ALSACE. - A natural and historical region on the middle Rhine along the Franco-German ethnic border. It consists of a plain (almost everywhere above 100 m.) on average about forty km. wide and extending for about 200 from N. to S., enclosed between the Vosges, which dominate it from the west with their steep, wooded front, and the rock through which the river flows, cluttered with marshes and covered with lacustrine vegetation. The piedmont is fringed by rows of hills whose dry slopes, exposed to the sun, are excellently suited to the cultivation of vines and fruit trees. Further east the true plain opens out, interrupted here and there by the damp valley floors of the Rhine's tributaries (Bäche) and by patches of woodland preserved on the higher terraces. The richest part of the country is the Ried, or zone of contact between hills and plain, where the larger inhabited centers also stand. To the south, Alsace is closed by the Sundgau, which is its poorest part, made up as it is of little-fertile fluvio-glacial soils. The climate too, through its relative dryness, helps to give the country its distinctiveness compared with the neighboring western (Vosges) and southern (Jura) regions. Alsace has a varied agricultural output (cereals, potatoes, hops, tobacco) and a prosperous one (vineyards), with considerable industrial development (especially textiles), favored by good mineral resources (potash, petroleum, coal).
Having remained essentially Celtic even after the Roman occupation, Alsace was, after the 5th century, profoundly Germanized, a process that continued throughout the Middle Ages. France succeeded in conquering it between 1552 and 1648, but lost it in 1870, with the exception of Belfort, which from then on remained administratively detached from it along with its territory (the smallest of the French departments after the one in which Paris lies). The First Republic divided its unity into Lower and Upper Alsace, corresponding to the present two departments of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, with capitals at Strasbourg and Colmar. On 28 June 1919 Alsace was again assigned to France: of its population the German element then represented 96% in Lower Alsace and 93% in Upper Alsace. The Germans reoccupied the country in the Second World War and reannexed it to the Reich on 8 Aug. 1940; the Allies conquered it in March 1945 in order to assign it once again to France.
Here are the statistical data relating to the two departments:
| Departments | Area in sq km. | population and censuses | population density | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | 1946 | |||
| Bas-Rhin | 4786 | 711,830 | 673,281 | 140 |
| Haut-Rhin | 3508 | 507,551 | 471,705 | 134 |
| Total Alsace | 8294 | 1,219,381 | 1,144,986 | 133 |
Of the inhabited centers the largest is Strasbourg, the only one exceeding 100,000 inhabitants (175,000 in 1946; 249,000 in 1936). Also notable are Mülhausen (Fr. Mulhouse) with 97,000 and Colmar with 46,000 inhabitants.
Alsace constitutes a single diocese, that of Strasbourg, immediately subject.
For the religious history, v. STRASBURGO, diocese.