Germans in France, late 18th Century

The American Revolution provided inspiration for the French Revolution. Let's back up just a bit and examine this connection. The American Revolution was successful THANKS to the French; they helped the colonists defeat the British. The French didn't do it out of love for the Americans, but because they couldn't afford for the British to have the prize of the American continent for themselves. As a result of this venture in aid of the Americans, France's economy was bankrupt. Now the French Revolution starts, much of the ideology based on America's constitution and Bill of Rights. Ben Franklin himself was ambassador to France, and was consulted often as to how the new democracy of France should be structured. Unfortunately the French path to democracy was more circuitous than the American version. The French people were not necessarily French and did not live in a new continent by their own choice. The people on the west side of the Rhine River were in French territory but spoke German. Germany as a country did not exist until much later. During this time there were only a number of individual kingdoms and principalities that happened to share varying versions of the Germanic language.

Why did Germans want to leave Alsace?:

July 25-30, 1789 Peasant revolt in Alsace
Reign of Terror: 1793-1794.
October 17, 1793 - Austrian army is driven out.
Dec. 16, 1797 - Austria recognizes French sovereinty.
1809 - Napolean drafts Germans to fight against the Austrians.
1812 - Napolean drafts Germans to fight against the Russians.

Why did Germans want to enter Ukraine?

Free land
Money allowance for Re-settlement
No forced military conscription
Freedom of speech, religion

Napoleon and the Danube Campaign

Several battles of Napoleon's Danube campaign were fought in 1809, which was significant in my history, since the earlier route of the German settlers to Ukraine was on the river Danube from Ulm. It is likely that the mass mobilization of troops in the area of Regensburg, northeast of Ulm, prevented my ancestors from taking the river course, but rather forced them to take a land route across central Germany to Poland, then south to the Ukraine. The land route was longer, but may have been safer, given that the earlier river people were robbed by Turkish pirates along the river, then succumbed to river-born diseases along the lower stretches of the river.

Revolutions - (the circular pattern emerges and the light shines)

If it weren't for three major revolutions I wouldn't be sitting here writing this. I would exist in a different mind, a different continent perhaps, wouldn't be named what I am, would have no knowledge of these events. My parents would not have met. My children would be someone else's. There would be another human being taking my place on this planet.

The American Revolution begat the French Revolution. Germans in France move to Ukraine. Life is good, the new American West right there in Ukraine. World War I comes along, Germany sends Lenin back to the Soviet Union on a sealed train to make trouble for the czar. Germany and Russia sign a treaty. Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrow the czar - third revolution. Lenin/Stalin collectivize the farms in Ukraine, life in Ukraine takes a turn. WWII happens along because WWI never really settled things. This is now the big one. Some Ukrainian Germans make it back to the west. The others are scattered over Siberia and Central Asia. Western Germany is in ruins after the big one. Although they speak the language, Germany is not their homeland.

Development of Southern Ukraine

Borderland. That fitting phrase. Ukraine was in the center of intersecting cultures. The Vikings settled from the north, to conquer. The Venetians and Greeks from the South, to trade. The Mongols from the East, to conquer. The Europeans from the West, to farm.

The Ottoman Empire provided some political stability, but it was Russia that truly wanted the prize as a gateway to the Black Sea. Peter the Great made inroads but could not hold the territories. Finally Catherine the Great, after several successful wars against the Ottomans, formed the newly aquired lands into a Russian state called Novorussiia (New Russia). The Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, signed in 1774, gave Russia the coastal lands between the Bug and Dnieper rivers. Soon after, the cities of Kherson, Mariiupil and Mykolaiv were established. Conditions were set for Russia to establish new trade routes out of her southern border. The only thing still missing was an efficient port with favorable land routes and a deep harbor. That was accomplished in 1794 with the founding of Odessa. A Dutch engineer (Franz de Voland) recommended the site and Catherine II provided her approval on May 27, 1794. Work on the harbor and the city began immediately and the city began to grow.

The steppe regions north of the Black Sea coast are the areas of most interest to me. Unsettled, rich and fertile, now with access to a deep harbor for export of agricultural products, Russia's rulers had the foresight to know that the lands needed to be settled quickly or someday be lost again.