Alsace, France

About:-
Alsace (French: Alsace [al.zas] ( listen); Alsatian: ’s Elsass [ˈɛlsɑs]; German:  Elsass (help·info)), pre-1996: Elsaß [ˈɛlzas]; Latin: Alsatia) is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area (8,280 km²), and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km² (total population in 2006: 1,815,488; 1 January 2008 estimate: 1,836,000). Alsace is located on France’s eastern border and on the west bank of the upper Rhine adjacent to Germany and Switzerland. The political, economic and cultural capital as well as largest city of Alsace is Strasbourg. Because that city is the seat of dozens of international organizations and bodies, Alsace is politically one of the most important regions in the European Union.

Alsace in France…wholepk.com

The name “Alsace” can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, meaning “foreign domain”.^[3] An alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning “seated on the Ill”,^[4] a river in Alsace. The region was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and then was gradually annexed by France in the 17th century, under Louis XIII and Louis XIV, and formalized as one of the provinces of France. The calvinist manufacturing republic of Mulhouse, known as Stadtrepublik Mülhausen, become a part of Alsace after a vote by its citizens on 4 January 1798. Alsace is frequently mentioned with Lorraine, because German possession of parts of these two régions (as the imperial province Alsace-Lorraine, 1871–1918) was contested in the 19th and 20th centuries; France and Germany exchanged control of Alsace four times in 75 years.
The historical language of Alsace is Alsatian, similar to German dialects spoken across the Rhine, but today practically all Alsatians speak French, the official language of France. 43% of the adult population, and 3% of children (3 to 17 years old), stated in 2012 that they speak Alsatian.^{[5] [6]} The place names used in this article are in French. See this list for the German place names.

Colmar, Alsace, France

Roman Alsace:-

In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, but by 1500 BC,^{[citation needed]} Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. 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.

Frankish Alsace:-

With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their language formed the basis of the modern-day Alsatian dialect. Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century, 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 youngest 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 (ruler of the West Frankish realm) and Louis the German (ruler of the East Frankish realm). The Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however; the region that was to become Alsace fell to the Holy Roman Empire as part of the Duchy of Swabia in the Treaty of Meersen in 870.

Alsace within the Holy Roman Empire:-

At about this time the entire region began to fragment into a number of feudal secular and ecclesiastical lordships, a situation which lasted into the 17th century and was a common process in the Empire. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors. Frederick I set up Alsace as a province (a procuratio, not a provincia) 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 (Landgericht) 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 Rudolph 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.
The prosperity of Alsace 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 pogroms of 1336 and 1339. 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.