LINGUISTIC AREAS IN EUROPE — DOMINIAN. 413 



l)e secure. Walloons would then naturally revert to French al- 

 legiance. The coincidence of political and linguistic boundaries in 

 the westernmost section of central Europe would thus become an 

 accomplished fact. 



3. THE FRANCO-GERMAN LINGUISTIC BOUNDARY. 



In its central section the long contact line between French and 

 German languages conforms approximately with the political line 

 dividing the two countries. Modifications which French frontiers 

 underwent since the treaty of Utrecht may be regarded as final ad- 

 justments in a prolonged process of adapting political to linguistic 

 boundaries. The Napoleonic period of political disturbances brought 

 about an abnormal extension of the northern and eastern line. 

 Between 1792 and 1814 almost all of the territory of Belgium and 

 Holland was annexed and the eastern frontier extended to the 

 Rhine. Foreign populations in Holland, Flanders, Rhenish Prussia, 

 and the western sections of Hesse and Baden passed under the ad- 

 ministrative control centered at Paris. But their subjection to Na- 

 poleon's artificial empire was of relatively short duration. The Ger- 

 man-speaking people in 1813 united in a great effort to drive the 

 French across the Rhine. The}^ were merely repeating the feat of 

 their ancestors, wdio at a distance of eighteen centuries had defeated 

 the Latin-speaking invaders of their country led by the Roman Varus. 

 Success in both movements was helped to a certain extent by com- 

 Inunity of feeling based on identity of language. In 9 A. D. the 

 Romans were forced back to the Rhine from the line they occupied 

 on the Weser. The treaty of Vienna restored French boundaries to 

 the lines existing in 1790. French territory again reverted to the 

 approximately normal boundaries which inclose members of the 

 French-spealdng familj^ The union of Frenchmen into a compact 

 political body was shattered, however, by the treaty of Frankfurt in 

 1871, when France was obliged to cede important strips of French- 

 speaking territories in Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. 



The part to be played by Lorraine in the history of Franco- 

 German relations Avas laid out by nature itself. The province has 

 idways been the seat of a wide pathway connecting highly attrac- 

 tive regions of settlement. It lies midAvay between the fertile plains 

 of the Rhine and the hospitable Parisian basin. It is also placed 

 squarety in the center of the natural route leading from Flanders 

 to Burgundy. The region is physically part of France. It has 

 therefore been inhabited mainly by French-speaking inhabitants. 

 At the same time the lack of a natural barrier on the east facilitated 

 Teutonic incursions. In particular, the Moselle Valley has favored 

 easy access into Lorraine throughout history. In the Middle Ages 



