Most of Alsace had gone to France,…
September 1681 CE
Most of Alsace had gone to France, with some towns remaining independent, when the hostilities of the Thirty Years War had finally ceased in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia.
The treaty stipulations regarding Alsace had been Byzantine and confusing; it is thought that this was done purposely so that neither the French king nor the German emperor could gain tight control, but that one would play off the other, thereby assuring Alsace some measure of autonomy.
Supporters of this theory point out that the treaty stipulations had been authored by Imperial plenipotentiary Isaac Volmar, the former Chancellor of Alsace.
The transfer of most of Alsace to France at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 had marked its start, along with Lorraine, as a contested territory between France and Germany (French-German enmity).
Because warfare had caused large numbers of the population (mainly in the countryside) to die or to flee, numerous immigrants began to arrive from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Lorraine, Savoy and other areas after 1648; this trend is to continue until the mid-eighteenth century.
Beginning in 1671, Anabaptist refugees came from Switzerland, notably from Bern.
Strasbourg has become a main center of the early Anabaptist movement.
France had consolidated her hold with the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen, which brought the towns under her control.
In September 1681, France occupies Strasbourg in an unprovoked annexation.
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