Editing Ardèche (section)

== History ==

===Prehistory and ancient history===
Humans have inhabited the area at least since the [[Upper Paleolithic]], as attested by the famous cave paintings at [[Chauvet Cave|Chauvet Pont d'Arc]]. The Ardèche river plateau has extensive standing stones (mainly [[dolmen]]s and some [[menhir]]s), erected thousands of years ago.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.lemonde.fr/m-styles/article/2020/12/18/en-ardeche-il-y-a-plus-de-dolmens-qu-en-bretagne_6063802_4497319.html | title=En Ardèche, il y a " plus de dolmens qu'en Bretagne ! " | newspaper=Le Monde.fr | date=18 December 2020 }}</ref> The river has one of Europe's largest canyons, and the caves that dot the cliffs—which go as high as 300 metres (1,000 feet)—are known for signs of prehistoric inhabitants (arrowheads and flint knives are often found).

The Vivarais, as the Ardèche is still called, takes its name and coat of arms from [[Viviers, Ardèche|Viviers]], which was the capital of the [[Gaul]]ish tribe of [[Helvii]], part of [[Gallia Narbonensis]], after the [[Archeological site of Alba-la-Romaine|destruction of their previous capital]] at [[Alba-la-Romaine]]. Saint Andéol, a disciple of [[Polycarp]], is supposed to have evangelized the Vivarais during the reign of Emperor [[Septimius Severus]], and was supposedly [[martyr]]ed in 208. Legend tells of Andéol's burial by Amycia Eucheria Tullia.<ref>
{{cite book
| last       = Du Boys
| first      = Albert
| title         = Album du Vivarais, ou itinéraire historique et descriptif de cette ancienne province
|trans-title=Album of the Vivarais, or historic and descriptive guidebook of this ancient province
| url           = https://books.google.com/books?id=wsYOAAAAQAAJ
| access-date    =3 January 2011
| year      = 1842
| publisher=Prudhomme 
| language  = fr
| page      = 192
| quote         = S'il faut en croire l'antique légende, le corps de l'apôtre [...] fut recueilli par une vierge de l'une des premières familles du Vivarais, ''Anycia'' ou ''Amycia Eucheria Tullia'', fille du sénateur ''Eucherius Valerianus'' [...] Sainte Amycie fit creuser dans le roc un oratoire, ou elle déposa les restes de Saint Andeol
}}
</ref> In 430, Auxonius transferred the see to Viviers as a result of the problems suffered at its previous site in Alba Augusta.

===Medieval history===
The Vivarais area suffered greatly in the 9th century with raids by [[Hungarian people|Hungarians]] and [[Saracen]] slavers operating from the coast of [[Provence]] resulting in an overall depopulation of the region.

In the early 10th century, economic recovery saw the building of many [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] churches in the region, including Ailhon, Mercuer, Saint Julien du Serre, Balazuc, Niègles, and Rochecolombe. The medieval county of Viviers or Vivarais at this time was administratively a part of the [[Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles]], formed in 933 by [[Rudolph II of Burgundy]]'s fusion of [[Provence]] and [[Kingdom of Burgundy|Burgundy]] and bequeathed by its last monarch [[Rudolph III of Burgundy]] to the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor|Conrad II]] in 1032. Locally throughout this period, the Church played an important role. John II (Giovanni of Siena), Cardinal and [[Bishop of Viviers]] (1073–1095), accompanied Pope [[Urban II]] to the [[Council of Clermont]].

It was later held in fief by the [[Counts of Toulouse]], who lost it to the French crown in 1229. In 1284, with the Cistercian Abbey of Marzan, Philip IV established Villeneuve de Berg, and by the treaty of 10 July 1305 [[Philip IV of France]] obliged the bishops of Vivarais to admit the sovereignty of the kings of France over all their temporal domain. The realm was largely ignored by the Emperors and was finally granted to France as part of the domain of the [[Dauphin of France|Dauphin]], the future [[Charles VII of France|Charles VII]] of [[House of Valois|Valois]] in 1308. During this period, the Maillard family, as Counts of Tournon, were influential in the Ardèche. During the [[Hundred Years War]], the area maintained its loyalty to the French crown despite frequent attacks from the west.

===Early modern history===
As a result of the reformation of [[John Calvin]] in [[Geneva]], the Vivarais Ardèche was one of the areas that strongly embraced Protestantism partly as a result of Jacques Valery's missionary activity in 1534. During the [[French Wars of Religion|Wars of Religion]] (1562–1598), the Ardèche was considered a strategically important location between Protestant Geneva, Lyon, and Catholic Languedoc. The region had prospered with the introduction of tobacco growing from America, and the agrarian experiments of [[Olivier de Serres]], father of modern French agriculture. The influence of Protestant Lyon, and the growth of the silk industry, thanks to the planting of [[mulberry]] trees, gave the [[Bourgeoisie|burghers]] of the Vivarais towns a certain independence of thinking, and with the support of powerful Protestant [[Huguenot]]s (the Comte de Crussol and [[Olivier de Serres]]), the Vivarais became a Protestant stronghold. As a result, it suffered many attacks and eight pitched battles between 1562 and 1595. In 1598, the [[Edict of Nantes]] put an end to these struggles. At that time, the Vivarais had over 75 Protestant churches and five fortified strongholds with permanent garrisons. But the area's problems were not over. In 1629, Paule de Chambaud, daughter of the Huguenot lord of Privas, chose instead to marry a Catholic, the Vicomte de l'Estrange, who supported [[Cardinal Richelieu]]'s persecution of Protestants. With a majority of the population Protestant, Privas refused to submit, and as a centre of the revolt of the [[Benjamin de Rohan, duc de Soubise]], was burned to the ground by the forces of [[Louis XIII]], sent to support the Vicomte de l'Estrange. As a result, one-fifth of the Vivarais Protestant population emigrated.

[[File:Château de Crussol - Détail de la Villette intérieure - Le donjon en haut.jpg|[[Château de Crussol]]|thumb]]
The [[Revocation of the Edict of Nantes]] in 1685, which outlawed Protestantism, led the peasant family of [[Marie Durand|Marie]] and [[Pierre Durand, Huguenot|Pierre Durand]] to revolt against royal authority. This led to the [[Camisard]] revolt of the Ardèche prophets. Louis XIV responded by dispatching [[Dragoons]], who brutalised the population by "[[dragonnade]]s", destroying a number of communities. The brutality of those years was enormous and peace was restored only in 1715. As a result of brutality on both sides, another 50,000 Archèche Protestants fled France, many for Switzerland, whilst others were forced into abjuration (conversion).

In the next century, despite the growth of the community of Annonay, increasing polarisation between the upper nobility families such as Rohan Soubise, and Vogue, Count of Aubenas, possessing huge financial fortunes, and the lesser nobility, the village clergy and the bourgeoisie of the Vivarais paralleled developments elsewhere in France. Despite this, the sons of a local Annonay paper-maker, [[Joseph Montgolfier|Joseph]] and [[Jacques Etienne Montgolfier]], ascended in the first [[hot air balloon]] over the town on 4 June 1783. The firm of Canson Mongolfier continues making paper to this day and every year on the first weekend in June a large hot air balloon gathering celebrates the first journey. At the 200th anniversary in 1983, some 50 hot air balloons took part with the first historic flight reenacted with people dressed in period costume.

===Later modern history===
At the beginning of the French Revolution, the 1789 Declaration of Human Rights at last recognised Ardèche Protestants as citizens in their own right, free at last to practise their faith. Catholicism nonetheless continued to expand, and by the early 19th century the Ardèche included only 34,000 Protestants out of a population of 290,000. Named after the river of the same name, the Ardèche was one of the original 83 departments created during the [[French Revolution]] on 4 March 1790. The support of Count [[François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas]] representing the Third Estate of the Vivarais in the States General, the freeing of the serfs, and the support of the lesser clergy of the church ensured that the Ardèchois supported the early revolution, but they withdrew support when things became more radical. During the [[Reign of Terror]], in 1794, the [[guillotine]] at Privas was kept busy with the execution of the former moderate supporters of the revolution. Under the [[French Directory|Directory]], bands of [[Chouans]] took to the Cevennes to escape and support former [[émigré]]s.

[[File:Annonay Eglise de Trachin et nouvelle église.jpg|thumb|Annonay in the early 20th century]]
In the Napoleonic period, the Ardèche entered a period of increasingly prosperous inconspicuousness. After a period of eclipse, Viviers was reestablished in 1822 as the site of the see of the bishops of Ardèche, where it remains to this day. During the 19th century, modest economic growth took place. The population grew from 273,000 in 1793 to 388,500 in 1861. The silkworm industry boomed until 1855, when disease affected the worms and competition with China undermined the industry's profitability. Mining at Privas saw the exploitation of local iron ore, which was quickly depleted. As a result, six [[blast furnaces]] were established, but they were only moderately profitable, the last closing at Pouzain in 1929.

The scientific pioneer [[Marc Seguin]], whose inventions played a key role in the development of early locomotives, was born in the department. But Seguin located [[Seguin & Co.|his business]] upstream, near [[Lyon]], and industrial development in the Ardèche remained relatively small-scale. No large towns appeared in the department during the years of France's industrialisation, and its official population total of 388,500, reached in 1861, turned out to be a peak that has not since been matched. Since the 1860s, the Ardèche economy has been split between the prosperous Rhône valley and the relatively poor and mountainous Haut Vivarais on the department's western side. Sheep farming did not lead to the prosperity hoped for and wine growing, badly hit by the [[phylloxera]] crisis during the last decades of the 19th century, has had to compete with other more established areas of France.