By Treated of Verdun , concluded 8 or August 11th 843 (dates which differs according to the sources), the three surviving wire of Louis the Piles, the grandsons of Charlemagne, divide its territories, the Carolingian Empire, in three kingdoms. It is often presented like the beginning of the dissolution of the unit empire of Charlemagne, thus devoting its division, which proves in fact final. This treaty is the consequence of the application of the franque habit of a division of the heritage rather than its attribution to the oldest son, under the terms of the rule of Primogéniture applied at the Romains.

The text of the treaty, lost, is not known for us. He however reached us through other documents, the such Annales of Saint-Bertin or the Annales of Fulda. He determined however for centuries the destiny of the Western Europe, and is the remote source of very long territorial quarrels between rival State-nations.

Context

With died of Louis the Piles, in 840 his/her oldest son Lothaire assumes its succession. Ier Pip of Aquitaine, wire of Louis the Piles does not take share with the succession having died in 838. Its two juniors, Louis Germanic the and Charles the Bald person, are combined and beat their brother and half-brother with the Bataille of Fontenoy-in-Puisaye in 841. In 842 they reinforce their alliance by the Serment of Strasbourg . Lothaire ends up yielding.

The division

In 843, by the treaty known as of Verdun, the three grandsons of Charlemagne share the empire that this last had founded:

• Charles the Bald person receives the Western Francie (which will become the kingdom of France in 1205);
• Lothaire I {{er}}, to which falls the imperial title, receives the Francie median , of the center of the Italy to the Frise (which will become the Lotharingie);
• Louis Germanic the receives the Eastern Francie (commonly named Germanie, core of the future Saint Germanic Roman Empire).

This division “of the four rivers” (Meuse, the Scheldt, the Rhone and the Rhine), raises problems as for the Langue S spoken in the various States: populations of Romance Langue are in a Germanic entity (Wallons), and conversely, the Flanders, of Germanic Langue, is attached to future France. In the same way in displacements within the States (it is necessary nearly three weeks to rejoin Rome with Aachen). He actually meets a need relating to the agricultural productions: it was necessary that the three enemy brothers have all the agricultural resources of the ex-Empire: Mediterranean regions with the plain of Northern Europe.

Consequences

This treaty of chance determined all the destiny of the Europe. Indeed, in consequence of the weakness of our last Carolingiens then our first Capétiens, the kings of Germanie could annex without much difficulty all the famous median zone, namely in 880, the Lotharingie, then in 1034, the kingdom of Arles, without speaking about the Italy that their accession with the imperial throne juridically to them delivered (R. Grousset).

Lotharingie quickly will burst in a series of States - plugs, which unceasingly will change hands with the liking of the feudal fights then princely, until their final fixing, either as independent States (Suisse, Netherlands and Belgium), or as a long time moving provinces like the Alsace, Frenchwoman in 1648, the Franche-Comté which returns to the France in 1678, the Lorraine, given as consolation with the unhappy king of Poland Stanislas, then French in 1766, the Maison of Savoy which succeeded with to create the Italian unit (1861) but by losing its stronghold of origin, the Savoy, entered the French bosom (1860). It is only in 1924, after the failure of the occupation of the the Ruhr that France gives up the the Rhineland definitively. For the the Saar, if the Plébiscite of 1935 were only one masquerade Nazi, the Référendum of 1955 closes the debate definitively: the Of the Saar ones decide for integration in Germany.

Thus, was held one millenium of fights between France and the Germains, initially the Saint Germanic Roman Empire, then the Austria starting from 1438, where the Habsbourg will hold the throne of Germany then to encircle France by their possessions in Germany, Italy and Spain. It is Napoleon i which definitively applies a brake at thorough towards the west of the Austria in Europe by separating Germany from Austria (1806), but by indirectly supporting the hegemony of the Prussia on Germany. By its not very clear-sighted foreign policy, Napoleon III is at the origin of the creation of an enemy to the doors of France: linked, powerful a Germany news economically, politically and militarily (1871). Consequently, Franco-German antagonisms, in particular on the Alsace and the Lorraine , grounds lotharingiennes, constituted a threat for European peace.

See too

Sources

Rene Grousset, the Assessment of the History , 10-18, 1945.