Its territory lies between the
Mediterranean Sea (
Côte d'Azur),
Var River and the southernmost crest of the
Alps.
Ligurian tribes populated the County of Nice prior to its occupation by the
Romans. These tribes, conquered by
Augustus, had become fully
Romanized (according to
Theodore Mommsen) by the 4th century, when the
barbarian invasions began. The
Franks conquered the region after the
Fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the local Romance populations became integrated within the
County of Provence, with a period of independence as a
maritime republic (1108–1176). It was initially a semi-autonomous part of the ancient County of Provence.
The domain of the House of Savoy (13881860) . Nice became part of the domains of the
House of Savoy on 28 September 1388, with which
Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy, taking advantage of the internal struggles in
Provence, negotiated with Giovanni Grimaldi, baron of
Boglio (governor of Nice and the Eastern Provence) the passage of Nice and the
Ubaye Valley to the Savoy domains, with the name of
Terre Nuove di Provenza. The
Terre Nuove then took the name of County of Nice in 1526, where in this context the term "county" was used in an administrative and not a feudal sense. On 25 October 1561, following the Edict of Rivoli, Italian replaced Latin as the language for drafting the official documents of the County of Nice.
Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, made Nice a free port in 1614 and established a senate there. The revolt of the count of Boglio was put down in 1621 and from that moment the county experienced a period of stability, unlike the nearby Provence battered by the revolts. Hostilities with France recommenced during the 17th century and the county was subjected to French occupation twice (1691–1697 and 1707–1713). in 1624, when it was called
Nizza During the 18th century the border between the county of Nice and France was rectified several times. The first time in 1718, when
Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia repurchased the upper Varo valley with
Entraunes and
Saint-Martin-d'Entraunes in exchange for municipality of
Le Mas, and a second time with the Treaty of Turin of 24 March 1760, with which the Savoys ceded
Gattières and the right bank of the
Esterone river to France, in exchange for the areas of
Guglielmi and
La Penna, which passed to Savoyard possessions. In 1789, Nice was a counter-revolutionary center; the
Army of the Midi of the
young French Republic, under the command of General
Jacques Bernard d'Anselme, entered the city on 29 September 1792. The following 31 January, the
National Convention ordered the integration of the county into French territory and the creation of the
Alpes-Maritimes department. During the period of the French occupation, the popular movement of barbetism was active in the territory of the County, loyal to the House of Savoy. On 23 April 1814 the county returned under the control of the King
Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia, while the Principality of
Monaco passed from the French to the Sardinian
protectorate. With the outbreak of national
uprisings of 1848, the Monegasque towns of
Menton and
Roquebrune rebelled against their prince and became free cities administered by the House of Savoy, the
Free Cities of Menton and Roquebrune.
Annexation to France (1860) annexed in 1860 to France (light brown). The area in red had already become part of France before 1860. After the
Treaty of Turin was signed in 1860 between the
Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia and
Napoleon III as a consequence of the
Plombières Agreement, the county was again and definitively ceded to France as a territorial reward for French assistance in the
Second Italian War of Independence against
Austria, which saw
Lombardy united with the
Kingdom of Sardinia. King Victor-Emmanuel II, on 1 April 1860, solemnly asked the population to accept the change of sovereignty, in the name of Italian unity, and the cession was ratified by a regional
referendum.
Italophile manifestations and the acclamation of an "Italian Nice" by the crowd were reported on this occasion. A referendum was held on 15 and 16 April 1860. The opponents of annexation called for abstention, hence the very high abstention rate. The "yes" vote won 83% of registered voters throughout the county of Nice, and 86% in Nice, partly due to pressure from the authorities. This was the result of a masterful operation of information control by the French and Piedmontese governments, to influence the outcome of the vote in relation to the decisions already taken. The irregularities in the referendum voting operations were evident. The case of Levens is emblematic: the same official sources recorded, faced with only 407 voters, 481 votes cast, naturally almost all in favor of joining France. The Italian language was the official language of the County, used by the Church, the town hall, taught in schools, used in theaters and at the Opera; though it was immediately abolished and replaced by French. Discontent over annexation to France led to the emigration of a large part of the Italophile population, also accelerated by Italian unification after 1861. A quarter of the population of Nice, around 11,000 people from Nice, decided to voluntarily exile themselves to Italy. The emigration of a quarter of the
Niçard Italians to Italy was known as the
Niçard exodus. Many Italians from Nice then moved to the Ligurian towns of
Ventimiglia,
Bordighera and
Ospedaletti, giving rise to a local branch of the movement of the
Italian irredentists which considered the reacquisition of Nice to be one of their nationalist goals.
Giuseppe Garibaldi, born in Nice, strongly opposed the cession to France, arguing that the ballot was rigged by the French. Furthermore, for the niçard general his hometown was unquestionably Italian. Politically, the liberals of Nice and the partisans of Garibaldi also appreciated very little Napoleonic authoritarianism. Elements on the right (aristocrats) as on the left (Garibaldians) therefore wanted Nice to return to Italy. Savoy was also transferred to the French crown by similar means. In 1871, during the first free elections in the County, the pro-Italian lists obtained almost all the votes in the legislative elections (26,534 votes out of 29,428 votes cast), and Garibaldi was elected deputy at the
National Assembly. Pro-Italians take to the streets cheering
"Viva Nizza! Viva Garibaldi!" The French government sent 10,000 soldiers to Nice, closed the Italian newspaper
Il Diritto di Nizza and imprisoned several demonstrators. The population of Nice rose from 8 to 10 February, and the three days of demonstration became known as "
Niçard Vespers". The revolt was suppressed by French troops. On 13 February, Garibaldi was not allowed to speak at the French parliament meeting in Bordeaux to ask for the reunification of Nice to the
newborn Italian unitary state, and he resigned from his post as deputy. The failure of Vespers led to the expulsion of the last pro-Italian intellectuals from Nice, such as Luciano Mereu or Giuseppe Bres, who were expelled or deported. The pro-Italian irredentist movement persisted throughout 1860–1914, despite the repression carried out since the annexation. The French government implemented a policy of Francization of society, language and culture. The toponyms of the communes of the ancient County have been francized, with the obligation to use French in Nice, as well as certain surnames (for example the Italian surname "Bianchi" was francized into "Leblanc", and the Italian surname "Del Ponte" was francized into "Dupont"). Italian-language newspapers in Nice were banned. In 1861,
La Voce di Nizza was closed (temporarily reopened during the Niçard Vespers), followed by
Il Diritto di Nizza, closed in 1871. The Italian occupation government was far less severe than that of
Vichy France; thus, thousands of Jews took refuge there. For a while, Nice became an important mobilization center for various Jewish organizations. However, when the Italians signed the
Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies, German troops invaded the region on 8 September 1943, and initiated brutal raids.
Alois Brunner, the SS official for Jewish affairs, was placed at the head of units formed to search for Jews. Within five months, 5,000 Jews were caught and deported. The area was returned to France following the war and in 1947, the areas of
La Brigue and
Tende, which had remained Italian after 1860 were ceded to
France. Thereafter, a quarter of the
Niçard Italians living in that mountainous area moved to
Piedmont and
Liguria in Italy (mainly from the
Roya Valley and Tenda). ==Creation of Alpes-Maritimes==