questionmark, on 11 April 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:
Wrong answer, the people of Alsace voted to be French by a vast majority. Alsace did not exist until 1871.
Alsace existed long before 1871. It's name derives from the German "Elisaz" meaning "foreign domain."
Strasbourg itself was brutally conquered by the French when it was a German town.
In 1639 France conquered Alsace. France consolidated her hold with the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen, which brought the towns under her control. France then occupied the German town of Strasbourg in 1681 in an unprovoked action, and from 1688 onwards it then disgracefully devastated large parts of southern Germany according to the Brûlez le Palatinat! policy. Under this policy the French, led by Comte de Mélac, set fire to German towns and cities and destroyed the livelihoods of their inhabitants.
However, the Germans did manage to get Alsace back in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War but then, as part of the Treaty of Versailles after WWI, Germany had to give Alsace back to the French again.
Then, France's disgraceful policy in Alsace was one of the several things which angered Germany (it was one of several ways in which the French treated the Germans unfairly through the Treaty of Versailles), leading it to take the courses of action which caused WWII. France reversed the establishment of German identity in Alsace, expelling all Germans who had settled in Alsace since 1871 and banned the speaking of German.
That disgraceful treatment of the Germans in Alsace at the hands of the French was one of the things, many caused by the French, which angered Germany after WWI and it is not hard to see why Germany got angry, started WWII and invaded Alsace in 1940. It wanted it back.
Edited by TheLastLazyGun, 11 April 2012 - 05:58 PM.