Confluence : the Nature of Technology and the Remaking of The

HARVARD HISTORICAL STUDIES • 172 Published under the auspices of the Department of History from the income of the Paul Revere Frothingham Bequest Robert Louis Stroock Fund Henry Warren Torrey Fund CONFLUENCE The Nature of Technology and the Remaking of the Rhône SARA B. PRITCHARD Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 2011 Copyright © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pritchard, Sara B., 1972– Confl uence : the nature of technology and the remaking of the Rhône / Sara B. Pritchard. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-674-04965-9 (alk. paper) 1. River engineering—Rhône River Watershed (Switzerland and France) 2. Rhône River (Switzerland and France) I. Title. TC472.R6P75 2011 333.91'620944—dc22 2010039268 For Ron CONTENTS List of Maps and Figures ix Prologue xi Introduction: Nature, Technology, and History 1 1. Envisioning a New Rhône 28 2. Imagining the Nation’s River 55 3. Postwar Transformations 78 4. Local Responses 132 5. Rethinking the Nation 163 6. Rethinking the Rhône 193 7. A New Modern 212 Conclusion: Legacies of the Rhône 240 List of Abbreviations 253 Notes 255 Bibliography 339 Acknowledgments 353 Index 359 MAPS AND FIGURES Maps P.1. A transnational river xii P.2. The French Rhône xiii 1.1. The CNR’s completed projects 47 3.1. The Rhône formula 81 3.2. Donzère-Mondragon 86 3.3. Nuclear and industrial development in the Rhône valley 114 4.1. Donzère-Mondragon’s counter-canal network 155 5.1. The BRL’s irrigation system in southern France 175 7.1. Developing the upper Rhône 217 Figures 1.1. The multipurpose Rhône 50 2.1. Inaugurating Donzère-Mondragon 56 2.2. Interior of André Blondel hydroelectric plant 69 2.3. Side view of Donzère-Mondragon 71 3.1. Building Donzère-Mondragon: the tailrace 88 3.2. Building Donzère-Mondragon: Blondel hydroelectric plant 89 3.3. Building Donzère-Mondragon: reservoir dam 93 4.1. Challenging Donzère-Mondragon 139 PROLOGUE In the summer of 1946, offi cials from the recently founded Commissariat Général au Plan traveled down the French reach of the Rhône River.1 Widespread devastation across France meant politicians and bureaucrats would be planning for the repairs of basic infrastructure and the rebuild- ing of key industries. Without a doubt, postwar reconstruction, both physical and symbolic, was the government’s highest priority, but such efforts required a detailed assessment of existing conditions across the country. The Commissariat Général au Plan (Planning Commission, usually referred to as the Plan), then headed by Jean Monnet and domi- nated by economic and technical elites, had already begun to oversee coordinated state planning in January 1946. They would formulate the fi rst Plan de Modernisation et d’Equipement (1947–1952) the following year. These experts targeted fundamental sectors of the economy, outlin- ing general goals such as the revival and expansion of energy production as well as specifi c projects for reconstruction, while attempting to avoid the extremes of either unbridled liberalism or authoritarian dirigisme (state intervention).2 As it turned out, the Rhône would play a crucial role in the reconstruction and ultimately modernization of France after World War II. Indeed, the vital importance of the Rhône to France’s po- litical economy helps explain why the government turned fi rst to this crucial waterway, along with the Seine, after the war.3 That summer, Plan offi cials followed the river southwest and then south over its three-hundred-mile course, from the Swiss border to the Mediterranean Sea (see Maps P.1 and P.2). The Rhône poured from Lake Léman into French territory at Geneva and, although only ten to fi fteen meters wide in most places with modest volume, it nonetheless main- tained a forceful fl ow through the lower Alps. The river rushed through xi Map P.1. A transnational river. The Rhône’s source is the Furka glacier, high in the Swiss Alps. The river enters French territory as it exits Lake Léman at Geneva. (Map by Joseph W. Stoll, Syracuse University Cartographic Laboratory.) Map P.2. The French Rhône. Several rivers contribute to the Rhône’s considerable fl ow, especially south of Lyon. (Map by Joseph W. Stoll, Syracuse University Cartographic Laboratory.) xiv Prologue narrow valleys and craggy gorges with cascades of water marking the steepness of its course. At Sault-Brénaz, it dropped two meters in one- tenth of a kilometer.4 The river’s rocky, precipitous fl ow made the upper Rhône, the reach of the river between the Franco-Swiss border and Lyon, nearly impossible to navigate. For this reason, river travel, especially by large commercial vessels, was limited until the Rhône reached Lyon. Meanwhile, the offi cials observed weathered villages perched halfway up steep hillsides to avoid fl ooding; downhill fi elds and pastures were not so fortunate. While the features of the upper Rhône valley may have constrained navigation and farming, they afforded other possibilities. Several small, late-nineteenth-century hydroelectric plants harnessed the river’s fl ow, while an enormous, high-chute dam at Génissiat was fi nally nearing completion after the occupation of northern France had brought con- struction to a standstill. Rumors circulated that valiant members of the Resistance, or perhaps frustrated locals, had thrown the bodies of German soldiers into the still damp concrete of the monumental work site, forever entombing them along the upper Rhône.5 After winding one hundred mountainous miles through the French lower Alps, Plan offi cials followed the river as it veered south near Lyon, the former capital of Roman Gaul. Here the Rhône appeared more sub- dued. Its bed widened, and its waters fl owed more gently as the valley fl attened. These attributes yielded opportunities for farmers in the city’s fertile hinterlands. Also on the outskirts of Lyon, the offi cials passed by Jonage, a multipurpose project from the 1890s that channeled the river northeast of the city. It produced energy and facilitated navigation while reducing fl oods that had plagued the ancient metropolis for over two millennia. Lyon’s two rivers, the Rhône and the Saône, had attracted the Romans and helped spur the founding of “Lugudunum” in 43 BCE. Centuries later, textile mills tapped the rivers, literally fueling the city’s international reputation as a producer of fi ne silks. Yet periodic fl ooding of the Rhône and the Saône threatened Lyon, a commercial crossroads originally estab- lished on a thin slice of land between their banks, now called the “Peninsula” (Presqu’île). Embankments eventually were built lining the Rhône as it passed through the city center, in an attempt to keep the river from spilling onto cobblestone streets and bustling squares, but many building walls were scarred as testament to fl oodwaters past. Still, for once, the river’s threats were overshadowed: the immediate effects of war and occupation, which had destroyed essential infrastructure, crippled the Prologue xv economy, sent thousands of citizens to work in Germany, and forced France’s remaining population to survive on meager rations, were impossible to ignore. As the offi cials continued south, they watched the Rhône’s hydrology become not only more complex and imposing but also more promising. The merging of the Rhône and the Saône in Lyon, when coupled with the hydraulic and geologic contexts of the central Rhône valley, began to change the river’s ecological character. Between Lyon and Orange, a se- ries of narrow gorges and expansive plains punctuated the river valley. Where a gorge channeled the Rhône, it created a strong, fast surge or “faucet” (robinet) of water, which then fanned out and slowed down as the river ran through the plain downstream. As the Rhône streamed through the central valley, its volume was augmented by the Isère, Drôme, and Ardèche rivers. Moreover, the Rhône still had far to fall as it continued toward Avignon. In the 331 kilometers between Lyon and the Mediterranean, the river dropped 162 meters before fi nally reaching sea level.6 It took the Rhine and Danube rivers two and fi ve times that dis- tance, respectively, to make similar drops.7 Although the Rhône’s descent would not have impressed American engineers familiar with some of the rivers of the U.S. West, this river fl owed through an ancient, densely pop- ulated region with a long history of agriculture, commerce, industry, and urbanization. The Rhône had both facilitated and endangered these en- deavors probably for as long as humans had sought to live with it. As Plan offi cials surveyed the coursing waters of the central Rhône, they began to understand the river’s ominous nickname: “furious bull.” The Rhône was remarkable under normal conditions, but a confl uence of factors, including spring runoff and converging storms, could result in extraordinary fl oods when the river channeled nearly six times its “aver- age” fl ow, rising fi ve or even six meters above low-water levels and stretching for miles beyond its banks. During thousand-year fl oods, the central Rhône valley essentially became an inland sea. And yet, as with other rivers, the Rhône’s destructive capacity also defi ned its immense potential, a point that did not escape those seeking to rebuild France after World War II. In addition to the river’s hydroelectric possibilities, the rich alluvial soil of its fl oodplain, abetted by the climate of southeastern France, made the central Rhône valley ideal for certain crops. In this agricultural Eden, the offi cials glimpsed extensive, ancient irrigation networks that tapped the river, siphoning some of the Rhône’s waters for farms and vineyards stretching inland from its banks.

Load more