History of Savoy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The history of Savoy presents a synthesis of the various periods, from prehistory to the present day, of the geographical and historical entity known as Savoy, a territory whose definition has varied over the course of historical periods, until it was defined by the two French departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie.[1]
According to Abbé Adolphe Gros, the territory of Savoie comprises the "country situated between the Rhône and the Alps, south of Lake Geneva and north of the Dauphiné ".[2] Savoie thus forms a "solid block, a sort of thick tree trunk stretching 145 km from north to south, and swelling to a hundred km from east to west, covering an area of just over 10,000 km2".[3] The region's varied landscapes are marked by Alpine influences, from the lowland Pre-Alps to the snow-capped peaks of the Alps, linked by large intra-Alpine valleys. These valleys are at the origin of the traditional provincial divisions: Savoie Propre, Maurienne, Tarentaise, Genevois, Faucigny and Chablais.
The region's history begins with prehistoric settlement, from the 16th millennium B.C. by hunter-gatherers to the sedentarization of lakeside cities. During its protohistory, which began around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, the copper-rich subsoil enabled the development of a proto-industry producing artefacts, as well as commercial import circuits from Germanic regions.[4] Gallic tribes such as the Allobroges, Ceutrons, Graiocèles and Médulles inhabited the area in the first centuries BC, before Roman intervention began in the 1st century BC. The Romans won their first victory over the Allobroges in 121 BC, then definitively in 62 BC. Other peoples were conquered from 16 to 7 BC. During the Gallo-Roman period, present-day Savoie corresponded to Sapaudie (Latin: Sapaudia), then occupied by the Burgundians, until its integration into Frank or Carolingian Saboia.[5]
With the disappearance of the empire, then of the kingdom of Burgundy, great seigniorial families emerged - Humbertiens, then the House of Savoy, Géroldiens or the House of Geneva, Faucigny - and tried to increase their possessions and power (building the counties of Maurienne, then Savoy or Geneva). The Humbertians, established in the Maurienne region and at the origin of the future House of Savoy, gradually took control of the entire region, eliminating rival houses, and assumed the definitive title of Counts of Savoy from the eleventh century until they obtained the title of "Duke" in 1416. Control of the Alpine passes and slopes led to the traditional nickname of "Gatekeepers of the Alps".[6][7][8] The House of Savoy gradually came to control a territory with shifting borders, stretching from German-speaking Switzerland to Nice, and from the gates of Lyon to the plain of Turin.
Increasingly looking "beyond the mountains" (i.e. across the Alps to Italy), the House of Savoy abandoned its cradle in favor of the Italian policy. Annexed for some, united for others, Savoy passed to neighboring France with the Treaty of Turin in 1860. A poor province at the start of the 19th century, Savoy grew thanks to the exploitation of white coal in the 19th century and the development of spa and winter tourism from the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the fine metallurgical industry, based on the watchmaking industry established in Faucigny as early as the 18th century, and the heavy industry in the Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys in the 19th century.[9] These activities helped stop the hemorrhaging of immigrants.[10] In the second half of the twentieth century, identity movements asserted a specific cultural identity, or even political sovereignty.
The land we call Savoie had a curious destiny: a land of empire in the Middle Ages, but divided from the outset between the call of the Rhône valley and that of the Po valley. Over the centuries, it was the cradle of a dynasty of French language and culture, but the fortunes of its history made it the mother of Italian unity, fighting at different times against the Dauphiné, against the Valais, against the Calvinist Geneva, against the Milan, and succeeding despite these incessant wars, It was for a long time a bone of contention between France and the Holy Roman Empire, then between France and Spain, and finally between France and Austria, and is now a link between the two friendly countries that occupy both sides of the Alps.