Century-Old Tussle Over Saarland

Between the years 1870 and 1945 France and Germany fought three wars, each war escalating in destructive magnitude, political scope and geographic extent. The primary reason for these wars was strategic and political: a dynamic and increasingly powerful Germany expanding into the sphere of influence of a declining French empire. However, for either country to achieve its political aims it required an industry capable of producing and powering the tools of geopolitical expansion: ships, guns and railroads. Essential to this industry were coal and steel. The control of natural resources essential for war-making, specifically the coal and iron ore of the upper and lower Rhineland, was one of the primary aims of boths the wars and the peace settlements that followed each. Indeed, the it was the struggle for resources in the peace settlements that fueled further conflict. In this case study I will examine this conflict over war-making resources. I will also investigate the paradigm shift that occurred after World War II, when the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community reflected a change in the way the two countries regarded natural resources and their relationship to national security.