Draft:History of Savoy from 1815 to 1860

The history of Savoy from 1815 to 1860 begins with Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and the Treaty of Paris signed on November 20, 1815. The Duchy of Savoy was returned to the princes of Savoy after twenty-three years of revolutionary and then Napoleonic occupation. However, this restoration marked the beginning of a growing divide between the Savoyard population and the House of Savoy. The implementation of an authoritarian monarchy gave the Savoyards the feeling of being a minority within an Italophone entity, and above all, the attempts to unify the Italian Peninsula and the financial implications of those efforts seemed out of step with the concerns of the Savoyard people.

Moreover, the French experience allowed the Savoyards to become aware of their cultural similarities with their French neighbors, despite the various annexations. A cultural blending took place, notably through the army under the First Empire (1814): 18 lieutenant generals, 800 officers, and 25,000 soldiers of the imperial army were of Savoyard origin, out of a total of 300,000 men.

The rift deepened when, in the 1840s, the House of Savoy implemented an expansionist policy on the Italian Peninsula, aligning with the various independence movements that Italians callsorgimento. The final separation was formalized by the Treaty of Turin in 1860, which handed Savoy over to France in exchange for the military support it had provided to the House of Savoy in liberating itself from the yoke of the Austrian Empire and thereby making it possible to create the Kingdom of Italy, over which it became the ruling dynasty.

A curious destiny is that of the lands we call Savoy: a land of the Empire in the Middle Ages, but from the outset divided between the pull of the Rhône Valley and that of the Po Valley. The cradle, over the centuries, of a dynasty of French language and culture, but one which the vagaries of history made the mother of Italian unity, fighting at different times against the Dauphiné, against Valais, against Calvinist Geneva, against Milan, and, despite these incessant wars, managing to equip itself with an administrative framework of remarkable precocity—long a subject of discord between France and the Holy Roman Empire, then between France and Spain, and finally between France and Austria—currently, a link between the two friendly countries that occupy the two sides of the Alps.

— Foreword by André Chamson, Director General of the French Archives, of the Académie Française

Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia (1802–1821) and the buon governo

Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia (1759–1824).

The return of the Duchy of Savoy to the fold of the Kingdom of Sardinia was only finalized with the Treaty of Paris in 1815. King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia then attempted to establish an authoritarian monarchy, but he abdicated in 1821, refusing to grant a constitution in the face of early signs of insurrection.

The reorganization of the duchy

Division of Savoy after the Treaty of Paris on May 30, 1814.

The Treaty of Paris of May 30, 1814, restored only part of the ducal territory to the King of Sardinia. Article 2 of the treaty stipulated that France would retain its pre-war borders, but the subsequent articles allowed it to expand. Thus, Articles 7 and 8 specified that the greater part of Savoie Propre, including Chambéry (which remained the capital), and the Genevois region with Annecy, remained under French control under the name "Department of Mont-Blanc." The portion returned to the King of Sardinia resumed the former title of Duchy of Savoy, with the governor, the general intendant, and the Senate of Savoy (reduced to seven members) established in the town of Conflans, renamed Albertville in 1835 after merging with the commune of L’Hôpital-sous-Conflans. Joseph de Maistre considered this division of the Savoyard population to be “intolerable:”

Poor Savoy, Sire! How this ancient heritage is treated! At least, if it were not divided, in mourning its former master, it would have the consolation of preserving its integrity; but this division of the indivisible is unbearable. What will this handful of wretches do, pressed upon the Alps and forced to seek justice beyond the mountains in a foreign language? It is a great misfortune, in every respect. Why not leave us as we were? Those who uphold the thirty-year statute of limitations in their courts should respect the one of eight centuries in their treaties.

— Joseph de Maistre, in Saint Petersburg, to the King of Sardinia

Thus, it is not until the Treaty of Paris of November 20, 1815, that Savoy’s unity is restored. However, a few communes are ceded to the canton of Geneva. The duchy reorganizes, and Chambéry once again becomes the capital, hosting the various administrative services. A new territorial reorganization into provinces is implemented.

Province	Chief Town	Districts	Communes	Changes
Savoie Propre	Chambéry (capital of the duchy)	12 – Aix; Chambéry; Chamoux; Châtelard; Échelles; Montmélian; La Motte-Servolex; Pont-de-Beauvoisin; La Rochette; Saint-Genix; Saint-Pierre-d'Albigny; Yenne	142	In 1818, addition of the district of Ruffieux.
Chablais	Thonon	6 – Abondance; Biot; Bons; Douvaine; Evian; Thonon	58	In 1818, the district of Bons was eliminated.
Faucigny	Bonneville	9 – Bonneville; Chamonix; Cluses; Megève; La Roche; Saint-Jeoire; Sallanches; Samoëns; Taninges	69	In 1818, the district of Megève was removed and the district of Saint-Gervais was created.
Genevois	Annecy	6 – Annecy; Duingt; Faverges; Talloires; Thônes; Thorens-Sales	74	In 1818, the district of Talloires disappeared; the districts of Rumilly and Albens were merged.
Haute-Savoie	Conflans then Albertville	4 – Beaufort; Conflans; Grésy; Ugines	41	Created in January 1816.
Maurienne	Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne	7 – Aiguebelle; La Chambre; Lanslebourg; Modane; Saint-Étienne-de-Cuines; Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne; Saint-Michel	69	In 1818, the district of Saint-Étienne was eliminated.
Rumilly	Rumilly	4 – La Biolle; Ruffieux; Rumilly; Seyssel	60	Created in December 1816. Suppressed in 1818 and divided among the provinces of Savoie Propre, Genevois, and Carouge.
Tarentaise	Moûtiers	5 – Bourg-Saint-Maurice; Bozel; Moûtiers; Sainte-Foy; Saint-Jean-de-Belleville	56	In 1818, the district of Sainte-Foy was eliminated.
Carouge	Saint-Julien	3 – Annemasse; Reigner; Saint-Julien	58	The first province disappeared with the Treaty of Turin in 1816, with the annexation of 24 communes to Switzerland, allowing for the creation of the Canton of Geneva. In 1818, the district of Seyssel was attached.
Provinces of the Duchy of Savoy

An authoritarian regime

The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1821).

Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia strives to establish a class-divided society, based on expanded police powers. The nobility and wealthy business families, who hold public, legislative, or administrative responsibilities, form the upper class. The military, legal, medical, and academic professions are open to the so-called middle class. Manual labor is the inherited domain of the lower class.

The Royal Carabinieri, on January 5, 1815, were tasked with pursuing individuals deemed harmful to society. The number of beggars is considerable in Savoy. Police power is monopolized by the military (commanders, majors), who deliver summary justice without trial. Joseph de Maistre denounces this as the “tyranny of the Piedmontese town majors.”

This vigilant organization of a society focused on good morals and a communal peace based on force and police intimidation is mockingly nicknamed by the Savoyards: Il buon Governo. The Savoyard bourgeoisie finds this regime disconnected from public affairs and overly devoted to defending the throne’s interests. Moreover, the only sources of critical information have come from France or Geneva.

The Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion is declared the official religion of the kingdom, while other religions are tolerated.

Although the clergy had much of its property and personal rights confiscated in December 1792, it is nonetheless able to reassert its influence under this new regime. Priests, already responsible for civil registers and the oversight of communal schools, introduce religious instruction into school curricula, along with reading and writing in the Italian language. The return of state Catholicism marks the rebuilding of religious heritage destroyed during the Revolution, and no fewer than 130 Sardinian neoclassical churches are constructed, a movement sometimes referred to as “the last great Savoyard architectural trend.”

This policy meets resistance from liberals, who are found among the ranks of the Carbonari, a secret republican society aiming to establish a democratic government. They took action in Piedmont in March 1821, and also in Savoy. The Kingdom of Sardinia called upon Austria, whose troops brutally repress the insurrection. Many agitators were sentenced to death, including officers, non-commissioned officers, and Carbonari parliamentarians. The majority of the population remains passive, and the government’s policy remains unchanged. However, the activism of these societies pushed King Victor Emmanuel to abdicate in 1821 in favor of his brother, Charles Felix.

Laws and judges

In §15, Book 3, Letter 2 of the Laws and Constitutions of His Majesty the King of Sardinia, it is stated that the decisions of magistrates and senators must uphold the Laws, the Constitutions of the country, and the articles of the places where the matter is being judged. The laws and ordinances of the ruling power are always written in Italian and translated into French for publication in the Duchy of Savoy.

Judiciary

Senate: After the king, the most powerful authorities are the senators. They are responsible for trying high-ranking officials and executing the prince’s will. The Senate’s seat in Savoy is located in Chambéry. This major judicial body is composed of two chambers: the Court of Auditors and the Court of Appeals, which reports to the king in civil matters (it was Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy who instituted these major judicial bodies after abolishing the States General of Savoy). These magistrates, appointed by the king, are overseen by a president (bearing the title of “Excellency”), responsible for validating the edicts, letters patent, and writs issued by the supreme authority—that is, the House of Savoy. The rulings delivered by the Senate are final and must be executed within twenty-four hours.

Courts: “In each capital of the eight provinces of Savoy, there is a court of ‘judicature mage’ composed of two magistrate judges and a president.” This court has existed since 1823 and handles all civil cases whose value exceeds three hundred francs, as well as appeals rendered within its province. One can only appeal the judgment of these magistrates when the importance of the case exceeds one thousand francs. Before 1823, the judicature mage had only one judge. From that year onward the mortgage system (property rights, land ownership, etc.) has existed in Savoy.

Conciliations: Below that monetary threshold, the local castellan is responsible for settling all disputes and disagreements among inhabitants.

Death sentences

By decree of the Senate, a condemned person, after being notified of the sentence by the criminal court clerk, is placed at the disposal of the executioner (the hangman). The public is allowed to witness the agony of the condemned, chained to a stool in the prison for twenty-four hours. On the day of the execution, the city bells inform the inhabitants that the condemned is walking toward their punishment. At the prison gates, penitents accompany the condemned while singing psalms, led by a priest. The hangman holds the rope already placed around the victim’s neck as they make a tour of the city, before heading to the gallows for execution by hanging.

Sentences to the galleys

The person sentenced to the galleys is brought to the execution square to witness the torment. He is then paraded around the city, carrying a boat oar on his shoulders (a symbol of the punishment), watched over by judicial soldiers and accompanied by the tolling of the bell. He remains in chains until his departure to the galleys.

Return to the roots

Following the return to the States of Savoy, local elites developed scholarly societies. Thus, in 1819, the Académie de Savoie—or the Academy of Sciences, Literature, and Arts of Savoy—emerged in the duchy, modeled on the Academy of Turin, at the initiative of four prominent local figures: Cardinal Alexis Billiet, bishop of Chambéry; General Count François de Mouxy de Loche; Senator Count Xavier de Vignet; and Knight Georges-Marie Raymond, a literary scholar and mathematician, and founder of the newspaper Savoie. A few decades later, other learned societies were founded: in Annecy, in 1851, figures such as Deputy Jules Philippe and Magistrate Camille Dunant revived the Académie florimontane, founded in 1607 by François de Sales and President Antoine Favre; in Chambéry, in 1855, Claude Saillet (professor of literature), François Rabut (professor of history), and Joseph Dessaix (journalist, writer, and historian) founded the Savoy Society for History and Archaeology (SSHA); and in 1856, in the Maurienne region, Dr. Mottard founded the Maurienne History and Archaeology Society. Each of these societies became a meeting place and a way to promote a regional identity within the Sardinian kingdom.

Charles-Félix of Sardinia (1821–1831) and disappointed hopes:

Charles-Félix of Sardinia.

The Piedmontese revolution of 1821 raised hopes in Italy for establishing a liberal constitution. Under pressure, and while awaiting the return of Prince Charles-Félix of Sardinia, the regent Charles-Albert of Savoy-Carignano implemented this liberal constitution, known as the “Spanish” constitution, inspired by the Spanish Cortes of 1812. Upon his return, Charles-Félix abolished it in favor of an authoritarian monarchy.

The regency of Charles-Albert

The Italian Peninsula was shaken by secret societies promoting liberal ideas. A Piedmontese conspiracy began to take shape as early as 1820 and broke out in January 1821. Led by Santorre di Santa Rosa, the conspirators sought an end to the absolutism of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia, who was favorable to the Austrians, and they wished to launch a war of independence. They then approached the king’s cousin, Charles-Albert of Savoy-Carignano, the second in line to the throne. Initiated into Enlightenment ideas in Paris and Geneva, Charles-Albert nurtured hopes of replacing the Buon Governo with a liberal regime, due to his former sympathies for the carbonari. The liberals remembered that the sovereign had once been among the officers sent by Louis XVIII against the Spaniards. Faced with increasing tensions, Count di Santa Rosa urged Charles-Albert to serve as a mediator with his uncle to obtain a liberal constitution, or even to initiate a war of independence. On March 10, 1821, in Piedmont, the garrison of Alessandria, under the influence of the carbonari, revolted. The king had to act swiftly to prevent the rebellion from spreading. In the absence of his brother, Charles-Félix of Sardinia, who was visiting his father-in-law King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies in Modena, Victor Emmanuel entrusted, during the night of March 12–13, 1821, the regency to Charles-Albert of Savoy-Carignano, hoping that, being unprepared for succession, he would fail and that Austria would intervene.

That very evening, Charles-Albert promulgated a constitution inspired by that of the Spanish Cortes of 1812. Three days later, Charles-Félix condemned his nephew’s liberal stance through a proclamation and prepared to reclaim his throne. He ordered Charles-Albert to join him and abandon the liberals, and Charles-Albert complied secretly during the night of March 20–21. On April 8, Austrian armies entered Piedmont and crushed the liberal troops at Novara. The remaining liberals were hunted down, sent to hard labor, or executed. Savoy appeared not to react to these events. Disgraced, Charles-Albert withdrew to Florence (Tuscany).

Maintenance of a monarchical regime and interest in Savoy

Charles-Félix of Sardinia is buried in the Royal Abbey of Hautecombe.

Charles-Félix of Sardinia restored a conservative regime based on order. Only two Savoyards were part of the kingdom’s affairs alongside Charles-Félix: Count Roget de Cholex, Minister of Industry, and Count Sallier de La Tour, First Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, were the only Savoyard ministers attending the King's council meetings.

Plaque commemorating the purchase of the Royal Abbey of Hautecombe in 1824 by Charles-Félix of Savoy.

Charles-Félix multiplied actions in favor of his family’s birthplace, particularly in religious and architectural matters. In 1822, he reestablished the Diocese of Annecy, and in 1824 those of Maurienne and Tarentaise. The Church of Saint Francis, chapel of the first monastery of the Visitation, was restored in 1826. He ordered the return of the relics of Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, which had been hidden in the Château de Duingt by the Visitandines during the French Revolution. He attended the transfer of the relics to Annecy.

Still seeking to reaffirm his family’s antiquity and ties to the Church, he purchased the Abbey of Hautecombe, necropolis of the House of Savoy, which had been ransacked and sold as national property. He entrusted the Italian architect Ernesto Melano with the task of restoring the site, which had become a pottery workshop. Pleased with the result, Charles-Félix knighted Melano into the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus and assigned him the restoration of Tamié Abbey. However, the troubadour neo-Gothic style surprised some. Henri Ménabréa, librarian at the Municipal Library of Chambéry, wrote that "the Italian architect gave the abbey a new style, called coquettish and troubadour, out of step with the warrior ruggedness of the first Counts of Savoy." Charles-Félix of Savoy, the last direct descendant of the Blanches-Mains (White Hands) or Humbertians, also chose to be buried in this ancient necropolis of the House of Savoy in 1831. His wife, Maria Cristina, continued the restoration work until 1846.

The beginnings of the industrial revolution

General Benoît de Boigne, founder of a shelter for the poor and elderly in Chambéry.

To overcome the obstacles created by customs borders imposed by French authorities, connections between Albertville and Geneva were improved, and liberal customs laws were passed to assist merchants. Throughout Savoy, public assistance initiatives developed, supported by General Benoît de Boigne in the Chambéry area, including the founding of an asylum for the poor and elderly, the establishment of a hospital for contagious diseases, the expansion of the Hôtel-Dieu, aid to prisoners, and access to local libraries and learned societies.

Agriculture remained Savoy’s main resource. In 1825, the Royal Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce of Chambéry was founded to improve and encourage the diversification of crops. Agricultural land was predominantly owned by the local nobility and bourgeoisie. Historian Pierre Barral noted that in the agricultural fairs, "the recruitment was limited to a small number of major landowners who rarely farmed themselves; they acted in the name of the influence rightfully belonging to the notables in a society based on established wealth."

The first mountain excursions were initiated by a bourgeois elite, providing some opportunities for mountain farmers.

The inhabitants of Lanslebourg-Mont-Cenis are naturally robust, active, and hardworking. Most are employed in leading or transporting travelers and their luggage across Mont-Cenis, and in guiding or collecting them during the snow season, on their return from Piedmont. In the region, what is called "getting picked up" means going down the mountain in a straight line while sitting on a sled that can hold two people and is steered by a single man seated in front, using his heels with surprising boldness and dexterity. Once arrived in Lanslebourg-Mont-Cenis, the driver hoists his small vehicle onto his shoulders and climbs back up to the place called "la ramasse" to wait for other travelers.

— Quotation from Statistique du département du Mont-Blanc (1802) by Jean-Joseph de Verneilh-Puyraseau

Moreover, the development of watchmaking in Savoy, particularly in Faucigny, took shape with the creation of a Royal School of Watchmaking in Cluses by Achille Benoit in 1848. This institutionalization of an industry already present since the 18th century aimed to stop the emigration of local workers. Watchmaking training was later supplemented by courses in mechanics and electricity in the 1890s.

Primary education

During the Sardinian Restoration, Savoy communes benefited from many schools inherited from the French occupation beginning in 1792. Though poorly equipped, an 1847 publication states that “the Duchy of Savoy, which has 629 communes, possesses 647 primary schools for boys and nearly as many for girls.” There were 1,900 primary schools at the time of the annexation. Thus, 85% of the villages in Tarentaise had a school at the beginning of the 19th century. However, these schools operated only a few months a year, especially during the winter. Teaching was provided by seasonal teachers who were poorly trained and poorly paid. The presence of a school depended either on the town syndic or on the parents and was sometimes funded by a bourgeois from the village who had found success. Often, French language instruction was given by a Catholic priest of the parish known as the "vicar-regent," who was anti-Calvinist, or by religious confraternities.

In several schools, custom required that each student bring “chauffoirs” or “couvets” (wood logs) to heat the classroom. These couvets produced such large quantities of carbon dioxide, especially in damp weather, that it was not uncommon to see five or six students become semi-asphyxiated.

Charles-Albert of Savoy-Carignan (1831–1849) and the liberal regime

Portrait of Charles Albert of Sardinia in 1817.

During his exile, Charles-Albert of Savoy-Carignan enlisted as an ordinary soldier to fight against the Spanish liberals, alongside the Duke of Angoulême, nephew of Louis XVIII. He participated in the battle of the Fort du Trocadéro on August 31, 1823, and his bravery earned him the title of “First Grenadier of France.” He returned to Charles-Félix only after swearing to uphold the monarchy's foundations and preserve absolute power unchanged. In 1829, he was made Viceroy of Sardinia, and upon the death of Charles-Félix in 1831, he became King of Sardinia. The liberal ideas of his regency were now distant, but the core principles continued to spread throughout the kingdom, especially in Savoy.

The choice of loyalty over liberalism

Liberal aspirations spread through Savoy, particularly among the bourgeoisie. Thus, following a fierce sermon against liberalism by the French Jesuit Claude Guyon in January 1832, an anti-clerical uprising shook Chambéry. The following year, Piedmontese officers stationed in Chambéry who supported Giuseppe Mazzini’s republican Young Italy movement mutinied; twelve of them were executed in the spring. An apostolic delegation, established by Gregory XVI to monitor the Savoyard clergy deemed too favorable to liberal ideas, was tasked with finding solutions. However, the Senate of Savoy rejected them on January 30, 1833, deeming them “dangerous innovations whose publication would strike fear into consciences and sow discord within families.”

In 1834, Giuseppe Mazzini attempted to incite a general uprising in the kingdom and entrusted the Genoese Girolamo Ramorino, a former Napoleonic French general, with sparking rebellion in Savoy using Polish and Italian revolutionaries and a few volunteer Savoyard exiles. The men infiltrated Savoy through the Annemasse and Les Échelles regions. Despite promoting liberal ideals—human rights, fighting the poverty of peasants and workers, fairer wages, the necessity of associations, etc.—they were pursued by peasants.

The Savoyards, though interested in liberal ideas, ultimately refused to rise up against their king. This loyalty was mutual: in a letter dated January 12, 1849, to his friend, conservative deputy Louis-Marie Pantaleon, Marquis Costa de Beauregard, Charles-Albert wrote: “At no time has any sovereign loved (Savoy) as much as I have, nor more ardently desired to secure its true well-being and happiness.” This attachment to the land of his ancestors was evident in his decision to merge the ancient city of Conflans with the village of L'Hôpital-sous-Conflans, founded in the 12th century by the Knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, located at the confluence of the Isère and Arly rivers. He gave the new municipality his name Albertville, and funded its development.

The king's liberal turn and Savoyard misunderstanding

Charles Albert of Sardinia signing the Albertine Statute (March 4, 1848).

The Italian states in 1843, with Savoy in the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Starting around 1846, Charles-Albert’s policies began to confuse the Savoyards. Once again influenced by the liberal movement, he reformed the judiciary and administration by implementing the election of municipal councils. In 1847, two main political trends emerged in the Kingdom of Sardinia: one republican and revolutionary, inspired by Mazzini, and another monarchist, favoring more political freedoms and economic progress, led by Cesare Balbo, Massimo d'Azeglio, and Camillo Cavour. Together, these currents formed a movement called the Risorgimento (Resurrection). The revival of Italian political aspirations puzzled the Savoyards, who felt little concern for them. In this context, Le Courrier des Alpes, a journal for Savoy and the Sardinian States, appeared on February 3, 1843. It was an opposition paper founded by Jacques-Marie Raymond and later his brother Claude-Melchior Raymond, along with the poet Jean-Pierre Veyrat, and was based in Chambéry. It followed the Journal de Savoie: feuille politique, religieuse, littéraire, et contenant ce qui intéresse l'agriculture et les arts (1815–1842). Its content leaned toward Catholicism, monarchy, and conservatism.

In response to renewed tensions in the Italian peninsula, the newly elected Pope Pius IX promulgated some liberal reforms in March 1847 in the Papal States, which earned him much sympathy. In October 1847, Charles Albert parted ways with his minister Clemente Solaro della Margherita, who was very unpopular in the kingdom. This shift accelerated in the Kingdom of Sardinia during the Revolution of 1848. Charles Albert, against his will, signed a new constitution: the Albertine Statute (Statuto) of March 4, 1848, which nevertheless provoked concern and opposition from Savoyard nobles. Two chambers assisted the sovereign: the Upper Chamber, composed of members appointed by the king and seated at the Palazzo Madame, and the Chamber of Deputies located at the Palazzo Carignano in Turin, elected by citizens who could read, write, and paid more than 20 francs in taxes. Savoy, with 583,812 inhabitants, had 51,000 voters who elected 79 deputies between 1848 and 1860. It also had five representatives in the Upper Chamber in Turin.

The French republicans of 1848 called for liberty in France but also for the emancipation of foreign peoples. In the face of rising unemployment in Paris, Lamartine advised Savoyard emigrants to return home. These emigrants were expected to incite an uprising in Savoy. Moreover, the Commissioner of the Republic Emmanuel Arago (a member of François Arago’s family) and the “voraces” organized a march on Chambéry on March 31, 1848. Composed of workers from the Lyon region, they organized to support revolutionary Savoyard refugees eager for freedom. According to historian Paul Guichonnet, the French Foreign Minister Lamartine wanted to offer military assistance to the Sardinians to fight the Austrians to seize part of Savoy.

This column, “composed of 600 to 700 men, of whom barely 80 were armed,” occupied the city of Chambéry, raising French and Italian tricolor flags atop the masts, but without any concrete program. The voraces tried to organize a republican municipality, presided over by Philibert Reveyron, surrounded by twelve notable citizens seated at City Hall. The bourgeoisie, the clergy, and the anti-radical rural population took up arms and attacked the barracks held by the workers. Obeying the cautious instructions of Foreign Minister Lamartine, 148 men were eventually arrested and sentenced. French diplomatic pressure, and the dispatch of an ambassador, secured the release of the French and Savoyards involved in the affair; they were expelled to France.

Following these events, a new opposition newspaper appeared in Chambéry: Le Patriote Savoisien – Journal politique, industriel, commercial, agricole et littéraire d'opposition, on June 15, 1848. This newspaper was led by moderate liberal Nicolas Parent. Others followed: the satirical newspaper Le Chat in Chambéry, and L’Allobroge in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.

A difficult economic and social situation

In 1833, due to lack of exploitation and means, Savoy’s soil yielded no benefit from its natural riches. Savoy remained dependent on French, Swiss, or Italian imports. Cloth, hats, silks, and fine fabrics came from Grenoble and Lyon; jewelry came from the same cities or Geneva; small machinery from France and Switzerland; tanned leather from Carouge and Geneva; hardware from France and Geneva; tools from Germany; and calico or other manufactured goods from England via Switzerland and Genoa.

Savoy’s industry was underdeveloped, except for mining. The Savoyard mountains contained abundant iron, copper, silver, lead, and coal. The iron ore from Saint-Georges-des-Hurtières supplied nine major plants or blast furnaces producing 20,000 quintals of pig iron annually (unrefined molten iron bars), which, when reduced to iron at a rate of fourteen ounces per pound (marc weight), equaled fifteen quintals of 556 pounds.

The regional cheeses from the various valleys of Faucigny, Bauges, Beaufort-sur-Doron, Tarentaise, and Maurienne are sold in Piedmont, Lombardy, France, and Switzerland. Goat tallow is sought after in Lyon and Geneva for its quality in candle-making. Salted butter, layered in barrels, is exported to southern France and Spain. Pigs, traded in November and December at fairs in the regions of Annecy, Montmélian, Bonneville, La Roche-sur-Foron, and the Vallée de l’Hôpital, generate the highest revenues.

According to Paul Guichonnet, “the appalling condition in which the workers of Annecy were languishing was the same for all proletarians in the Sardinian States, deprived of any social legislation.” Monsignor Louis Rendu, originally from Meyrin in the Pays de Gex and bishop of Annecy (1842–1859), a precursor of social Catholicism, denounced the misery of the working class, placing sole responsibility on the employers for working conditions, wages, and hours. He was the first to advocate for the creation in every industrial locality of a support committee composed of a judge-mage, an intendant, a parish priest, a doctor, and two members appointed by the Minister of the Interior to protect the life of the worker as a human being. The minister’s response considered it dangerous to create rights for workers and to arm them against industrial business leaders.

However, the rural population was not spared. Poverty struck this part of the population just as harshly, where mountain living conditions led to poor development, such as rickets, or diseases like goiter or cretinism. According to the Royal Commission of 1848, these affected about 3% of the population.

With the rise of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte on December 10, 1848, the idea of a union of Savoy with France—more respectful of the Catholic religion and economically more stable than the Sardinian kingdom—began to gain traction among part of the local bourgeoisie. However, the majority of Savoyards viewed this possibility with indifference.

An industrial awakening

The necessity of uniting the Sardinian Kingdom with France was reflected in two studies concerning a new railway line between France and Savoy: one by Joseph François Médail, a customs broker who became a public works contractor, who on August 30, 1839, presented a project for the possible excavation of a tunnel under Mont Fréjus; and on December 10, 1839, the newspaper Gazetta del Piemonte (Gazette of Piedmont) presented a study by Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, demonstrating the usefulness of linking the Kingdom of Sardinia to France by railway through a tunnel under Mont Fréjus. A preliminary project for a new communication line between France and Savoy was presented on September 14, 1840, at the Scientific Congress in Turin. This plan involved a ten-kilometer tunnel, to be dug 650 meters below Mont Cenis.

Belgian engineer Jean Marie Henri Maus, at the request of King Charles Albert, was tasked with studying the railway route between Modane and Susa. Three reports were presented on August 8, 1845, March 26, 1846, and June 29, 1848.

As an example of local investment in agricultural modernization and increasing yields, the agricultural fair of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne gathered most of the province’s notables from 1843 onward: Mgr François-Marie Vibert, bishop of Maurienne; the province’s intendant, Chevalier d’Alexandry; Senator Anselme of Chambéry; Balmain, owner of the Epierre blast furnaces; Grange, lawyer and owner of industrial establishments in Randens; Dr. Mottard, and others.

Around 1815, in the Arve Valley (Cluses), and the provinces of Carouge and Faucigny in Savoy, nearly 1,800 workers were employed in watchmaking and small-scale mechanics. The cotton mill of Annecy, “the most important of the Sardinian States,” founded in 1806 and owned by Baron Jean-Pierre Duport of Termignon, was established in the remains of the Sainte-Claire convent. By 1847, it employed over 1,000 people operating 998 looms and 33,595 spindles.

This industrialization led to dreadful working conditions: “Each loom was managed by a spinner paid by piecework and earning around 2 francs per day in 1848. A child employed as a laborer for 14 hours had to reconnect the thread when it broke, earning 70 centimes a day, and 15 centimes for a little girl. Since the spinner was paid by output, he had every interest in pushing the unfortunate child to work harder to increase production.”

The Duchy of Savoy possessed many thermal springs, but few were exploited. Those of Aix-les-Bains and Saint-Gervais were the only ones in use by 1830. The spring at Brides-les-Bains near Moûtiers in the Tarentaise Valley was discovered in 1818 after a major flood of the Doron de Bozel river, and in 1845, the first thermal complex was inaugurated there.

The War of Independence in Italy

On April 30, 1848, at Pastrengo, the cavalry of King Charles Albert of Sardinia charged the enemy lines.

See also: Five Days of Milan

The formation of modern Italy began with the First War of Independence in 1848 against Austrian occupation. Charles-Albert, with the support of the main states of the Italian peninsula, hoped to defeat the Austrians, who had controlled Lombardy and Venetia since the Congress of Vienna. In March 1848, the Milanese rose up against the Habsburg government and, after five days of intense street fighting, forced Austrian Marshal Radetzky and his troops to evacuate the city. Sardinian troops and Savoyard volunteers entered Lombardy on March 25, 1848, to free it from Austrian rule. At Pastrengo, Rivoli, and Volta, the Savoy brigade fought bravely, pushing back the enemy. The regiment’s flag was awarded the first Silver Medal for Military Valor, and the brigade received praise from the sovereign.

Yet this war was not popular in Savoy:

• “A high and mighty barrier separates Savoy from Italy—its customs, habits, language, and commerce assign it no place in the great Italian family that is to be formed one day,” declared Louis Marie Pantaleon Costa before the Chamber on December 27, 1848.

• “If the War of Independence is popular in Piedmont, it is not in Savoy. You are fighting for your independence and nationality—but we, why are we fighting?” remarked Deputy Gustave de Martinel during the session of March 1, 1849, in the Chamber.

• One deputy summed up the situation as: “Your cause is not ours.”

The war of independence is unpopular, administrative decentralization, customs tariffs that increase the price of French imports, and the forced loan to pay the armistice indemnities are all denounced in Savoy. On February 16, 1849, sixteen Savoyard deputies drafted and signed a memorandum drawing up an inventory of the societal state of Savoy, in which they demanded autonomy for the country that had once conquered Piedmont but was now its vassal.

Belonging to the Sardinian kingdom was increasingly questioned by the Savoyard left, right, and conservatives alike. At the same time, Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, who succeeded his father Charles-Albert after the failure of the first war, and Camillo Cavour sought the help of a powerful ally like France to break Austrian control, which demanded concessions in return.

Administrative organization

The law of August 30, 1840, reformed the administrative territorial organization of the Duchy of Savoy by maintaining the eight provinces and assigning Savoie-Propre an independent general intendant based in Chambéry and the Genevois an independent general intendant based in Annecy. The general intendant of Chambéry retained within his jurisdiction the particular intendancies of Maurienne, Haute-Savoie, and Tarentaise. The laws and regulations of public administration, as well as circulars and instructions issued by the Savoyard general intendants, were commonly published in French.

The law of October 31, 1848, confirmed the law of August 30, 1840, by giving the district of the general intendant the title of administrative division of Chambéry and by instituting a divisional council elected like the provincial councils of the four provinces.

On the eve of the 1860 annexation, the territorial organization of the Duchy of Savoy was reorganized into two administrative divisions—Chambéry and Annecy—foreshadowing the future departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie, established under the civil rights provisions of the Constitution of Year VIII. Each of these administrative divisions was subdivided into provinces (four for Chambéry and three for Annecy), then into mandements (29 and 22 respectively), and finally into communes (341 and 289 respectively). The population was estimated at 592,223 over 1,016,490 hectares.

Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy (1849–1861) and the separation

Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy.

Participation in the Italian War of Independence wore out not only the Savoyards but also the Italian subjects of King Charles-Albert following various defeats. The defeat at Novara (March 23, 1849) led to the king’s abdication the very next day—he was present on the battlefield—and his exile to Oporto, Portugal. The crown thus passed to his son Victor Emmanuel. Determined to build a modern state, he retained the Statuto (constitutional charter) despite Austrian pressure and accepted a liberal government.

A traditional society

Savoyard society was traditionally and hierarchically organized, with a strong clerical presence that oversaw faith and public morals; nobles and bourgeoisie who shared administrative, political, judicial, and even military posts; a few workers; and above all, a large majority of peasants. Jacques Lovie, in his book La Savoie dans la vie française (1963), observed that Savoy lacked the necessary mechanisms to face the upcoming changes. Society was thus relatively compartmentalized on the eve of annexation—not to mention the isolating effects of winter on mountain villages.

The construction of the Mont-Cenis railway tunnel

On August 31, 1857, King Victor Emmanuel II ordered the start of construction on a railway tunnel. Under the direction of the Savoyard Germain Sommeiller, the first blast of the Mont-Cenis railway tunnel was ignited. The railway line connecting Aix-les-Bains to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne was completed in 1856, and its connection via Culoz to the French network was highly controversial. It was not until September 17 to 19, 1871, that the inaugural train, departing from Turin, reached Modane, where the Minister of Public Works, Victor Lefranc, and Ferdinand de Lesseps were present.

In order for the project to be approved by Sardinian government officials, in 1854, the Savoyard engineer Germain Sommeiller had to draft his plans and sketches in Italian, which were then translated into French for the Savoyard technicians.

Urbanization of Annecy

Annecy Town Hall. Building in the Sardinian neoclassical style.

Annecy became a major manufacturing center of the Kingdom of Sardinia and the vital hub of Northern Savoy with its ten thousand inhabitants. The cotton mill, “the most important in the Sardinian states,” was opened in 1804 by Jean-Pierre Duport, in the remains of the Sainte-Claire convent. Major urban works, begun in 1794, were carried out in the city, such as paving streets and squares, building bridges and quays, and constructing the town hall in a Sardinian neoclassical style in 1848, which was inaugurated in 1857.

The development of the lakefront and the creation of the public garden allowed Sunday strollers to cross the Pont des Amours and the Champ de Mars to reach the city center. The supply of drinking water and the modernization of gas lighting gave economic momentum to the Annecy region.

Toward the Union of Savoy with France

Camillo Benso di Cavour.

Camillo Benso di Cavour (a Savoyard by his paternal grandmother, from the de Sales family) retired to his estate in Leri, in the province of Vercelli (Piedmont) in Italy, became active in an agricultural association, and directed the journal Il Risorgimento.

In Savoy, the issue of clerical rights was one of the most important, and the measures taken were met with strong resistance from the Savoyard deputies. The Siccardi laws of 1850 called for the suppression of ecclesiastical immunities, the reduction of legal holidays, and the abolition of the right of asylum in churches. Nevertheless, this law increased the popularity of Victor Emmanuel II throughout the kingdom, as attested in a letter from Camille Dunant, a Sardinian official and witness to the king’s visit to Annecy in May 1850: "The most frequent cries were 'Long live the King! Long live the Constitution! Long live the Siccardi law!'" The "Rattazzi" law, drafted from November 1854 to May 29, 1855, suppressed monastic orders, seized convent property, and created an ecclesiastical fund to reassign the religious. During the vote in the Chamber, a majority of Savoyard deputies voted against it. They also opposed the auction of the Hautecombe estate. These inventories provoked public disapproval in Chambéry, Yenne, and La Roche. Furthermore, this law, along with the intervention in Crimea, led to a political radicalization in the 1857 elections: Savoy elected 20 Catholic conservative deputies out of 22. Movements and opinions regarding the annexation of Savoy to France became increasingly radical—those who had opposed union in 1848 became ardent supporters by 1860.

New taxes angered the population, and the press denounced the heavy taxation of workers and peasants, already burdened especially due to Sardinian military participation in the Crimean War (1853–1856) and poor harvests. This participation was pushed by Cavour, who sought to gain the support of the French. As early as 1852, he declared: "It is above all on France that our destiny depends." Among the forces sent to Crimea was the Savoyard brigade, commanded by Colonel Philibert Mollard, who was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour on that occasion.

By 1860, Savoyard public opinion was divided between those who supported and those who opposed the policy of Camillo Benso di Cavour. The newspapers L’Écho du Mont-Blanc and Le Courrier des Alpes in 1858, after the znnouncement of the birth of the imperial prince Louis-Napoleon, provoked the Sardinian authorities by ending the article with: "Long live the Emperor! Long live France! Long live Savoy!" In the neighboring provinces of Switzerland (Faucigny, Chablais, and Lower Geneva), some even considered joining the Swiss Confederation. Advocates of this plan spread their ideas through La Savoie du Nord, founded in Bonneville. A petition on this issue gathered more than 13,651 signatures from 60 municipalities in Faucigny, 23 in French Chablais, and 13 around Saint-Julien-en-Genevois.

Constitutionalist and liberal deputies like Antoine Louaraz supported Camillo Cavour but demanded reduced customs duties for Savoy and a more aggressive stance against clerical power. Their newspapers Le Patriote savoisien and L’Indépendant du Faucigny opposed Napoleonic despotism and the separation of Savoy from Piedmont.

Napoleon III narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by Count Felice Orsini on January 14, 1858—a key figure in the Italian Risorgimento—which almost derailed the Franco-Sardinian collaboration. The emperor wrote a rather stern letter to Victor Emmanuel II, asking him to take action against the revolutionaries. But a letter from Orsini, read aloud at the Seine assize court, was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale of Turin: "May Your Majesty not reject the final wish of a patriot on the steps of the scaffold—deliver my homeland, and the blessings of 25 million citizens will follow you into posterity."

In May 1858, Dr. Henri Conneau, the emperor’s physician, traveled to Turin to inform Camillo Cavour of the upcoming imperial visit to Plombières. On July 21, 1858, the meeting between Camillo Cavour and Napoleon III took place in the Pavilion of the Princes. In this peaceful town of the Vosges, Savoy’s fate was sealed.

War against Austria (May–July 1859)

The Battle of Varese in 1859 (Quinto Cenni).

See also: Second Italian War of Independence

At the beginning of 1859, the Sardinian government adopted a provocative stance toward the Austrian Empire. Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi returned to Italy to organize a corps of volunteers, the “Hunters of the Alps” (Cacciatori delle Alpi), enlisting exiles from the Austrian-controlled Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia without limits. Aware of the Plombières agreement, the Austrians decided to act first, aiming to replicate the 1849 success of Marshal Joseph Radetzky against Charles-Albert of Sardinia at Novara. On April 26, Austria declared war on the Kingdom of Sardinia. France, bound by a defensive alliance and facing no internal political opposition, decided to honor the treaty.

Camillo Cavour, confident of French support, refused the Austrian ultimatum of April 23, 1859. On April 27, the Austrians crossed the Ticino River. French troops arrived via the Mediterranean and over the Mont-Cenis, and were cheered by the Savoyard population as they passed through Chambéry and along the Maurienne Valley. Costa de Beauregard remarked: “The idea of an Italian war is universally unpopular in Savoy. As long as we remain united, you will see Savoy at the front lines fighting Piedmont's enemies.” The red cravats of the Savoyard Brigade and the men of the 3rd Division, commanded by the Savoyard General Philibert Mollard, took the hill of Madonna della Scoperta at bayonet point and at a charge during the Battle of San Martino on June 24, 1859.

In France, the cession of Savoy appeared increasingly likely, as a reward for the human sacrifices made. The populations of southern Savoy strongly favored this union, which promised them military protection and advantageous trade.

1860: Annexation

See also: Annexation of Savoy and Treaty of Turin (1860)

Sketch by M. Moulin, published in Le Monde Illustré, weekly newspaper, no. 155, March 31, 1860. Caption: “Reception of Mr. Greyfié de Bellecombe and the Savoy delegation by Their Imperial Majesties, in the Louis XIV salon, at the Tuileries, Wednesday, March 21.”

At France’s request, in return for its support in the conquest of Lombardy—though the Sardinian government considered that France had not upheld its end of the deal by unilaterally ending the war—Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, King of Sardinia, ceded the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice to France by the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860.

Preparations: Propaganda

During the months leading up to the April plebiscite, decided by the two princes to legitimize the annexation in the eyes of the United Kingdom, but also of neighboring Switzerland, intense pro-annexationist propaganda was put in place under the direction of French Senator Armand Laity, appointed as the extraordinary imperial commissioner. There were concerns that part of Savoy might request to join the Swiss Confederation. As such, the governors of Chambéry and Annecy were warned: "Each commune must have a syndic who is firmly devoted to the French annexation, as he is the one who must give the impulse and preside over the electoral operations. A syndic loyal to the 'Piedmontese' or wishing for Switzerland would be completely inappropriate in such a circumstance. Significant purges have already taken place in the Province of Chambéry, among the syndics who were hostile or suspicious. The governor of Annecy would certainly do the same if necessary." Dr. Albert-Eugène Lachenal, governor-regent of Annecy, would carry out these instructions. Everything was done to preserve the unity of the former duchy and the annexation project. Moreover, to counter the potential project of joining Switzerland, the idea of a large free zone covering much of Northern Savoy was launched.

The free zone

Between February and March 1860, a petition circulated in Chablais and Faucigny for a union with Switzerland. The petition stated: "We have been united with France for a few years, and many still feel their hearts beat at the memory of this time. We have been closely united with Piedmont since 1848. However, despite all our sympathies for either a free Italy or France, other higher sympathies lead us to decide on annexation to Switzerland... Yes, this is our dearest desire, based on our exclusive ties with Geneva, our commercial interests, and so many benefits that we could not find elsewhere." It received support from the Journal de Genève, which relayed the various pro-Swiss initiatives. The idea of a union with Switzerland came from two Savoyard villages, Boëge and Saxel. The petition gathered 13,651 signatures across 60 communes in Faucigny, 23 in French Chablais, and 13 around Saint-Julien-en-Genevois. This initiative was also encouraged by Bern, supported by the United Kingdom, despite opposition from several German-speaking Swiss cantons to the creation of a 23rd canton that would be both French-speaking and predominantly Catholic.

On the other hand, Le Courrier des Alpes in its February 18, 1860 edition denounced these "maneuvers" aimed at dividing the duchy. To avoid this division in the northern part, the liberal deputy of Bonneville, Joseph Jacquier-Châtrier, promoted the idea of a large free zone encompassing Savoy's Chablais and Faucigny. He stated: "Do not doubt it, Helvetia has its supporters. A country that doesn't pay taxes, that is not driven by dynastic ambitions, and is not deprived of its youth by military conscription and permanent service—this country has a prestige that is just as valuable as the three colors..."

This free zone project was opposed by the pro-Swiss Savoyard newspaper La Savoie du Nord and the Journal de Genève, which in its March 2, 1860 edition stated: "This promise of a free zone is a lie; they want to deceive you to make you vote for France [...] Be certain that if France takes Chablais and Faucigny, it is to later force Geneva to become French, and for that, the customs line must be placed at the very gates of the city to bind it like a yoke and make it cry out for mercy, securing its surrender."

The free zone was partly based on the pre-existing customs zone located in the twenty or so Savoyard communes bordering the canton of Geneva (some of these were given to Switzerland by the Treaty of Turin in 1816). It included three distinct areas, not to be confused with the neutralized zone of Savoy:

• The "Sardinian zone of Saint-Julien" (151 km²), established by Article III of the Treaty of Turin of 1816.

• The "Sardinian zone of Saint-Gingolph" (33 km²), established by a royal manifesto on September 9, 1829.

• A large zone in Northern Savoy (3,112 km², or 70% of the Haute-Savoie department), covering the districts of Thonon (Chablais), Bonneville (Faucigny), and part of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois (Haut-Genevois), created in 1860. It was exempt from all duties on products coming from Switzerland, while products were taxed when they crossed the border in the opposite direction.

While the populations were generally favorable to this initiative, French propaganda under the direction of Senator Armand Laity, supported by the governor of Annecy, Dr. Lachenal, proved to be very effective. Furthermore, Savoyards from Paris returned to their native province to mobilize their fellow countrymen.

Proclamation of the vote

The vote on April 21 and 22, 1860, which every Savoyard already knew the results of, took place calmly. Churches held mass, and the Domine salvum fac Imperatorem (Lord, protect the Emperor) was sung. On April 29, the Court of Appeals in Chambéry, in its solemn hearings chamber, officially confirmed the results of the plebiscite, which asked: "Does Savoy wish to be united with France?" The secret ballot was held with "Yes" or "No," except for the northern part of the duchy, where a "Yes and Zone" ballot was introduced, seen as an expression of approval.

Plebiscite April 1860

Territory	Date	Registered voters	Voters	In favor of annexation	Voted 'Yes and Free Zone'	Against annexation	Abstentions	Invalid ballots (incl. pro-Swiss)	Army
Savoy	April 22/23	135,449	130,839	130,533	47,076	235	approx. 600	71	6,033 out of 6,350
Sources: Henri Ménabréa - Paul Guichonnet

Commemorative plaque marking the annexation in the ceremonial courtroom of the courthouse in Chambéry, where the results of the plebiscite were announced and made official.

On May 29, 1860, the Chamber of Turin ratified the cession treaty of March 24 by 229 votes to 33, with 25 abstentions, and the Senate by 92 votes to 10. On June 12, 1860, the Senate in Paris adopted the senatus consultum for annexation. The French constitution and laws became enforceable starting January 1 in all of Savoy and the arrondissement of Nice, which from that day became an integral part of the French Empire. On June 14, at the Château de Chambéry, the official ceremony of the "handover of Savoy and its union with France" took place, with the exchange of signatures between Senator Armand Laity, the Emperor's commissioner, and Chevalier Carlo Bianchi de Castagné, the commissioner for the King of Sardinia, in the presence of the two future prefects of Savoy and Haute-Savoie.

The plebiscite was unanimous. However, it should be noted that in some communes, the "No" ballots were absent. The intendant of Maurienne, Édouard Milliet de Faverges and Challes, wrote on April 16, 1860, to the interim governor in Chambéry, Charles Dupasquier: "As for the 'No' ballots, none were distributed... Legality kills, as Mr. Guizot used to say, Mr. Laity made me understand that one must also defend oneself against legality. How many times have I cursed it! How many injustices with legality! It is all the more worthy of hatred because it is often sovereignly hypocritical! And yet, without this legality, with the best intentions in the world, everything would go to hell. Meanwhile, I let the 'No' ballots go to hell."

See also

General articles

• Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)

Detailed articles about Savoie

• 1st Infantry Regiment "San Giusto"

• Neutralized Zone of Savoy

• Treaty of Paris (1815)

• Annexation of Savoy

• Treaty of Turin (1860)

Related articles about neighboring countries

• Unification of Italy

• House of Savoy

• Second French Empire

• Switzerland as a federal state

Bibliography

General books

• Cerisier, Emmanuel; Leguay, Thérèse; Leguay, Jean-Pierre (2005). Histoire de la Savoie [History of Savoy] (in French). Paris: Éditions Jean-paul Gisserot. ISBN 2-87747-804-1.

• Delaloye, Gérard (2002). Un Léman suisse : la Suisse, le Chablais et la neutralisation de la Savoie (1476-1932) [A Swiss Lake Geneva: Switzerland, the Chablais region, and the neutralization of Savoy (1476–1932)]. Archives vivantes (in French). Yens-sur-Morges/Saint-Gingolph: Éditions Cabedita. ISBN 2-88295-345-3.

• Mayeur, Jean-Marie; Sorrel, Christian; Hilaire, Yves-Marie (1996). La Savoie [Savoy] (in French). Vol. 8. Paris: Beauchesne. ISBN 2-70101-330-5.

• Edighoffer (1992). Histoire de la Savoie [History of Savoy]. Que sais-je? (in French). PUF. ISBN 978-2-13-044838-9.

• CH (1969). Cahiers d'Histoire (Revue) : « La Savoie. Des origines à nos jours » (Tome V, 4) [Cahiers d'Histoire (Journal): “Savoy: From its origins to the present day” (Volume V, 4)] (in French). Lyon: PUF.

Works on the period

• French-Italian Study Center (2000). Culture et pouvoir en Italie et dans les États de Savoie de 1815 à 1860 [Culture and power in Italy and the Savoy states from 1815 to 1860] (in French). Éditions Slatkine. ISBN 978-8-8776-0914-4.

• Avezou, Robert (1932). "La Savoie depuis les Réformes de Charles-Albert jusqu'à l'Annexion à la France, 1re partie (1847-1852)" [Savoy from the Reforms of Charles Albert to the Annexation by France, Part 1(1847-1852)]. Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société savoisienne d'histoire et d'archéologie (in French). 69: 1–176.

• Avezou, Robert (1933). "La Savoie depuis les réformes de Charles-Albert jusqu'à l'annexion à la France, 2me partie (1852-1860)" [Savoy from the reforms of Charles Albert to annexation by France, part 2 (1852–1860)]. Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société savoisienne d'histoire et d'archéologie (in French): 73–248.

• de Saint-Genis, Victor Flour (1869). Histoire de Savoie d'après les documents originaux depuis les origines les plus reculées jusqu'à l'annexion : La révolution (1713 à 1860) [History of Savoy based on original documents from its earliest origins to its annexation: The Revolution (1713 to 1860)] (in French). Vol. 3. Chambéry: Imprimerie Bonne, Conte-Grand.

• Heyriès, Hubert (2001). Les militaires savoyards et niçois entre deux patries, 1848-1871 : Approche d'histoire militaire comparée : armée française, armée piémontaise, armée italienne [The Savoyard and Niçois soldiers between two homelands, 1848-1871: A comparative military history approach: the French army, the Piedmontese army, and the Italian army]. Études militaires (in French). Vol. 30. Montpellier: Université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier III. ISBN 978-2-8426-9385-5.

• Milbach, Sylvain (2008). L'éveil politique de la Savoie, 1848-1853 : Conflits ordinaires et rivalités nouvelles [The political awakening of Savoy, 1848-1853: Ordinary conflicts and new rivalries]. Histoire (in French). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. ISBN 978-2-7535-0697-8.

• Milbach, Sylvain (2008). Entre Piémont et France : la Savoie déroutée, 1848-1858 [Between Piedmont and France: the turmoil in Savoy, 1848–1858] (in French). Chambéry: Éditions de l'université de Savoie. ISBN 978-2-9157-9750-3. ISSN 1771-6195.

• Palluel-Guillard, André (1986). La Savoie de Révolution française à nos jours, XIXe-XXe siècle [Savoy from the French Revolution to the present day, 19th-20th centuries] (in French). Ouest France Université. ISBN 2-85882-536-X.

Works on the Annexation of Savoy

• Varaschin, Denis (2009). Aux sources de l'histoire de l'annexion de la Savoie [At the origins of the history of the annexation of Savoy] (in French). Peter Lang. ISBN 978-9-05201-570-5.

• Guichonnet, Paul (1982). Histoire de l'annexion de la Savoie à la France et ses dossiers secrets [History of the annexation of Savoy to France and its secret files] (in French). Roanne: Éditions Horvath. ISBN 978-2-71710-235-2.

• Engels, Friedrich (1970). "La Savoie, Nice et le Rhin (1860)" [Savoy, Nice, and the Rhine (1860)]. Écrits militaires. Violence et constitution des états européens modernes [Military writings. Violence and the formation of modern European states] (in French). Éditions L'Herne. pp. 449–490.

External links

Institutions

• Archives départementales (2011). "Révolution, Empire et restauration sarde" [Revolution, Empire, and Restoration in Sardinia]. Conseil départemental de la Savoie (in French). Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.

• Conseil général de la Savoie; Conseil général de la Haute-Savoie (2010). "150 ans du Pays de Savoie" [150 years of the Pays de Savoie]. abaca-studio.com (in French). Archived from the original on February 23, 2010.

• Collectif (2015). "Savoie" [Savoy]. Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in French).

Others

• Roche-Galopini, Gisèle (2 January 2016). "1860. La ré-union de la Savoie à la France" [1860. The reunification of Savoy with France]. Association 1851 for the memory of republican resistance movements (in French). Archived from the original on December 2, 2020.

• Cerri, Alain. "Histoire de la Savoie. Journal de bord d'une Annexion, d'un rattachement, d'une réunion" [History of Savoy. Logbook of an annexation, a reunification, a reunion] (in French). Archived from the original on January 3, 2014.

• Savoyan League (2002). "Histoire de la Savoie" [History of Savoy] (in French). Archived from the original on February 19, 2014.

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