Map of Alsace and Lorraine
The darker shading shows portion of territory ceded to Germany in 1871
The Problem of Alsace-Lorraine
The problem of Alsace-Lorraine began with the Treaty of Frankfort made between the German Empire and the French Republic, May 10, 1871. Beaten by the German armies, France, at the mouth of the cannon, was forced, notwithstanding the solemn protests of the inhabitants, to give up part of her territory.
The Alsace-Lorraine problem has a three-fold character. It concerns Germany, France, and the World.
France not having stipulated in the Treaty of Frankfort any clause as to the treatment of the people of Alsace-Lorraine now become German, the German Empire alone had the formal right to decide their fate, and it is vis-à-vis to Germany that Alsace-Lorraine must make its claims.
The question of the rule of Alsace-Lorraine became a problem of the internal policy of the Empire, and therefore a purely German affair.
The French Government has always scrupulously respected the Treaty of Frankfort, but the French people have never given up the hope of redressing the gross wrong of 1871, and all the French policy has been based on the necessity of protection against renewed German aggression. In vain did Germany declare that no Alsace-Lorraine question existed; not only does this question exist, but it has become the principal obstacle in the way of political reconciliation between France and Germany. Whether one wishes it or not, it is the Franco-German question par excellence. At the same time it has an international character of the highest importance. The form of alliances, the bidding for armaments, the terms of armed peace, these were the natural consequences of this state of things. France never would have undertaken, and Alsace-Lorraine never would have demanded, a war of revenge to secure the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France. But since the horrors of war have been let loose upon the world by the criminal folly of Germany, the problem of Alsace-Lorraine has become a world problem of the highest importance.
From the beginning of the war, the president of the French Republic, the president of the Senate, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the president of the Council, and all the heads of government who have succeeded one another, and recently Parliament itself, the Senate, and Chamber of Deputies, all have in accord with the whole French nation, manifested the unshaken determination not to end the war without the assurance of the return of Alsace-Lorraine to the mother country.
Alsace-Lorraine has constituted a striking example of the denial of the principle of the right of the people to govern themselves, but now the question has become actually of great practical importance. Being the principal object of France in the future peace treaty, it is quite natural that all the nations, and above all the belligerent ones, should be obliged to give to it very particular attention. Even for the United States, who will have a most important rôle to play in the Congress of Peace, the question of Alsace-Lorraine is one which they cannot treat as being of interest only to France and Germany. In its nature and from the fact that it is the corner-stone of the first claim to be made by France, it concerns right and justice.