Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine (German, Elsass-Lothringen), frontier area, north-eastern France, separated from Germany on the east by the River Rhine and drained by the Moselle. The Vosges Mountains are in the east. Today it consists of three departments: Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, in the French administrative region of Alsace, and Moselle, part of the region of Lorraine. The chief cities are Strasbourg, Mulhouse, and Metz.

After the breakup of Charlemagne's empire in the 9th century, the region became the object of disputes between French and Germanic rulers, passing from the control of one to the other. The term Alsace-Lorraine was first used in 1871, when, by the terms of the Peace Treaty of Frankfurt concluding the Franco-Prussian War, the former provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which had been under French rule since the middle of the 17th century, were annexed by Germany. They were returned to France in 1919, after World War I, by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. During World War II, under terms of the armistice of 1940 between France and Germany, the territory was ceded to Germany, but France regained it after Germany's defeat in 1945.

The German-speaking population is centred chiefly in Alsace; the French-speaking, chiefly in Lorraine. In many respects, however, the culture of the whole region is uniform, containing both French and German elements. At various times autonomy movements have been initiated, directed against Germany between 1871 and World War I and against France after World War I. The sentiment of the region during both world wars, however, was markedly pro-French.