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PART OF EUROPE SHOWING LANGUAGES
having political significance.
In Lorraine, the steady expansion of French over German territory reveals the assimilative capacity of French civilization. France, unable to send forth colonists because of her lack of numbers, nevertheless contains within herself by virtue of superior civilization the ability to absorb the foreigner. Of this, evidence is to be found in the Alsatian’s sympathy for France no less than in the unanimous verdict of impartial foreigners. Belgium’s unhesitating rally to the French cause in the present war was also the spontaneous response to the greater cultural appeal emanating from France. The fact is attested by history since the earliest times, for much of the civilization of Germanic peoples has invariably taken its source in the inspiring ideals of the wonderfully endowed inhabitants of French territory.
Upon this historical basis, the intermediate zone between French and German languages might be converted into a number of buffer-states which, from the Alps to the North Sea, would represent the borderland of the central mountain zone and the northern plain. Switzerland, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg and Belgium have been weak spots of European diplomacy on account of geographical circumstances. A just appreciation of this fact alone can provide against a continuance of past weakness.
Whatever the result of the present war, boundary rectifications from the easternmost wedge of Switzerland to the head of the Adriatic may be expected. They were the subject of negotiations between Austria and Italy prior to the latter country’s entry into the war in 1915. Austria at that time proposed to cede to Italy a portion of the Trentino or “Süd-Tirol” as it is illogically called by the Germans. The territory which Austria was willing to abandon to prevent Italy from joining the Allies coincided roughly with the extension of Italian language north of the Italian frontier. Italian demands presented then were based, however, upon strategic necessities as well as linguistic considerations. Italy therefore outlined a frontier much nearer to the Adriatic watershed.
The Italian claims may be summarized as follows:[275] From Switzerland the present boundary line is to be maintained to Mount Cevedale, whence it is to strike east to Illmenspitze and thence northeast to Klausen passing through Gargazon. From Klausen the line leads to the south until latitude 46° 30′ is reached, after which it resumes its easterly course, passes through Tofana and reaches the old boundary at about 4 miles northeast of Cortina d’Ampezzo. The population of the last-named district, formerly Ladin, is now Italian. This boundary revision will give political validity to the Italian Alps, a region which is geographically Italian.
Fig. 67—Sketch map showing proposed changes in the Austro-Italian frontier according to Austrian and Italian views.
Through this line the transfer of the command of the passes to Italy would become an accomplished fact. It would mean that the entrance to the Vintschgau, the valley of the Upper Adige and of the gorge of the Eisack at Klausen with the issue of the Brenner and Pustherthal railways would be controlled by Italy. Moreover the frontier has the merit of being identical with the old bishopric boundary maintained from 1106 A.D. to the Reformation. The flaw, if any, in such an eventual settlement might be found in the fact that the Botzen district, although economically Italian, is Teutonic in speech and feeling. The rest of the population in the Trentino favors annexation to Italy.