Historical development of the Alpine region

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Chamonix , statue of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and Jacques Balmat in Chamonix, in honor of their ascent of Mont Blanc

The Alpine region was settled early and, due to its central location, was closely linked to European history in all periods. Today eight states ( France , Monaco , Italy , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , Austria , Germany , Slovenia ) have a share in its territory . The cross-border “ Alpine Convention ” with an area of ​​190,000 square kilometers has existed since 1991 .

Prehistory and Antiquity

Continuous human settlement in the Alpine region began towards the end of the last Ice Age (approx. 13,500 BC) and has been increasing since the Bronze Age (approx. 2200 BC). Early Mesolithic camps can be traced back to the 9th / 8th centuries. Millennium BC At an altitude of 1600 to 2600 m, for example in the Muothatal, the Simmental and on the Alp Hermettji above Zermatt , i.e. in protected locations. Mesolithic artists also stayed in the open landscape, such as on the Pian dei Cavalli or the Alpe Veglia. At the Brunnifirn , just below the Stremlücke in the canton of Uri and at least 2831 m above sea level, rock crystal was mined. In the Dolomites, more precisely in Mondeval di Sora , the burial of an approximately forty-year-old man was discovered at an altitude of 2100 m under an overhang, dating from the early 6th millennium. On the Ullafelsen in the Stubai Alps , at 1900 m altitude in the Fotschertal valley , there were numerous campfire sites from a hunting camp. There, the excavators discovered silices from the Val de Non in Trentino , 200 km to the south , radiolarites from the northern limestone Alps of Tyrol and Jura chimneys from the area near Kelheim in the Franconian Alps, 200 km away . Passes were used regularly, such as the 2756 m high Schnidejoch in the Bernese Alps , where almost 900 objects were recovered between 2003 and 2012, the oldest from around 4800 to 4500 BC. Come from BC.

The glacier mummy found in the Ötztal Alps, known as Ötzi , lived around 3200 BC. At that time, the majority of the population had switched from collecting and hunting to agriculture with arable farming and cattle breeding. The question of whether there were mobile forms of pasture farming in prehistory ( transhumance , alpine farming ) is controversial . In the years between 35 and 6 BC The Alpine region was integrated step by step into the expanding Roman Empire. A contemporary monument, the Tropaeum Alpium by La Turbie , commemorates the victory in the Alpine campaigns over 46 tribes. The following construction of roads over several passes mainly served to connect Roman settlements south and north of the mountains. But the mountain population was also included to a considerable extent in the culture of the empire.

middle Ages

With the division of the Roman Empire and the decline of the western part in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the balance of power in the Alpine region took on a regional character again. The diocese seats often became important centers. As in their Italian-southern French environment, dioceses were founded early and numerous times in the western Alps (from the 4th century), while in the eastern Alps these often covered larger areas and were later (up to the 13th century). The new monasteries built in mountain valleys also contributed to the Christianization of the population. The main focus of supra-regional political power was now in the north: first with the Frankish Empire and, after its division, with the Holy Empire of the German Nation and France . The German kings, who were crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome from the 9th to the 15th century , had to cross the Alps with their entourage .

In his well-known study of the Mediterranean , the historian Fernand Braudel describes the Alps as “extraordinary mountains” - extraordinary in terms of their resources, the collective tasks, the efficiency of the inhabitants and the numerous important roads. This strong presence of people in the mountains began to become apparent with the population growth and the expansion of the country since the High Middle Ages . At first a mixed agriculture with arable farming and cattle breeding continued to dominate . Since the late Middle Ages there has been a shift from sheep to cattle . In several northern Alpine regions, this cattle husbandry also displaced arable farming and focused on large-scale markets ("Hirtenland"). At the same time, other forms of interregional and transalpine transport increased. The most important pass was the Brenner pass, which has been passable since the 15th century . In the central and western Alps, the passes were only developed for pack animals until around 1800 ( framing ).

Recent urban history research has indicated that a kind of special urban path had been taken in the Alpine region since the 12th and 13th centuries, with numerous urban centers emerging throughout the high and late Middle Ages, which were relatively insignificant demographically, but were central Locations and, thanks to their position on transalpine routes, were of high functional importance.

Early modern period (16th - 18th centuries)

Population and economy

Since the beginning of modern times, the population of the Alpine region can be estimated quantitatively. If one takes the area of ​​the Alpine Convention as a basis, it should have been around 3.1 million around 1500 and increased to 5.8 million by 1800. Around 1900 it was 8.5 million and around 2000 13.9 million. Until the late 19th century, many alpine valleys remained dominated by agriculture. Demographic growth favored the intensification of agriculture, for example through the introduction of corn , potatoes and hard cheese . The shortened vegetation period of the high altitudes up to around 1700 does not seem to have had a major impact. Afterwards it became an obstacle to further intensification, especially in comparison to the surrounding area, where the productivity of the area was now increasing rapidly. Within the Alpine region there was a marked difference between the small-scale farming regions in the Western and Central Alps and the large-scale farming regions in the Eastern Alps. Commercial, often seasonal, migration to the developed urban areas of the surrounding area began as early as 1500. In the Alps themselves, urbanization progressed only slowly.

Politics and culture

Whether the alpine world experienced a heyday and later a general decline in the Middle Ages or beyond is judged differently in the literature. The political power centers were since the onset of modern state-building in any case largely on the edge or outside the Alpine region. The other side of this power distance was a relatively high degree of regional and local autonomy . State formation was driven by the proximity to hotspots of European conflicts such as in the Italian wars from 1494 to 1559. At that time, the regional constitutions began to diverge more strongly. One can distinguish between three developments: a centralistic one with a strong position of the prince (Western Alps), a localistic-communal one (Switzerland) and an intermediate one, determined by the nobility (Eastern Alps).

Since the 16th century, scholars have been increasingly concerned with mountain phenomena, especially in cities near the Alps. It soon turned to important questions of geological history and biblical interpretation. An enthusiasm for nature and the Alps developed in the 18th century. The work of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure Voyages dans les Alpes (1779–1796) became famous . In it, the Geneva-based naturalist reported, among other things, on the ascent of the 4800-meter-high Mont Blanc in 1787. The new attention was also shown in literature, for example in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's well- read Julie, ou la nouvelle Heloïse (1761). The cultural awakening caused a strong increase in Alpine trips and laid the basis for modern tourism . As a relatively near-natural area in increasingly urbanized Europe, the Alps have become an important point of reference. With the colonial expansion , mountains in Asia, Australia and America were soon referred to as " Alps ".

Most recent times (19th - 21st centuries)

Population and settlement

In the 19th and 20th centuries there were drastic changes. On the one hand, the growth rates of the population in the Alpine region differed more and more from the much higher rates in the lowlands. On the other hand, the ongoing important migration was increasingly directed towards non-European target areas. Some regions experienced a real depopulation from the beginning of the 20th century . Together with the rapid growth of urban centers at lower altitudes, the imbalances in the Alpine population distribution increased. These urban centers became by far the most dynamic elements in the course of the 20th century.

economy

The alpine economy was also subject to a fundamental change, which was primarily reflected in the delayed but inevitable decline in the agricultural sector . The introduction of special crops in the valley floor and the consolidation of cattle breeding in the higher areas should make the sector viable. This fundamental transformation was of course caused by the accelerated industrialization of Europe in the 19th century , which also affected the Alps in a direct or indirect way.

Commercial activities that had previously gained importance in some mountain regions, such as ironworking , have now been ruined by transport costs and the increasing size of the business. Around 1900 new opportunities arose in the industrial sector , primarily due to the spread of electrical energy , a central innovation of the second industrial revolution. The abundance of water and the topographical gradient made the Alps an ideal place for the production of hydroelectric energy , which enabled the creation of important industrial facilities in the Alps as well. The electrification of the Alpine region began.

The most important innovation in the Alpine economy was undoubtedly recorded in the service sector , which was shaped by the growing success of tourism . In a first phase, the guests came mainly in the summer season (summer tourism), after the middle of the 19th century there was also an upswing in the alpine spa and spa resorts . In a second phase, especially after the construction of mountain railways and ski lifts since the early 20th century, winter tourism became the main season in many places. Activities related to transit traffic had long played an important role in the Alpine service sector. They now experienced strong competition and redimensioning due to the newly created railway lines and tunnels: Semmering (1854), Brenner (1867), Fréjus / Mont-Cenis (1871), Gotthard (1882) and others

Modern industry, tourism, the railways and later the motorways created important new opportunities in the Alpine region and increased its openness to the surrounding regions. But they also brought about negative effects and externalities, especially unprecedented human effects on the environment .

Politics and culture

The formation of nation states in the Alpine region was accompanied by the usual tensions between individual groups and also by special consequences for the border regions . In these regions, the coercive government measures were felt much more strongly than before. The borders lost some of their permeability and thus cut up old togetherness and exchange processes. During the First World War , the Eastern Alps in particular became an epicenter of the conflict.

In the second half of the 20th century the Alpine region entered a new phase. In addition to the affirmation of regional identities , the construction of an alpine identity also emerged. It found a certain institutional framework in the " Alpine Convention " signed in 1991 , an international agreement between all states with an Alpine share and with the European Union . This process was supported by a new cultural appreciation for the Alps. In the 19th century there was a tension between the romantic propagators of a “sacredness” of the Alpine peaks (like John Ruskin ) and the modern mountaineers, who spoke of a “playground of Europe” (like Leslie Stephen ). In the 20th century, the mountains increasingly gained a positive value as an area less affected by urban influences (pollution, noise, etc.).

The German-speaking Alpine region

Cultural diversity

In the literature, the opinion is sometimes held that there was a historical dichotomy in the Alps into a “Germanic” and a “Romanic” mountain farming culture. This notion goes back to linguistic nationalist tendencies of the 19th century and regards cultures as firmly established wholes with clear boundaries. Today research focuses on the everyday practices and perceptions of historical actors and is thus able to better grasp the complexity and variability of culture. It becomes clear that the numerous linguistic and extra-linguistic elements rarely exactly coincided. The language alone did not yield any overarching unity out, but reflected the small-scale communication patterns. In the Alps, German was divided into Alemannic and Bavarian , both of which were spoken in many different ways. In addition, until the 19th and 20th centuries , denominational differences were usually weighted more heavily than linguistic ones.

Swiss and Austria

Two thirds of Switzerland and Austria are both classified as mountainous, but with regard to the cultural significance of the Alps, their development has been different. The Alpine interests of the European Enlightenment focused on Switzerland and the neighboring Mont Blanc region. This “enthusiasm for Switzerland” led to a sharp increase in trips to the Alps and publications from around 1760 and went so far that the country could also obtain its national epic from outside ( Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller , 1804). The Austrian mountain areas could have been reached just as easily from many German cities, but the real "discovery" of the Eastern Alps did not take place until the Romantic era , and international interests seem to have been less involved than in the case of Switzerland.

Later, however, the alpine discourse was reflected in Austria in particular in distinctive lifestyles and everyday practices. Nowhere in the 20th century does the staging of alpine countryside seem to have been pursued so intensely as here. The same applies to tourism , which in the Austrian mountain areas has achieved the highest growth rates across the Alps since the Second World War . The Alps also gained importance in the self-definition of the country. The national anthem of 1947 described Austria as the “land of mountains” in the first place. This development has to be seen against the background of the radical territorial change. In the transition from the Habsburg monarchy to the republic, the proportion of mountains in the national territory became much larger.

In the long term, the cultural weight of the Alps shifted to a certain extent from Switzerland to Austria. This fits in with the fact that Austria became the depositary state of the Alpine Convention in 1991 and the headquarters of the permanent secretariat has been in Innsbruck since 2003.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Hafner, Mirco Brunner: In the shadow of the peaks , in: Archeology in Germany 01 | 2018, pp. 24–27, here: p. 24.
  2. ^ Philippe Della Casa (ed.): Prehistoric alpine environment, society, and economy. Bonn 1999; Pierre Bintz, Thierry Tillet: Migrations et gestions Saisonnières des Alpes aux temps préhistoriques. In: Geschichte der Alpen 3, 1998, pp. 91-105; Noël Coulet: From the 13th to the 15th century: the establishment of Provencal transhumance. In: Geschichte der Alpen 6, 2001, pp. 147–158.
  3. ↑ See e.g. B. Jochen Martin (Ed.): Atlas for Church History. The Christian Churches Past and Present , Freiburg i. B. 1987.
  4. ↑ Fernand Braudel : The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Epoch of Philip II , Frankfurt a. M. 1990, Vol. 1, pp. 33-70, 293-298, citation p. 44.
  5. ^ Jean-François Bergier, Gauro Coppola (ed.): Vie di terra e d'acqua. Infrastrutture viarie e sistemi di relazioni in area alpina (secoli XIII – XVI) , Bologna 2007.
  6. ↑ Klaus Brandstätter : The Alpine City - Approaching a Concept. In: Tiroler Heimat 67, 2003, pp. 265–291.
  7. ↑ Hannes Obermair : 'Bastard Urbanism'? Past Forms of Cities in the Alpine Area of ​​Tyrol-Trentino. In: Concilium Medii Aevi 10, 2007, pp. 53-76. ( PDF )
  8. ^ Jon Mathieu : History of the Alps 1500-1900. Environment, Development, Society , Vienna 1998, p. 35 (here converted to the area of ​​the Alpine Convention); for the last value cf. Alpine Convention: Report on the State of the Alps , Innsbruck 2007, p. 36 (national values ​​from 1999 to 2005).
  9. ↑ In addition the thematic booklets of History of the Alps 3 (1998) and 5 (2000).
  10. ↑ Bernard Debarbieux: La nomination au service de la territorialisation. Reflections on the usage of the term 'alpe' and 'montagne'. In: Le Monde alpin et rhodaien 25, 1997, pp. 227-241.
  11. ^ Luigi Lorenzetti, Raul Merzario: Il fuoco acceso. Famiglie e migrazioni alpine nell'Italia dell'età moderna. Rome 2005.
  12. ↑ Werner Bätzing : The Alps. Formation and endangerment of a European cultural landscape. Munich 1991.
  13. ↑ An important case study by Luca Mocarelli: La lavorazione del ferro nel Bresciano tra continuità e mutamento (1750–1914) , in: Giovanni Luigi Fontana (ed.): Le vie dell'industrializzazione europea. Sistemi a confronto. Bologna 1997, pp. 721-760.
  14. ↑ Andrea Bonoldi, Andrea Leonardi (ed.): Energia e sviluppo in area alpina. Secoli XIX e XX , Milano 2004.
  15. ↑ Andrea Leonardi, Hans Heiss (ed.): Turismo e sviluppo in area alpina. Innsbruck 2003 and the thematic booklet Tourism and Cultural Change in the History of the Alps. 4 (2004).
  16. ↑ An overview by Stefano Maggi: Le ferrovie. Bologna 2008.
  17. ↑ See for example Gianni Pieropan: Storia della grande guerra sul fronte italiano 1914–1918. Milano 2001.
  18. ↑ See for example Enrico Camanni: La montagna descritta. In: Le cattedrali della terra. Milano 2000, pp. 160-165.

literature

  • History of the Alps: trilingual annual publication of the International Society for Historical Alpine Research. Chronos Verlag, Zurich, since 1996, ISSN  1660-8070 ; online access via http://www.arc.usi.ch/labisalp or e-periodica.ch .
  • Marco Bellabarba, Hannes Obermair, Hitomi Sato (eds): Communities and Conflicts in the Alps from the Late Middle Ages to Early Modernity . Il mulino - Duncker & Humblot, Bologna-Berlin 2015. ISBN 978-88-15-25383-5 or ISBN 978-3-428-14821-9 .
  • Jean-François Bergier: Pour une histoire des Alpes, Moyen Âge et Temps modern. Ashgate, Aldershot UK 1997, ISBN 0-86078-653-6 .
  • Fernand Braudel : The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Epoch of Philip II. 3 volumes. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1990, ISBN 3-518-58056-6 . (Original 1949–1966)
  • Marco Cuaz: Le Alpi. Il mulino, Bologna 2005, ISBN 88-15-10535-2 .
  • Dictionnaire encyclopédique des Alpes. 2 volumes. Génat, Grenoble 2006, ISBN 2-7234-3527-X and ISBN 2-7234-5073-2 .
  • Laurence Fontaine: Pouvoir, identités et migrations dans les hautes vallées des Alpes occidentales (XVIIe – XVIIIe siècle). Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, Grenoble 2003, ISBN 2-7061-1100-3 .
  • Paul Guichonnet (Ed.): Histoire et Civilization des Alpes. 2 volumes. Editions Privat Toulouse and Payot Lausanne 1980, ISBN 2-7089-2372-2 .
  • Andrea Leonardi, Hans Heiss (Ed.): Tourism and Development in the Alpine Region, 18. – 20. Century. Studien-Verlag, Innsbruck-Vienna-Bozen 2003, ISBN 3-7065-1833-3 .
  • Luigi Lorenzetti, Raul Merzario: Il fuoco acceso. Famiglie e migrazioni alpine nell'Italia d'età moderna. Donzelli editore, Roma 2005, ISBN 88-7989-987-2 .
  • Luigi Lorenzetti, Yann Decorzant, Anne-Lise Head-König (eds.): Relire l'altitude: la terre et ses usages. Suisse et espaces avoisinants, XIIe – XXIe siècles. Éditions Alphil-Presses universitaires suisses, Neuchâtel 2019, ISBN 978-2-88930-206-2 .
  • Jon Mathieu: Der Alpenraum , in: European History Online , ed. from the Institute for European History (Mainz) , 2013, accessed on August 29, 2013.
  • Jon Mathieu: History of the Alps 1500-1900. Environment, development, society. 2nd Edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1998, 2001, ISBN 3-205-99363-2 .
  • Jon Mathieu, Simona Boscani Leoni (eds.): The Alps! On the history of European perception since the Renaissance. Peter Lang, Bern 2005, ISBN 3-03910-774-7 .
  • Claude Reichler: Discovery of a Landscape. Travelers, writers, artists and their Alps. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85869-306-5 .
  • Bernhard Tschofen: mountain, culture, modernity. Folklore from the Alps. Sonderzahl-Verlag, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85449-163-8 .
  • Pier Paolo Viazzo: Upland communities. Environment, population and social structure in the Alps since the sixteenth century. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989, ISBN 0-521-30663-9 .
  • Katharina Winckler: The Alps in the Early Middle Ages: The history of a region in the years 500 to 800 . Böhlau, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78769-3 ( available online at www.oapen.org).

See also

Web links