History of Savoy
[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 ".
[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.
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.
[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.
[12] However, one site was spared, enabling the discovery of ancient traces of human presence in this region in a cave in the commune of Onnion, in the present-day département of Haute-Savoie.
onwards, imports from Germany continued, but local metal production gradually began under the major influence, probably even brought by migrants from Middle Europe, of the urnfield culture (Champs d'Urnes).
onwards, Savoy was home to Hallstattian horse-breeders who settled in the plains, leaving their mark in burial mounds (Gruffy, Saint-Ferréol, Talloires, La Tour, etc.
They controlled and ensured trade between the Po plain and the Rhone valley, which brought them a wealth of original and abundant funerary jewelry, characteristic of a true "Alpine civilization".
Roman Savoy lasted until the 2nd - 5th centuries, when Germanic peoples, the "Barbarians", made their first incursions into the territory, such as the Alemanni, followed by the final settlement of the Burgundians by general Aetius around 434.
The death of the last king of Burgundy, Rudolf III, gave rise to a war of succession, during which his nephew Eudes II de Blois contested the inheritance from the German emperor Conrad the Salic.
[32] The end of Amadeus VIII's reign in 1440 ushered in a period of decadence that lasted until at least 1630, largely due to the duchy's inability to keep out of the conflicts between the great European powers.
On August 16, 1476, following the Duke of Burgundy's defeat at Grandson and Murten, the confederates returned most of the territory to the Duchy of Savoy for the sum of 50,000 florins (excluding the government of Aigle).
[30] In November, following its defeat at the Battle of La Planta at the hands of the Valaisans and its confederate allies, the Duchy lost control of the Lower Valais and the Grand-Saint-Bernard Pass,[30] the gateway to the Mediterranean.
At the Treaty of Thonon, Emmanuel-Philibert and the Valaisans renewed their mutual defense alliance, and the governments of Evian and the Vallée d'Aulps were returned to Savoy (while the Valais kept the former Chablais, i.e. the left bank of the Rhône below Massongex, as far as Saint-Gingolph).
Victor Amadeus II, who belonged to the generation of enlightened despots, managed his states soundly and implemented a series of reforms, some of which were ahead of their time, such as the Sardinian Map a 1:2400 cadastre designed to improve tax collection.
[32] His successor, Victor-Amédée III of Sardinia, allowed Savoyard communities to buy back part of their seigneurial rights, which led to some resentment among the nobility.
[35] In 1794, Convention representative Antoine Louis Albitte, nicknamed the "Savoyard Robespierre", fought the enemies of the Revolution, but in the end, the guillotines built for the occasion were not used.
[37] With the Risorgimento, the people of Savoy, especially the elites, developed the idea that their sovereigns were abandoning the cradle of their family by favoring the Piedmont side and Italy.
During this secret meeting, Napoleon III agreed to help Piedmont-Sardinia unify Italy, on condition that the Pope remained master of Rome and that the county of Nice and Savoy were ceded to France.
[43][37] On March 24, 1860, the Treaty of Turin was signed, and Savoy was henceforth "attached" to France, subject to certain conditions and the support of the population (a requirement of the Swiss and British chancelleries).
"[39] On April 29, the Chambéry Court of Appeal announced the results: The demographic evolution of the two new departments experienced a crisis due to temporary or even permanent economic immigration, which was further accelerated by the Great War.
Without taking into account seasonal workers heading for the Lyon or Paris regions, or to the south of France, the gross loss of population for the Savoyard departments was 100,000 inhabitants.
[43] The Savoyard population was hard hit by the First World War, despite the neutrality statutes in northern Savoy acquired in 1815, with around 20,000 deaths for France, a proportion relatively higher than the national average "as in all rural departments", explains historian Christian Sorrel.
[48] Although Savoy territory was not directly affected by the fighting, the rail disaster at Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne on December 12/13, 1917 claimed the lives of over 800 Savoyards on leave, returning from the Italian front for the Christmas holidays.
Fighting continued throughout the winter of 1944–1945, particularly at the Roc Noir (Little-Saint-Bernard pass) and Mont-Cenis, between FTP, 13th BCA (Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins) and German troops, to control the ridge lines.
[Note 2][52] This industrial development disrupted and transformed local societies (with the emergence of new social organizations such as the peasant-worker movement), and put a stop to the rural exodus that had begun in the 19th century.
The decree divides the park into two distinct territories: the high-mountain heartland, the sanctuary par excellence, and the peripheral zone, leaving the communes free to develop as they see fit.
The Savoy region, most of which lies in the Alps, is therefore seen as a national periphery to be preserved, lest it become an empty zone or one reserved for summer and winter leisure activities.
[53] Savoy not only boasts a special identity within the national set-up, becoming the last territory with the county of Nice to be attached to the Hexagon by the Treaty of Turin in 1860, but also one of the oldest European states.
In 1999, following the emergence and apogee of the Ligue savoisienne movement, the structure attempted to counter this pro-independence breakthrough by evolving the Entente and creating the Assemblée des Pays de Savoy in 2001.
