The impact of the Great War on French regionalism 1900-1924
<p>Many Radical politicians believed that the regionalist programme, including regional assemblies, was a threat to the Third Republic. It implied a return to a traditional society, based on the provinces of the Ancien Régime and under the influence of the Catholic church. It might encourage...
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| Iaith: | English |
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2020
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| _version_ | 1826302780792373248 |
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| author | Cudbird, TJ |
| author2 | Gregory, A |
| author_facet | Gregory, A Cudbird, TJ |
| author_sort | Cudbird, TJ |
| collection | OXFORD |
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<p>Many Radical politicians believed that the regionalist programme, including regional assemblies, was a threat to the Third Republic. It implied a return to a traditional society, based on the provinces of the Ancien Régime and under the influence of the Catholic church. It might encourage separatism in areas with a different culture and language. This view set an interpretative framework for the historiography of French regionalism. Such a framework is open to question because it ignores a more pragmatic strand of regionalism which developed just before the Great War and which saw a shift of power to regional elites and their institutions as a way of modernising the French economy. This was a regionalism wholly compatible with Republican values.</p>
<p>The thesis is based on the regions of Lorraine and the Auvergne 1900–1924. It starts by examining the attachment to a regional identity and culture among regional elites in the pre-war years and during the war. It then shows how those elites used regional solidarity to mobilise their populations behind the war effort. This attachment to a region among the local elites explains their actions post-war. The thesis examines the emergence of practical economic regionalism in the work of the French school of geography, which inspired Clémentel, the Minister of Commerce, in his regional reform of 1918, creating new economic regions by grouping together chambers of commerce. The thesis examines the economic programmes adopted by chambers of commerce after the war and the motives behind infrastructure projects undertaken for the benefit of each region’s economy. It demonstrates the degree of initiative they showed independent of central government. In a final chapter this new pragmatic regionalism is compared with other regional discourses—preserving the cultural identities of the past, decentralisation and particularism, and fear of a German revival, particularly economically.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T05:52:40Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:e96dfa6e-e594-4093-ad57-4b47874a1ceb |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T05:52:40Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
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| spelling | oxford-uuid:e96dfa6e-e594-4093-ad57-4b47874a1ceb2022-03-27T10:54:16ZThe impact of the Great War on French regionalism 1900-1924Thesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:e96dfa6e-e594-4093-ad57-4b47874a1cebFrench Economic History since 1789First World WarFrench chambers of commerceFrench Regions since 1789EnglishHyrax Deposit2020Cudbird, TJGregory, AHopkin, D <p>Many Radical politicians believed that the regionalist programme, including regional assemblies, was a threat to the Third Republic. It implied a return to a traditional society, based on the provinces of the Ancien Régime and under the influence of the Catholic church. It might encourage separatism in areas with a different culture and language. This view set an interpretative framework for the historiography of French regionalism. Such a framework is open to question because it ignores a more pragmatic strand of regionalism which developed just before the Great War and which saw a shift of power to regional elites and their institutions as a way of modernising the French economy. This was a regionalism wholly compatible with Republican values.</p> <p>The thesis is based on the regions of Lorraine and the Auvergne 1900–1924. It starts by examining the attachment to a regional identity and culture among regional elites in the pre-war years and during the war. It then shows how those elites used regional solidarity to mobilise their populations behind the war effort. This attachment to a region among the local elites explains their actions post-war. The thesis examines the emergence of practical economic regionalism in the work of the French school of geography, which inspired Clémentel, the Minister of Commerce, in his regional reform of 1918, creating new economic regions by grouping together chambers of commerce. The thesis examines the economic programmes adopted by chambers of commerce after the war and the motives behind infrastructure projects undertaken for the benefit of each region’s economy. It demonstrates the degree of initiative they showed independent of central government. In a final chapter this new pragmatic regionalism is compared with other regional discourses—preserving the cultural identities of the past, decentralisation and particularism, and fear of a German revival, particularly economically. </p> |
| spellingShingle | French Economic History since 1789 First World War French chambers of commerce French Regions since 1789 Cudbird, TJ The impact of the Great War on French regionalism 1900-1924 |
| title | The impact of the Great War on French regionalism 1900-1924 |
| title_full | The impact of the Great War on French regionalism 1900-1924 |
| title_fullStr | The impact of the Great War on French regionalism 1900-1924 |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of the Great War on French regionalism 1900-1924 |
| title_short | The impact of the Great War on French regionalism 1900-1924 |
| title_sort | impact of the great war on french regionalism 1900 1924 |
| topic | French Economic History since 1789 First World War French chambers of commerce French Regions since 1789 |
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