What is Alsace?
{{Infobox settlement | name = Alsace | native_name = {{native name|gsw|Elsàss}} | image_map = Alsace map.png | map_caption = Alsace is marked in red | image_flag = Flag of Alsace.svg | image_shield = Blason région fr Alsace.svg }} '''Alsace''' ([[Alsatian language|Alsatian]] and [[Alemannic German]]: ''Elsàss'', pre-1996 [[German language|German]]: ''Elsaß'') was an administrative region of [[France]]. It is now part of the administrative region of [[Grand Est]]. Alsace was on the eastern border of France. It was on the west bank of the Upper [[Rhine]], next to [[Germany]] and [[Switzerland]]. The departments in Alsace were [[Bas-Rhin]] and [[Haut-Rhin]]. Before the region merged with [[Champagne-Ardenne]] and [[Lorraine]] in [[2014]], data from [[INSEE]] stated that about 1.8 million people lived there as of 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/bases-de-donnees/recensement/populations-legales/france-regions.asp?annee=2013|language=fr|title=Populations légales 2013 des régions|publisher=[[INSEE]]|access-date=1 July 2016}}</ref> Its [[capital city|capital]] was [[Strasbourg]], the largest [[city]]. It changed hands between France and Germany many times. Language, cuisine, music, dress and customs were Germanic, and very close to the [[Swabia]]n ones across the Rhine. The overall culture was generally more [[Germany|German]] than French, being somewhere between German and French. Alsace was part of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and was still inhabited by people speaking a dialect of [[Upper German]]. In the [[17th century]], all of Alsace was annexed (in steps) under [[Louis XIV of France|King Louis XIV of France]]. He made it one of the provinces of France. The [[Treaty of Verdun]] had divided the empire of [[Charlemagne]] in the 9th century, eventually causing Alsace to be frequently mentioned in conjunction with [[Lorraine (region)|Lorraine]], because the possession of these two ''régions'' (as ''[[Alsace-L