ALSACE-LORRAINE 



214 



ALTAI MOUNTAINS 



Roman emperors ceded more lands in Alsace 

 to France. Louis XIV, however, was not 

 satisfied, and in 1680 and 1681, in times of 

 peace, he seized the imperial free cities of 

 Strassburg and Col mar. 



For a century the inhabitants resisted all 

 efforts to turn them into Frenchmen, but with 

 the French Revolution came a great change. 

 The Alsatians, especially, were roused to a 

 frenzy, and no more violent advocates of "lib- 

 erty, equality and fraternity" existed anywhere. 

 So completely did Alsace then become French 

 in spirit that in 1871 it preferred to remain so, 

 and about 50,000 Alsatians moved across the 

 new border into France rather than swear 

 allegiance to the German emperor. The an- 

 nexation of the provinces to Germany was 

 insisted upon partly because the German peo- 

 ple regarded it merely as a just restoration, and 

 partly because the area was necessary to the 

 protection of Germany's military frontier. 



Present Conditions. As established in 1871, 

 Alsace-Lorraine has a total area of 5,605 square 

 miles, slightly larger than Connecticut. It oc- 

 cupied the extreme southwest comer of the 

 German Empire, with the Rhine on the east, 



ALSACE-LORRAINE 

 Small map shows size as compared to France. 



France on the west, Switzerland on the south. 

 At the narrowest point of Alsace the distance 

 from the Rhine to the French boundary was 

 only twenty-two miles. The province is roughly 



shaped like an inverted L, Lorraine being the 

 base and Alsace the vertical arm. 



Most of Alsace-Lorraine is ;i plain, which be- 

 comes slightly lower as it approaches the 

 Rhine. Half of it is occupied by farms, wheat, 

 rye, barley and oats being important crops. 

 Grapes are also raised extensively, and the 

 white wines of Alsace and the red wines of Lor- 

 raine are famous. The western part lies mostly 

 in the Vosges Mountains. Here coal and salt 

 are mined in considerable quantities, and the 

 iron mines are the most valuable in Ger- ' 

 many. Many of the manufactures, especially 

 the textile industry, are still carried on in the 

 homes of the workmen. Cotton weaving is 

 most important, followed by woolens, silks and 

 linens. The iron and steel industry ranks 

 second to the textile industry. There are good 

 highways even in the mountains; there are 1,400 

 miles of railway, and several of the rivers are 

 navigable. The canal which connects the Rhone 

 with the Rhine has a large traffic on barges. 

 French is the language of business and in- 

 dustry, but German is required by law in the 

 schools, courts and legislature. Strassburg, the 

 capital, Colmar and Metz are the important 

 cities. 



In the War of the Nations. After 1871, when 

 Alsace-Lorraine became a part of the German 

 Empire, there persisted a feeling, both in France 

 and Germany, that France would some day 

 attempt to retake "the lost provinces." This 

 feeling was always a factor in the relations be- 

 tween the two nations, and was one of the 

 causes leading to the War of the Nations in 

 1914. Within a week after the war began, senti- 

 mental and semi-political reasons dictated a 

 French offensive against both provinces. From 

 a military point of view the invasion failed, be- 

 cause the French were soon driven back, ex- 

 cept in the extreme south, beyond the border, 

 but it was successful in arousing the patriotism 

 of the French and in stimulating their desire to 

 reconquer the provinces. The strategy of the 

 war, however, required the concentration of the 

 French strength in the north of France, and 

 after the first weeks of the war no further in- 

 vasion on a large scale was attempted in Al- 

 sace or Lorraine. For further details of military 

 operations, see WAR OF THE NATIONS. W.F.Z. 



Consult Putnam's Alsace and Lorraine. This 

 is an English publication (1915) ; all other 

 worthy books on the subject are in German. 



ALTAI, al' ti, MOUNTAINS, the name of a 

 lofty mountain system, immensely rich in gold, 

 silver, copper, and iron; geologically they are 



