Political Geography in Vidal de la Blache: "La France de l'Est"

Abstract

In 1979, a surprising article of Y. Lacoste's appeared in the periodical publication «Hérodote» under the title of «A bas Vidal. . . Viva Vidal» («Down with Vidal, long live Vidal»), the objective of which was to unearth the last work of Vidal de la Blache: La France de l'Est (Loraine-Alsace) (1917). In this work, Lacoste distinguished some aspects previously ignored in what has traditionally been considered the vidalian model of geography; aspects such as economic social and especially, geopolitical phenomena. This article attempts to make a more profound analysis of one of the questions raised in Lacoste's article: What role did Political Geography play in the French Vidal de la Blache School of thought?. Many of the works and actions of Vidal's disciples demonstrate a special interest in Political Geography, with the momentaneous abandon of the descriptive model, so characteristic of French regional Geography. In fact, the Alsace-Loraine frontier dispute at the end of the First World War was the central theme in La France de l'Est. The truly geo-political elements of this work have been extracted, in an effort to demonstrate that one aspect of the Vidalian School has long been forgotten -the aspect of Political Geography.