The Revival of Rural Lorraine After the Great War Author(S): Hugh D
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The Revival of Rural Lorraine after the Great War Author(s): Hugh D. Clout Reviewed work(s): Source: Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 75, No. 2 (1993), pp. 73-91 Published by: Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/490701 . Accessed: 16/10/2012 04:01 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley-Blackwell and Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography. http://www.jstor.org THE REVIVAL OF RURAL LORRAINE AFTER THE GREAT WAR by Hugh D. Clout Clout, H.D., 1993: The revival of rural Lorraine after the would have to be directed. Finally, came the desol- GreatWar. Geogr. Ann. 75 B (2): 73-91. ate and controversial 'red zone' whose 116,800 ha were so devastated that seemed ABSTRACT. The devastated regions of northern France they beyond hope contained some of the most advanced farming and manu- of restoration. The German-occupied ddparte- facturingdistricts in France.Within a few years of the Armis- ments in Alsace and northern Lorraine, which tice virtually all the ravaged farmlandsof northern France were to be France at the conclusion of and ten regained by were bearingcrops within yearsvirtually all of its set- the were also but were to be re- tlements had been rebuilt.The spatial impactof devastation war, damaged they and subsequent recovery within French Lorrainewere very constructed according to different procedures and varied.The state'semergency serviceswere widely criticized they lie beyond the scope of the present discussion and were disbanded during 1920. Much permanent recon- of and (Picard, 1937). struction farms villages was undertakenby coopera- Within a few of the Armistice tive reconstructionsocieties, which were promoted by ad- just years virtually ministrators and socially-committed priests. Meurthe-et- all the ravaged farmlands of northern France were Moselle provided an effective model that was followed bearing crops and within ten years virtually all its elsewhere in northernFrance. Lorrainealso pioneered post- settlements had been rebuilt. Once the land- war consolidation but this initiative was not emulated again plot became one of life but one that was widely in the devastated regions. By contrast with the re- scape ordinary mainder of northern France, large areas of seriously devas- marked by war memorials and military cemeteries tated land aroundVerdun in Meuse were not reclaimed for both great and small (Reynes, 1929). It now takes farmingbut were put under timber.The pattern of relative an to trace the of devasta- the inquisitive eye impact recoverydisplayed in early 1930sin Lorrainecould have tion and in the fabric of these been predicted from local economic trends duringthe quar- recovery placid ter century before 1914. northern countrysides (Becker, 1988; American Battle Monuments Commission, 1927). Legisla- tion for compensation, restoration and reconstruc- I. The RegionsDevastees tion applied throughout the regions divastees but Three-quarters of a century have elapsed since the subsequent achievements varied considerably, landscapes of northern France, from the Channel both within and between departements because of to the Swiss border, were devastated by the events differences in pre-war circumstances, in the inten- of World War I. No fewer than 4,726 communes in sity of destruction, and in organization and admin- ten departementswithin the nation's pre-war boun- istration once the Armistice had been signed daries were classified as forming the regions divas- (Michel, 1932). tees, whose 3,300,000 ha contained some of the The present discussion focuses on the dfparte- most advanced farming and manufacturing dis- ments of Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Vosges, tricts in France (Fridin, 1928; Ministere des which formed the greater part of the historic pro- Travaux Publics, 1929). Settlements in 620 com- vince of Lorraine that had been bisected by the in- munes were destroyed totally, with losses exceed- ternational boundary realigned at the conclusion ing 50% in a further 1,334. About 293,000 dwel- of the Franco-Prussian War (Figure la). The iron lings and farm buildings were destroyed, 149,000 mines and metallurgical works of Lorraine an- were gravely damaged and 352,000 partially so. nexde experienced massive investment by German An estimated 375,000,000 m2 needed to be purged industrial corporations and were mirrored by of barbed wire and 333,000,000 m3 of trenches re- similar developments in Meurthe-et-Moselle in quired filling and refilling as subsidence occurred. French Lorraine. Indeed, the Longwy and Orne Official surveyors identified 1,694,500 ha as basins and the environs of Nancy contained half forming the 'blue zone', which required only sim- the nation's blast furnaces in 1914 (Fiel, 1935; ple clearance. A further 1,495,000 ha made up the p. 23). Rural to urban migration and the arrival of 'yellow zone', where much more sustained effort workers from Italy and elsewhere boosted the d6- GeografiskaAnnaler - 75 B (1993)- 2 73 HUGH D. CLOUT Not damage International boundary I I ::::::::::::::::PA- - S-DE- .3 CALAIS Regional ligh boundary N i . i:::i- -ht~ag ...... daageNORD \ ~Much damage SOMME ASEARDENES STD 0 ilmereioer 2 0 AE RE ??C. ~ ~ ~Completely devastated IS Pads~~n MARNEEUSMEURTH E- ilJI?\ET-MOSELLE ?Charleville 0 ::::::~ rlrVOSGES . ..... ...... .. ... .. .. .. .. ::`: ???::::'::'::::::A N?: ?",?:*?:?"?,::.B*,:*::-?:-:-,:.?::.R D N .......... ,, .: ?r~ ~ ~S:-?:?::~... :0:::.:?X..? ...... ........... *d%,I ~::::::::::::::1!:~:~;:::::::::::::::::::: :t?;iX ............. ..ii~iiii . ........ ......tz...... Aiiiii~:: ...................'*;~irii~li~ ?~, E s~ i?:.........................?iti.:~ ~I ~ ~f;::::::::.::~ ::::::::::::~i~M IX.M ::: ~ :::::::::::-~~~r ~T ;t a: K ~ ~ ~ ~ ??'??-?-'?`??'??.~i::: .-A~ -Xi 'x::"t~s ~ ................. .. XX r~tt:X-t? ~r?.??z?:eX:- ....... ke "'''':'~~'~~?~fiiiii~~tt-iliiiiiii~""MARNE'e"" ~ i Ti~' ';'55'.s::~~:~~:~::::::~: u ::::::: ...........::: j~.. ttZe v -x...i'~S? ~ii-:~ **Fj N G X: NA '_ 'e ... .1..............~~::~: ~xv .. N~;i?'f. NX,?. V1.1k- v ... ... ..~~ . ..~ ::::~:~~:~:~~;.. 2 X-*.%*::*K -?::KNI-N. '55 ??:??::.::..;;%:! % . ~ ~ ~ .............. ~ ~ Aot~ ij. ~ ~ ~r2~~i::::: W.-W.'N-'.%%:~~~?~' r?1~ ?...1.r...M`''::'~`~':'''::''::''':???-????. ??? .?.rrr. TOUL?.. 5 I R:? t ~ ~A ~N ~ :~::~:~~:~::~:~~:~:? ~ ""5 :?:??:r:6.~ik.- --Xvtixk. ..........S t t ~ ? ~ :::r::::t::I~:::1I:::::::tS: 1 ~ 5?;~~:?::?:':?:??:.. .. ~. .......??: . .e ..N -- - -- --- ?ZC~f S~i~ ?:??:?::M. ~I ......:::: X.: ;?:?::?...........- 5 ~r ~ ~~r~WM" ~ ~ ~ .*.,!.v Figure 1. (a) The ddpartementsof Lorraine;(b) Degree of damage as a result of WorldWar I. Sources:Guicherd, J. and Matriot, C. (1921) op.cit., and Michel, E. (1932) op.cit. partement's population from 444,150 in 1891 to but also contained broad stretches of countryside 564,730 twenty years later, with increases in the undergoing depopulation. The impact of four and arrondissements of Briey (+ 87%) and Nancy (+ quarter years of war was to be etched into this ter- 26%) being the largest in the ten northern departe- ritorial mosaic. ments (Ministere de l'Int6rieur, 1892, 1912). By German forces entered French Lorraine in Au- contrast with these mining and manufacturing dis- gust 1914, advancing to Saint-Die in Vosges, and tricts, agricultural parts of the ddpartement were occupying the eastern fringe of Meurthe-et- undergoing depopulation and stretches of farm- Moselle and the northern arrondissement of Briey land were falling out of cultivation. Those trends (with its mines and blast furnaces), and broader had occurred more emphatically in Meuse, where stretches of northern Meuse to either side of Ver- many villages and small towns had lost population dun (Huber, 1931). Following the Battle of the during the half century preceding the Great War, Marne (11 September) the front line shifted north- land prices and agricultural yields were low by the wards in all three ddpartementsbut German troops standards of northern France, and some farmland occupied the environs of Saint-Mihiel. Thus, the had been abandoned to scrub and woodland on front line ran around Verdun, north of Pont-a- hilly terrain to either side of the Meuse valley Mousson, through the eastern part of Meurthe-et- (Schmitt, 1929). Finally, Vosges supported a range Moselle, and across the north-eastern fringe of of flourishing industries, some of which had been Vosges before entering Alsace. From the autumn relocated west of the international border of 1872, of 1914 to early 1916 the Lorraine front hardly 74 GeografiskaAnnaler - 75 B (1993) 2 ? THE REVIVAL OF RURAL LORRAINE AFTER THE GREAT WAR moved, although there were engagements for con- wards toward Bar-le-Duc. As MacDonald (1922) trol of the Butte de Vauquois in the Argonne and remarked: "Nowhere in France is there now to be of pieces of territory in the Vosges mountains. In seen a more vivid combination of rugged country