But, even after this further advance into the heart of Germany, the gap was not filled up at the next stage of annexation. ♦Annexation of Bar. 1659.♦ At the Peace of the Pyrenees, France obtained the scattered lands of the duchy of Bar, which made the greater part of the Three Bishoprics continuous with her older possessions. ♦Bar restored. 1661.♦ But Bar was presently restored, and, though Lorraine was constantly occupied by French armies, it was not incorporated with France for another century. Up to this last change the Three Bishoprics still remained isolated French possessions surrounded by lands of the Empire. But France advanced at the expense of the outlying possessions of Spain, lands only nominally Imperial, as well as of the Spanish lands on her own southern frontier. ♦Annexation of Roussillon. 1659.♦ At the Peace of the Pyrenees Roussillon finally became French. No Spanish kingdom any longer stretched north of the great natural barrier of the peninsula. ♦Annexation in the Netherlands. 1659.♦ The same Treaty gave France her first acquisitions in Flanders and Artois since they had become wholly foreign ground, as well as her first acquisitions from Hainault, Liége, and Luxemburg, lands which had never owed her homage. Here again the frontier was of the same kind as the frontier towards Germany. ♦Isolated points held by each power.♦ Isolated points like Philippeville and Marienburg were held by France within Spanish or Imperial territory, and isolated points like Aire and St. Omer were still held by Spain in what had now become French territory. ♦Further annexations. 1668.♦ The furthest French advance that was recognized by any treaty was made by the earlier Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, when, amongst other places, Douay, Tournay, Lille, Oudenarde, and Courtray became French. ♦Changes at the Peace of Nimwegen. 1678.♦ By the Peace of Nimwegen the frontier again fell back in eastern Flanders, and Courtray and Oudenarde were restored. But in the districts more to the south France again advanced, gaining the outlying Spanish towns in Artois, Cambray and its district, and Valenciennes in Hainault. ♦1697.♦ The Peace of Ryswick left the frontier as it had been fixed by the Peace of Nimwegen. ♦Treaty of Utrecht and Barrier Treaty. 1713-1715.♦ Finally, the Treaty of Utrecht and the Barrier Treaty left France in possession of a considerable part of Flanders, and of much land which had been Imperial. ♦The Barrier Towns.♦ The Netherlands, formerly Spanish and now Austrian, kept a frontier protected by the barrier towns of Furnes, Ypres, Menin, Tournai, Mons, Charleroi, Namur. The French frontier on the other side had its series of barrier towns stretching from St. Omer to Charlemont on the Maes. The arrangements now made have, with very slight changes, lasted ever since, except during the French annexation of the whole of the Netherlands during the revolutionary wars.
The reign of Lewis the Fourteenth was also a time of at least equal advance on the part of France on her more strictly German frontier. The time was now come for serious attempts to consolidate the scattered possessions of France between Champagne and the Rhine. ♦Franche Comté conquered. 1668.
Conquered again. 1674.♦ Franche Comté, as the county of Burgundy was now more commonly called, with the city of Besançon, was twice seized by Lewis, and the second seizure was confirmed by the peace of Nimwegen. ♦Freiburg.♦ By that peace also France kept Freiburg-im-Breisgau on the right bank of the Rhine. A number of small places in Elsass were annexed after the peace of Nimwegen by the process known as Reunion. ♦Seizure of Strassburg 1681.♦ At last in 1681 Strassburg itself was seized in time of peace, and its possession was finally secured to France by the peace of Ryswick. ♦Restoration of Freiburg and Breisach.♦ But Freiburg and Breisach were restored, and Lorraine, held by France, though not formally ceded, was given back to its own Duke. ♦Peace of Rastadt. 1714.♦ The arrangements of Ryswick were again confirmed by the peace of Rastadt. ♦Annexation of Orange. 1714.♦ In the same year the principality of Orange was annexed to France, leaving the Papal possessions of Avignon and Venaissin surrounded by French territory, the last relic of the Burgundian realm between the Rhone and the Alps. ♦Effects of the reign of Lewis the Fourteenth.♦ France had thus obtained a good physical boundary towards Spain and Italy, and a boundary clearly marked on the map towards the now Austrian Netherlands. Her eastern frontier was still broken in upon by the duchy of Lorraine, by the districts in Elsass which had still escaped, by the county of Montbeliard, and by the detached territories of the commonwealth of Geneva. But France could now in a certain part of her territory call the Rhine her frontier. It was an easy inference that the Rhine ought to be her frontier through the whole of its course.
The next reign, that of Lewis the Fifteenth, in a manner completed the work of Henry the Second and Lewis the Fourteenth. The gap which had so long yawned between Champagne and Elsass was now filled up. ♦Arrangements as to Lorraine. 1735.
Its incorporation. 1766.♦ France obtained a reversionary right to the duchy of Lorraine, which was incorporated thirty-one years later. The lands of Metz, Toul, and Verdun were no longer isolated. Elsass, which, by the acquisition of Franche Comté, had ceased to be insular, now ceased to be even peninsular. Leaving out of sight a few spots of Imperial soil which were now wholly surrounded by France, the French territory now stretched as a solid and unbroken mass from the Ocean to the Rhine. ♦Thorough incorporation of French Conquests.♦ And it must be remembered that all the lands which the monarchy of Paris had gradually brought under its power were in the strictest sense incorporated with the kingdom. There were no dependencies, no separate kingdoms or duchies. ♦Effect of geographical continuity.
Contrast with Spain and Austria.♦ The geographical continuity of the French territory enabled France really to incorporate her conquests in a way in which Spain and Austria never could. And the process was further helped by the fact that each annexation by itself was small compared with the general bulk of the French monarchy. Except in the case of the fragment of Navarre which was held by its Bourbon king, France never annexed a kingdom or made any permanent addition to the royal style of her kings.
♦Purchase of Corsica. 1768.♦
The same reign saw another acquisition altogether unlike the rest in the form of the Italian island of Corsica. In itself the incorporation of this island with the French kingdom seems as unnatural as the Spanish or Austrian dominion in Sicily or Sardinia. ♦Its effects.♦ But the result has been different. Corsica has been far more thoroughly incorporated with France than such outlying possessions commonly are. The truth is that the strong continuity of the continental dominions of France made the incorporation of the island easier. There were no traditions or precedents which could suggest the holding of it as a dependency or as a separate state in any form. ♦Birth of Buonaparte. 1769.♦ Corsica again was more easily attached to France, because the man who did most to extend the dominion of France was a Frenchman only so far as Corsicans had become Frenchmen. Corsica has thus become French in a sense in which Sardinia and Sicily never became Spanish, partly because France had no other possession of the kind, partly because Napoleon Buonaparte was born at Ajaccio.
§ 3. The Colonial Dominion of France.
♦Early French colonization.♦
France, like all the European powers which have an oceanic coast, entered early on the field of colonization and distant dominion. At one time indeed it seemed as if France was destined to become the chief European power both in India and in North America. ♦French colonies in North America. 1506.♦ French attempts at colonization in the latter country began early in the sixteenth century. ♦1540.
1603.♦ Thus Cape Breton at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence was reached early in the sixteenth century, the colonization of Canada began a generation later, and French dominion in America was confirmed by the foundation of Quebec. ♦Acadia ceded to England. 1713.♦ The peninsula of Acadie or Nova Scotia was from this time a subject of dispute between France and Great Britain, till it was finally surrendered by France at the Peace of Utrecht. ♦Canada and Louisiana.♦ France now, under the names of Canada and Louisiana, or of New France, held or claimed a vast inland region stretching from the mouth of the Saint Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi, while the eastern coast was colonized by other powers. ♦Colonization at the mouth of the Mississippi. 1699.
Foundation of New Orleans. 1717.♦ At the end of the seventeenth century the first colonization began at the mouth of the Mississippi; and the city of New Orleans was founded eighteen years later. ♦Rivalry of English and French settlements.♦ France and England thus became distinctly rival powers in America as well as in Europe. The English settlers were pressing westward from the coast to the Ocean. The French strove to fix the Alleghany range as the eastern boundary of English advance. ♦Share of the Colonies in European Wars.♦ In every European war between the two powers the American colonies played an important part. ♦English conquest of Canada. 1759.
1763.♦ Canada was wrested from France; and by the Treaty of Paris all the French possessions north of the present United States were finally surrendered to England, except a few small islands kept for fishing purposes. ♦The Mississippi boundary.♦ The Mississippi was now made the boundary of Louisiana, leaving nothing to France on its left bank except the city of New Orleans. These cessions ruled for ever that men of English blood, whether remaining subjects of the mother-country or forming independent states, should be the dominant power in the North American continent.
♦The West India islands.♦
Among the West India islands, France in the seventeenth century colonized several of the Antilles, some of which were afterwards lost to England. ♦St. Domingo. 1697.♦ Later in the century she acquired part of the great island called variously Hispaniola, Saint Domingo, and Hayti. ♦French Guiana. 1624.
Cayenne. 1635.♦ On the coast of South America lay the French settlements in Guiana, with Cayenne as their capital. This colony grew into more importance after the war of Canada.