Provençal society, in this corpus, reads chiefly through its ordeals and ruptures: of 22 dates, 2 fall in the Middle Ages, 11 in the early modern period and 9 in the contemporary era. The Saracen raid of 838, the Black Death of 1347, then the 1580 epidemic during the wars of religion, mark the earlier periods, while May 1968 at Aix and Marseille, or the 1990 Blanchet survey of spoken language, mark the recent one.
This map links these moments of crisis and social measurement, at Marseille, Aix, Toulon and Fréjus, where figures such as Mirabeau, Belsunce or J.B. Estelle recur.
What the corpus attaches to this theme
Places most present : Marseille, Provence, Aix, Arles, Toulon, Fréjus, Apt, Brignoles
Figures most present : Guise, J.B. Estelle, Belsunce, Mirabeau, Néron, Septime Sévère, Palamède de Forbin, Jean de Lubières
Middle Ages
838
Saracen raid on Marseille, sack of the city and destruction of Saint-Victor
1347
The Black Death enters Provence through Marseille
Read the period: Middle Ages
Early modern period
1580
Plague epidemic during the Wars of Religion
from 1593
Casaulx merges the hospital of the Saint-Esprit with that of Saint-Jacques de Galice, founding the Hôtel-Dieu of Marseille
19 September 1630
Day of the Cascaveù: riot in Aix driving out the consul Forbin and the intendant Dreux d'Aubray, led by the president de Coriolis against the edict of the Élus
25 May 1720
Arrival before Marseille of the ship the Grand Saint-Antoine, carrying the plague
May 1720 to May 1722
Great plague of Marseille, originating in the city, close to 40,000 deaths
16 September 1720
Clearing of the esplanade of Marseille, removal of the bodies directed by the chevalier Roze, captain and commissioner general
1 November 1720
The bishop of Belsunce, having left his episcopal palace, celebrates mass in the open air, barefoot, at the far end of the Cours
May to July 1721
Renewed surge of the contagion at Arles, more than 4,000 victims, the quarantines of Marseille lifted only in November
spring 1789
Election period: political enthusiasm and popular unrest over the high cost of living
end of March 1789
Outbreak of violent and confused riots across all of Provence, around the voting assemblies
19 August 1789
Bloody popular unrest in Marseille, rebels released at Mirabeau's call
Read the period: Early modern period
Contemporary period
March 1789
First wave of anti-noble revolts in rural Provence
summer 1795
Massacres of prisoners at Fort Saint-Jean and then at the Château de Tarascon
June 1848
June Days in Marseille, in the wake of those in Paris
1851 to 1871
Marseille grows from 195,000 to 312,000 inhabitants under the Second Empire, before reaching half a million at the start of the twentieth century
around 1930
French spreads to the whole of Provençal society, the francisation proceeding from the top down between 1830 and 1930 at the pace of schooling
late October 1938
Fire at the Nouvelles Galeries in Marseille, more than 70 deaths
autumn 1947
Major strikes in Provence, including the dramatic day in Marseille on 12 November
May-June 1968
The events of May 1968 upend the universities of Aix and Marseille
1990
Blanchet survey: 25 per cent of Provençals speak the language to varying degrees, of whom 8 per cent daily, and 40 per cent understand it without speaking it
Read the period: Contemporary period
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