Land of emigration and immigration The second half of the 19th century marked by a demographic decline The demographic evolution of the two new departments experienced a crisis due to temporary or even permanent economic immigration, which was further accelerated by the
Great War.
The First World War The Savoyard population was hard hit by the
First World War, despite the
neutrality statutes in northern Savoy acquired in 1815, with around 20,000 deaths for France, a proportion relatively higher than the national average "as in all rural departments", explains historian
Christian Sorrel. If we look at the parish lists, we find 9,843 killed in Savoie and 10,400 in Haute-Savoie. According to municipal lists, these figures differ slightly, with 8,881 for Savoy and 9,193 for Haute-Savoie. During the Great War, the people of
Savoy fought in infantry regiments. There were no battalions made up exclusively of Savoyards, but they were found in the (based in
Annecy,
Thonon,
Rumilly, and
Montmélian), the (based in
Chambéry,
Bourg-Saint-Maurice,
Moûtiers, and
Modane), the and , as well as in the
Alpine Chasseur Battalions (, 13th, 22nd, 51st, 53rd, and 62nd, which formed the ). These troops, nicknamed the “Blue Devils,” fought on all fronts (
Alsace, Lorraine,
Verdun,
Chemin des Dames), and on the Alpine front, up to the reversal of alliance with Italy. The population of Savoy, mostly rural, contributed to the war effort, but harvests were poor. Industry, on the other hand, prospered. The steelworks of Ugine, for example, produced ammunition (shells) and armor plates for
tanks. The Savoy zone was initially meant to be placed under Swiss military protection. The neutralized zone of Savoy extended over the entire department of
Haute-Savoie, part of the department of
Savoie, and the
Pays de Gex, which was then part of Savoy. Losses were significant, with 19,632 deaths according to official sources. Economically, industry flourished, and the factories in Savoy benefited from the war, thus transforming the region's traditional rural character. Nonetheless, Savoy reached its lowest demographic point in 1920, with a population of around 450,000. The face of Savoy gradually changed. Having only become French in 1860, Savoy (more precisely, the departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie) underwent numerous cultural transformations. One symbolic example is the abandonment of traditional roofing materials such as
wooden shingles and
flagstones, which were replaced by sheet metal, tiles, or mechanical slate. During the interwar period, Savoy also experienced a true revolution in its economic and tourism sectors, with the rise of winter sports infrastructure and organizations in
Megève,
Chamonix, and other high-altitude locations. While this energy had already been locally harnessed by populations in sawmills along rivers, this technological innovation enabled the development of a genuine industrial fabric, particularly in the
Tarentaise, the
Maurienne, the Arly Valley, and the Upper Faucigny. Taking advantage of the topography, metal-processing plants (supplied by train) were initially installed near low-flow waterfalls; then, as new technologies emerged, factories were placed near higher-flow rivers. These penstocks (sometimes as long as 12 km) gave rise to
electrochemical and electrometallurgical industries. In reality, the establishment of factories in mountainous areas was a consequence of the availability of a low-cost renewable energy source, which compensated for the high cost of transporting raw materials to the sites. This industrial development disrupted and transformed local societies (leading to the emergence of a new social organization: peasant-workers) and put a stop to the
rural exodus that had begun in the 19th century. The presence of these factories explains why Savoy became a strategic target in 1940.
The Second World War At the start of the
Second World War, the
Alpine front remained relatively unaffected by the conflict. On June 10, 1940, while France was fighting the German invaders, Mussolini declared war. Savoy was
occupied by Italy, then by Germany. The communes of Haute Maurienne and those around the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass in Tarentaise were annexed by Italy. Savoy troops fought mainly in the
Maurienne,
Tarentaise and
Rhône valleys. In 1944, the Savoy Resistance was particularly active on the
Plateau des Glières, where
Tom Morel set up a maquis, and at the
Col des Saisies, for example. The struggle against the German army and the French militia came to a tragic end. The Plateau des Glières became a symbol of the Resistance.
Occupation The
armistice of June 24, 1940, was signed at the Villa Incisa near
Rome. France and the Kingdom of Italy were represented by
Charles Huntziger and Marshal
Pietro Badoglio, respectively. Under this agreement, the Upper Maurienne (the ), as well as the communes of
Aussois and
Avrieux and some communes of Upper
Tarentaise such as
Séez, were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, and their administration was transferred to Turin. The inhabitants of these communes were issued Italian identity cards. The annexation rumor was spread by those who had fled Italy, recalling the fascist deputies' cries in 1938. However, Mussolini had assured Count
Galeazzo Ciano that he would not lay claim to the former
Duchy of Savoy. In November 1942, all of Savoy was placed under Italian occupation. Following
Italy's capitulation on September 8, 1943, and under German occupation, many villages, especially those in the upper Arc valley, suffered reprisals and destruction by the occupiers aiming to punish resistance movements. The region was the scene of massacres, and villages such as
Lanslebourg and
Bessans were burned down during the German retreat in 1944. A concentration camp was even built in Modane. The Glières Plateau was chosen in January 1944 for arms drops to supply the local resistance. It was a clear zone, difficult to access by road and thus by the enemy, yet easily spotted by Allied aircraft due to its proximity to
Lake Annecy. The "Battle of Glières" (March 1944) resulted in 149 maquisards killed in combat against more than 2,000 Wehrmacht soldiers and Vichy militiamen. Similar tragedies took place in the
Chablais, the
Bauges, and the
Beaufortain, notably at the
Col des Saisies. A museum of the Resistance was even created in each valley, namely in
Moûtiers and
Villargondran. While hiking in the mountains, it is common to come across numerous memorials to the resistance fighters executed by the Germans. Haute Maurienne was at the heart of one of the most famous battles of the
French Resistance in the Alps. On the heights of the commune of
Sollières-Sardières, the Battle of Mont-Froid took place at an altitude of 2,819 meters, between the
Alpine troops and German forces during April 1945. These battles, fought under extreme conditions, became one of the symbols of the Resistance in the Alps. Following this battle, the
Treaty of Paris rectified what had been considered a geostrategic weakness and a historical error by reintegrating the entire Mont-Cenis plateau, which had until then been on Italian territory since the division of Savoy during its annexation in 1860. Thus, at the end of the war, the map of Haute Maurienne was enlarged by an area of 81.79 km2. De jure, the communes of Sollières-Sardières,
Lanslebourg, and
Lanslevillard regained full use of their centuries-old alpine pastures, which had until then been located in Italian territory, even though they had always been their property.
Economic development in the region The quarries In Roman times, limestone was the most prized and abundant material throughout Savoie and, given the formation of the Alps, it was either clearly visible or outcropping under sparse vegetation cover. This makes it much easier to mine. However, from 1969 onwards, awareness of the fragility of the natural environment forced the various state and local players to protect this mountain area, notably with the creation of the
Vanoise National Park in 1963 and the
Mountain Law (1985). The White Revolutions The mountain system is based on a threefold rationalized spatial organization: the valley bottoms remain strongly linked to human development and activities (housing, traffic, industry, agriculture); the slopes are either abandoned because of the difference in altitude, or are the location of villages/large hamlets based on forestry and mountain agriculture; finally, the mountain is divided into montagnettes (small mountains) frequented by farmers from spring to autumn, alpine pastures where the herds graze, and the high mountains made up of rock and persistent snow associated with glaciers. This industrial development disrupted and transformed local societies (with the emergence of new social organizations such as the peasant-worker movement), and put a stop to the
rural exodus that had begun in the 19th century. After the war, the nationalization of electricity (1946), the loss of competition and the emergence of new forms of energy, and above all the lack of space for site expansion, led to a crisis in the 1960s. With great effort, some sites were maintained. Socially, the status of farmer-worker disappeared, and only the worker remained. The consequences on the landscape were visible, with the disappearance of vineyards and the appearance of agricultural wastelands. From the 20th century onwards, the remues and
alpine pastures opened up to new practices. The combination of suitable topography, regular snowfall and the determination of a number of players gave Savoy a new dynamism: winter tourism and skiing. The timid development of valley-bottom resorts, such as
Chamonix, or medium-altitude resorts, such as
Megève or
Pralognan-la-Vanoise, was overturned by state and local government intervention in the 1960s. A new type of resort emerged: integrated resorts or "2nd and 3rd generation" resorts, such as Courchevel, Avoriaz and most of the resorts in the Tarentaise valley.
Maintaining human activities and preserving the environment Faced with increasing numbers of tourists, the degradation caused by new developments and the saturation of human activities at the bottom of the valleys, the French government decided to protect areas untouched by human activity by decree on July 6, 1963. The
Vanoise National Park (PNV) was born (the French equivalent of Italy's
Gran Paradiso National Park, created in 1922). It covers the mountain range of the same name, between the upper Arc valley (
Maurienne) and the upper
Isère valley (Tarentaise), with a surface area of 52,840 ha. This first national park protected flora and fauna by preventing any human intervention in the area, with the exception of temporary habitats (refuges). The decree divides the park into two distinct territories: the high-mountain heartland, the sanctuary par excellence, and the peripheral zone, leaving the communes free to develop as they see fit. However, there is considerable tension between local populations, who wish to develop, developers, who wish to increase skiable areas at high altitude (approx. 3,000 m), and park managers, who guarantee the protection and preservation of natural areas. The project was rejected. However, on July 8, 2016, the "Assemblée des Pays de Savoy" became the "Conseil Savoy Mont Blanc", with a new visual identity. == See also ==