At the border of Italy, the Savoy countries, divided into two departments (Savoie and Haute-Savoie) are part of the Rhône-Alpes region. Located at the heart of the Alpine chain, Savoy was definitively united with France in 1860. Their natural boundaries are: to the west the course of the Guiers and the Rhone. To the north, Lake Geneva. To the east and south, the Alpine ridges up to the Grandes Rousses and up to a line that runs along the Grésivaudan then goes up towards the northeast cutting through the Isère valley.
Antiquity and Middle Ages :
From the 7th to the 5th century BC, the invasion of the Allobroges Celts pushed the Ligures into the high valleys. From 121 BC, the Romans subdued the Allobroges and, despite their resistance, managed to incorporate them into the Roman provincia.
The future Savoy then formed an important road junction leading from Italy to Geneva and Vienna. In the 4th century AD, the term “Sapaudia” (Savoy) appeared for the first time. In 443, Aetius, chief of the Roman militia in Gaul, stationed the Burgundians in the region as federates of Rome. They formed a kingdom at the fall of the Western Roman Empire, whose capital was Geneva, but which fell into the hands of Clovis’s sons (534). During the partition of Charlemagne’s kingdom, Savoy went to Lothair at the Treaty of Verdun (843).
The House of Savoy – 11th and 9th centuries
From the 11th century, the House of Savoy gathered territories in the Alps, with Humbert I of the White Hands (1056), who owned the counties of Belley, Sion and the Aosta Valley. Supported by Emperor Conrad II the Salic, he extended his power over Maurienne, Tarentaise, Chablais and Piedmont.
His son Odo I married the heiress of the Marquisate of Turin. The opportunistic policy led by Savoy towards its great neighbors (France, Germany, Italy) allowed it to acquire territories in Piedmont, the Vaud country and Valais.
Count Thomas I made Chambéry his capital (1232). His son, Peter II called the little Charlemagne, reorganized his states which were gaining importance. The house split into two branches, the younger of which obtained Piedmont (1245-1418).
10th and 17th centuries
The counts of Savoy turned towards Italy, after having fixed new borders between their country and the Dauphiné, which became French (1355). Subsequently, Amadeus VI and VII annexed Valmorey, Vercelli and purchased the counties of Nice and Genevois. Amadeus VIII, who reigned from 1391 to 1440, was made duke in 1416 and became pope under the name Felix V (1440-1449).
The 11th century was a period of decline and French tutelage. The Swiss Confederates seized the territories of the Lake Geneva basin (1536) and France occupied Savoy itself to secure passage to Italy. After the victory at Saint-Quentin (1557) alongside the Spanish, and the treaties of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), Lausanne (1564) and Evian (1569) Duke Emmanuel-Philibert recovered Savoy, the Gex country, the Genevois without Geneva, and Chablais. He acquired Tende and Oneglia in Italy, established his capital in Turin (1562) and established a regime of absolutism favorable to the Counter-Reformation. His successor, Charles-Emmanuel I, conquered Saluzzo but failed at Geneva (the escalade war, 1602). He had to cede to France, by the Treaty of Lyon (1601), the country of Gex, Valromey, Bresse and Bugey. Playing a dangerous seesaw game between France and Spain, the dukes lost Pinerolo, but acquired the Marquisate of Montferrat (1631, 1713), Alexandria and Sicily (exchanged for Sardinia in 1720), as well as the royal title (1713).
18th and 19th centuries
The Sardinian kings, who fought alongside France and then Austria in the 18th century, further enlarged their territories to the detriment of Lombardy. However, determined opponents of the French Revolution then of Napoleon, they were defeated in 1796 and saw their continental possessions annexed by France (1799).
King Victor-Emmanuel I, taking refuge in Sardinia, recovered his states, enlarged by Genoa, in 1815. Charles-Albert of Savoy-Carignano, who became king in 1831, opposed liberalism but reorganized the country, which had become Italy’s main industrial region. Piedmont then appeared to Italian patriots as the only state capable of opposing Austria. A liberal constitution was granted there in 1848, thanks to Balbo and Cavour. Lombardy revolted, called on its neighbor for help, but the two countries were crushed by Austria at Novara in 1849. The king abdicated in favor of his son Victor-Emmanuel II, who reigned from 1849 to 1878 and achieved the unification of Italy.
Italian Ambitions
From the 16th century, the Italian ambitions of the dynasty prevailed and the Savoyard decline began: on one hand the loss of Geneva and on the other hand, the occupation of Savoy by the French monarchy from 1556 to 1559. At this date, the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis returned Savoy to the dukes of Savoy.
In 1601, at the Treaty of Lyon, Henry IV obtained, against the cession of Saluzzo, Bresse, Bugey, Valmorey and the country of Gex. Louis XIII further invaded the country and obtained the cession of Pinerolo (1631). Louis XIV treated Savoy as a vassal state and occupied it in 1689 then from 1703 to 1713.
The Treaties of Utrecht forced the French to evacuate it. The states of the House of Savoy became a monarchy by the addition of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. Then Savoy was occupied by the Spanish, allies of France, and only regained its independence in 1748 (Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle).
The Attachment to France: After the Revolution
Savoy was attached twice to France, in 1792 and definitively in 1860. In November 1792, Savoy was annexed to respond, according to the rapporteur of the convention, to the call of national sovereignty and in the interest of Savoy and France. It then formed the department of Mont Blanc and part of that of Léman. But, as early as the following February, dissatisfaction appeared, soon followed by revolts. As dechristianization spread in France, the Savoyard clergy showed more opposition, then military conscription orders encountered growing difficulties.
French Domination
On the other hand, after the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1796) by which King Victor Emmanuel I ceded Savoy and Nice, French domination was more firmly established, favored by certain economic growth, especially from 1800 to 1801.
Then various oppositions manifested: increased resistance to conscription, hostility to the maintenance of revolutionary institutions maintained especially by the clergy and nobility. In May 1814, at the first Treaty of Paris, Victor Emmanuel I recovered the eastern part (Chablais, Faucigny, Tarentaise, Maurienne), the west being left to Louis XVIII.
The second Treaty of Paris (November 1815) restored all of Savoy to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, reestablishing unity and the return to traditional monarchy. Even if some opposition formed between 1815 and 1848, the agitation movements (1830 – 1834) remained insignificant and liberal ideas (1847) progressed little.
The Franco-Italian Treaty of 1860
More serious but ultimately failing, the expedition of Lyon republican workers who occupied Chambéry in March-April 1848 (expedition of the Voraces) was not without consequences. It gave the country, which was otherwise little sensitive to Italian efforts for the liberation of the peninsula, the impression that the government of Turin had done nothing to defend it.
Moreover, it increased the hostility of Catholic conservatives to any French republican enterprise. On the other hand, it prepared them to give their adhesion to an annexation of Savoy to France when the latter passed under imperial rule.
The question of the attachment of Savoy to France was only settled in April 1860 by the Franco-Italian Treaty of March 24, 1860, sanctioned by the referendum of April 22 (the policy of “compensations” led by Napoleon III who supported Italian unification). Savoy was then divided into two departments, Savoie and Haute-Savoie.