from Switzerland, notably from Bern. Strasbourg became a main center of the
early Anabaptist movement.
France consolidated its hold with the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen which
brought the towns under her control. In 1681, France occupied Strasbourg in
an unprovoked action. These territorial changes were reinforced at the 1697
Treaty of Ryswick which ended the War of the Palatinate (also known as the
War of the Grand Alliance or War of the League of Augsburg), although the
Holy Roman Empire did not accept and sign the document until 1697. Thus was
Alsace drawn into the orbit of France. However, Alsace had a somewhat
exceptional position in the kingdom. The German language was still used in
local government, school and education and the German (Lutheran) university
of Strasburg was continued and attended by students from Germany. The Edict
of Fontainebleau which legalized the brutal suppression of French
Protestantism was not applied in Alsace and in contrast to the rest of
France there was a relative religious tolerance (although the French
authorities tried to promote Catholicism and the Lutheran Strasbourg
Cathedral had to be handed over to the Catholics in 1681). There was a
customs boundary along the Vosges mountains against the rest of France while
there was no such boundary against Germany. For these reasons Alsace
remained coined by German culture and also economically oriented towards
Germany until the French Revolution.
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 July 21, 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, and Kléber, who led the armies of the French Republic in Vendée.