History of the Sum

The history of the Sum is very old since important vestiges of the most moved back times of the Préhistoire were discovered there: the Abbevillien and the Acheuléen drawing their names from sites of the department.

Prehistory

The presence of pre-néanderthaliens men there are 450 to 300.000 years is attested in the Somme thanks to excavations carried out with Amiens (district Saint-Acheul) and with Cagny, village close. The site of Saint-Acheul was in addition used to name the Acheuléen, one period of the Paléolithique inferior and the lithic Industrie corresponding.

With the third millennium before our era, the collective megalithic burial of the Roadway-Tirancourt, consisted of large flagstones of sandstone, accommodates in several centuries of use nearly 350 late and constitutes one of the most important vestiges of this nature of Europe. At that time, the Sum is strewn with villages joining together at more some rectangular houses of wood and ground from 10 to 40 m length, of a simple but effective architecture.

Antiquity

As of IIIe century before our era, the Somme is divided between several Celtic people ( Ambiens , Bellovaques and Suessions ). To the Belgians is allotted the installation of the trophy and of the sanctuary of Ribemont-on-Anchors where thousands of human bones pile up.

Following Roman colonization, and with the expansionist ambitions of the emperor in Great Britain, Amiens (called then Samarobriva ) became a point of required passage of the axis Lyon-Boulogne and the principal road junction of the Gaulle Belgium.

The Middle Ages

From now on completely christianized, the area was concerned the episodes of the incursions Normans. Cities and boroughs transfer their population to increase, their economy to organize itself and to thrive with the shelter behind their Rempart S. the abbeys took an important rise (Corbie, Saint-Riquier), the religious buildings gave the tone at the architectural level (Gothic art with Amiens, Abbeville) and the power of the military fortifications was illustrated by achievements as with Ham, Lucheux, Péronne, Picquigny, Rambures. Politically, the middle-class was organized and obtained communal charters with authorization to build Beffroi S, symbols of freedom of the cities (Doullens, Rue, Saint-Riquier).

As elsewhere, the populations had to suffer rather regularly from the episodes of Famine and Peste.

All the territory of the current department had to souffir Guerre One hundred Year old. In 1346, the Ponthieu saw the confrontation terrible and full of consequences of the Bataille of Crécy. In 1430, Jeanne d' Arc, captive, passed in particular by Lucheux, Crotoy and Saint-Valery-sur-Somme.

XVIe at the XVIIIe Centuries

Rebirth at the decades preceding the Revolution, the Sum was at the same time the permanent theater of fights of borders (illustrated by the construction of Citadelle S of the type Vauban, with Amiens and Doullens) and the framework of an extraordinary textile rise supported by the decisions of Colbert, minister of Louis XIV.

For the number of the painful episodes for the population, it is necessary to quote large the Disette of 1562 and again the Peste in 1587 like in 1596.

Militarily, the Spanish were illustrated for example in 1593 while being spread again in the Vimeu, plundering and burning all on their passage, then in 1636 by taking Corbie.

XIXe Century

Since 1850, the development of industrialization was felt. The railway lines were traced, draining a population attracted by new workshops being established here or there, as in the valleys of the Sum and the Nievre, with Ailly-on-Nap and Flixecourt, for example. Then the Rural migration began, the “working world” remaining sometimes in cities especially built at the request of the industrialist-owners , such as the brothers Saint and Carmicaël.

At the time of the Franco-German War of 1870, the department was invaded and occupied by the Prussian . Engagements were held in particular with Amiens, Longpré-the-Body-Saint and Bridge-Noyelles. Many communes had to contribute to the requirements imposed by the enemies, in particular by the supply of material (horses, carriages, hay).

XXe Century

During the First World War, the department acquired a morbid celebrity at the time of Bataille of the Sum. All its part is (area of Albert, Péronne and Roye) was traversed trenches, in which a considerable number soldiers were killed and wounded. The villages of this zone were evacuated then completely shaved, and their horizon from now on is strewn with military cemeteries. In addition to the material destruction, destructuration of the landscapes by the fall of the tons of shell, in the unimaginable addition of work to rehabilitate the cultivable grounds, the inhabitants of these villages transfer themselves private of part of their inheritance consisted their files: indeed, most of the parochial registers and of registry office left in smoke at the time of the fire caused by the bombardment of their chief town of district, Péronne. The town of Albert acquired a practically planetary fame to have offered, during long months, the spectacle of the statue in imbalance on the dome of its basilica to the combatants English, Canadian, American and Australian, who sent to their families of the postcards, the photographs and the drawings of this virgin gilded martyrized by a bombardment.

In 1918 and 1919, several localities had in to cry more the death of inhabitants (sometimes young people) reached Spanish Grippe.

In 1936, at the time of the advent of the Popular front, the department was distinguished by sending to the Room the youngest deputy (27 years), max Lejeune.

At spring 1940, the offensive of the armies Nazis put all the population of the department on the roads, in a considerable disorder, trying to cross the Seine. Several cities underwent important destruction at the time of the Second world war: Abbeville, Albert, Amiens.

Administration

Source

Blanchegorge E., Brohard Y., Engelaere O., Estienne J., Gégou F., Gilloire Mr., Guignet J., Hoeblich J.M., Leblond J.F. & Trelcat V. (2003) Picardy . Bonneton, Paris, 320 p.

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