Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine former region, Germany: see under Alsace , France.

Alsace-Lorraine The Alsace is a territory west of the River Rhine which became part of France 1648–97 and borders Lorraine in the north. Lorraine came under French influence during the sixteenth century and became part of France during the seventeenth. After the French Revolution of 1789, Alsatians were content to live within France, despite the fact that they were largely Protestant and German-speaking. They joined the fierce opposition of the people of Lorraine to the German annexation which followed Germany's victory over France in 1871. The two territories were combined and administered from 1879 by a powerful governor who was a direct appointee of the imperial government in Berlin. Arbitrary decrees by the German administration, misbehaviour by the German army (as at Zabern), and efforts at ‘Germanization’ furthered the resentment, and the vast majority welcomed the return of French rule in 1918. In many ways French efforts at eliminating Alsatian peculiarities such as the German language and traditional customs were even more draconian than German rule, so that resentment turned against the French. Following the experience of Nazi rule, 1940–5, the people of Alsace and Lorraine have thrived under French rule since 1945, and there has been a natural decline of the Alsatian German dialect.

minette ironstone Iron ore from Alsace-Lorraine; limonite (iron oxide) is the main iron mineral with some siderite (iron carbonate).