Peasants Into Frenchmen? The Case of the Flemish in the North of France 1860-1914

According to Eugen Weber’s classic thesis, peasants assimilated into the French nation between 1870 and 1914, when local languages and customs succumbed to the combined effects of economic modernisation and Republican integration (education, conscription…). Tim Baycroft analyses this model, which remains generally valid, for the Flemish peasants of northern France. He distinguishes political integration from linguistic and cultural assimilation. The French language spread in two main surges, before 1860 and after 1945. Loyally to the nation was secured between these two dates, several decades before acculturation. This occurred despite the resistance of Flemish in economic and religious life, among elites and even in primary schools, thanks to the solid establishment of the central administration.