French Workers and Foreign Workers. The Strikes in the Lorraine, 1905

Abstract

Lorraine du fer — this is what the French frequently call the region of the Lorraine.¹ Lorraine is the ancient and popular name for the departments of the Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Moselle. During the late nineteenth century, the area was the center of France’s iron and mineral industries. The most important concentration of mines and iron production lay essentially in a basin between the cities of Longwy in the northern end of the Meurthe-et-Moeelle and Nancy at the southern end. Traveling north along the Moselle river from Nancy to Pont-à-Mousson, then heading in an almost straight line to Briey and from Briey to Longwy and slightly beyond in an easterly direction a person would pass by the many mines and iron mills whose names are etched in the history of French industry: Pont-à-Mousson Auboué Homecourt, Joeuf, Villerupt, Longwy, and Mont-Saint-Martin.