The Identity of France: Volume One: History and Environment

424 Pages·1989·15.739 MB·English

by  Fernand Braudel

THE IDENTITY OF FRANCE
FERNAND BRAUDEL
THE IDENTITY
OF FRANCE
Volume I
History and Environment
Translated from the French
by Sian Reynolds
PERENNIAL LIIRARY
CD
Harper & Row, Publishers, New York
Grand Rapids, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco
London, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto
A hardcover edition of this book was originally published in the United States in 1989 by
Harper & Row, Publishers. This book was first published in France in 1986 under the ti tie
L'Identite de la France. Copyright © 1986 by Les Editions Athaud, Paris. The English
translation was originally published in Great Britain in 1988 by William Collins Sons and
Co. Ltd.
THE IDENTITY OF FRANCE, Volume I. English translation copyright © 1988 by Sian
Reynolds. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For
information address Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York,
N.Y. 10022.
First PERENNIAL LIBRARY edition published 1990.
Diagrams and maps by RDL Artset Ltd., Cheam, Surrey
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 88-45566
ISBN 0-06-091643-5 (pbk.)
91 92 93 94 FG 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
To my grandmother
EMILIE CORNOT,
light of my childhood
CONTENTS
Introduction to The Identity of France 15
HISTORY AND ENVIRONMENT
Foreword 31
PART I THE DIVERSITY OF FRANCE
CHAPTER ONE Describing, seeing, making others see 37
The provinces: jigsaw puzzles of regions and 'pays', 41 - Diversity
observed: taking to the road, 50.
CHAPTER TWO Explaining France's diversity -
ifi t can be explained 58
The diversity of Europe, the diversity of France, 58 - Micro-climates,
micro-environments, 63 - Local economies, or how France's diversity
was safeguarded, 66 - State and society combine to allow diversity and
confusion to persist, 72 - Every town a different social equation, 76 -
Provincial particularism, 78 - Langue d'oc, langue d'o1l, 85 - Local
dialects, the thousand and one patois of the eighteenth century, 91 -
Dialectology and toponymy: aids to prehistoric geography, 96 - Cultural
anthropology: or family structure versus French unity, 103.
CHAPTER THREE Distance: a variable measurement 110
The French patchwork explained, 115 - Diversity and history, 119 - And
what of the present day?, 122.
PART II THE PATTERN OF SETTLEMENT:
VILLAGES, BOURGS AND TOWNS
CHAPTER FOUR Startingfrom the village 129
Village diversity and beyond, 129 - The village as model, 139 -
CONTENTS
The forest: jewel among properties, 146 - The forest: a world upside
down, 147 - The forest as refuge, 148 - The village ideal: producing all
one's needs, 150 - The indispensable link to the outside world, 153 -
Movement between villages, 156.
CHAPTER FIVE Explaining the system: the bourg 161
The bourg as model, 162 - Gondrecourt (Meuse) and its villages in 1790:
the evidence of socio-professional categories, 166.
CHAPTER SIX Explaining the system: the towns 179
What counts as a town?, 180 - Some straightforward examples, 189 -
Besarn;:on and the problem of regional leadership, 191 - Roanne and its
region: a crossroads, 204 - Roanne, or the triumph of transport, 210 -
Capitalism and feudalism, 222 - Inside the town, 226 - Roanne in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 227 - Laval, or the twin triumph of
industry and long-distance trade, 231 - Caen: urban model or point of
reference?, 240 - Big cities in the true sense, 248 - Paris: a city like the
others?, 251 - The village-bourg-town schema in our own times, 259.
PART III WAS FRANCE INVENTED BY ITS
GEOGRAPHY?
CHAPTER SEVEN On not exaggerating the role
oft he French 'isthmus' 265
The Rhone in the old days, before 1850, 268 - The French isthmus and the
unity of France, 276 -The Rhone as frontier-river, 281 -The fortunes of
Lyon, 288 - The present day: from Rhone to Rhine, 296.
CHAPTER EIGHT Paris, the lie de France, and
the Paris basin 301
The primacy of the Paris basin, 302 - But why Paris?, 306.
CHAPTER NINE The frontier: a crucial test 309
The persistence of frontiers and boundaries, 310 - The Treaty of Verdun
(843), 312 - Four crucial years: 1212, 1213, 1214, 1216, 315 - France's
'natural' frontiers, 318 -The sea: reached without haste, never mastered,
323.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER TEN Two case studies: Metz andToulon 329
The north-eastern and eastern frontiers, 329 - Why Metz?, 336 - War in
slow motion, 338 - But where was the war?, 346 - Should we feel sorry
for Metz?, 348 - Our second excursion: to Toulon, 351 - What does it all
prove?, 367.
History and environment: af ew last words 373
Notes 377
Glossary 405
Index 411
LIST OF FIGURES
1. A province and its 'pays': Savoie (Savoy) in the
eighteenth century 43
2. Gascony: a complex province 46
3. The 'pays' of Burgundy 48
4. Distribution of roofing materials in France 54
5. The northern limits of some southern plants 61
6. The territory of the Cinq Grosses Fermes (t ax farms) 68
7. The slow decline of local dialects 96
8. The 'southern medio-romanesque zone' 100
9. The 'limes' running through central Gaul in about
400 101
10. The 45 departements with the highest percentage of
extended families in 1975 105
11. The Wars of Religion in France: localized rather
than countrywide 111
12. Dispersed population of France (i.e. living in
hamlets, villages and 'sections of communes') 132
13. Regional trade specialization of temporary
emigrants from the Auvergne in the eighteenth
century 159
14. The region and canton of Gondrecourt 168
15. Roman roads through Lorraine, and the area where
'under and over' tiles are the traditional roofing
material 171
16. The population of Gondrecourt and its canton 173
17. Immigration to Aix-en-Provence in the eighteenth
century 184
18. Place of origin of married men living in Versailles,
1682-9 185
19. Marseille and Rouen: unequal and imperfect
exploitation of the French market as a whole 186
LIST OF FIGURES
20. Immigration to Lyon, 1529-63 190
21. The town of Besan~on and its site 192
22. Telephone links in the Besan~on area, 1956-8 203
23. How Roanne captured the Charlieu traffic 210
24. Roanne in mid-eighteenth century 212
25. 'Chaland' or barge on the Loire 215
26. The changing socio-professional pattern in Roanne 228
27. Caen and its surroundings 243
28. Some of Paris's supply routes at the end of the
Middle Ages 256
29. Roman roads round Lyon 277
30. Islands in the Rhone 283
31a and b. Plans for engineering works on the Rhone,
attached to Vauban's memorandum of 1686 286
32. Twentieth-century development projects on the
Rhone 297
33. The division of Charlemagne's empire by the
Treaty of Verdun in 843 314
34. France's eastern defences 331
35. Vauban's 'pre carre' 333
36. Size of garrisons in Metz military zone 340
37. Plan of Toulon at the time of the siege in 1707 362
38. The siege of Toulon, 1707 365