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Template:POTD/2023-05-16

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Geography Lesson" or "The Black Spot", a painting depicting students being taught about Alsace–Lorraine
Alsace–Lorraine, now known as Alsace–Moselle, is a historical region in modern-day France. It was created by the German Empire in 1871, after it had seized the region from France in the Franco-Prussian War with the Treaty of Frankfurt and forced France to pay an indemnity of five billion francs. Anger in the French Third Republic about the loss of the territory was one of the contributing factors that led to World War I, and the region reverted to France in 1918 as part of the Treaty of Versailles and Germany's defeat in the war. This oil-on-canvas painting, titled The Geography Lesson or The Black Spot, was painted around 1887 by Albert Bettannier. It depicts a school teacher showing pupils a map of France in which Alsace–Lorraine is coloured black, portraying French resentment of the loss of the region to Germany. The painting is in the collection of the German Historical Museum in Berlin.Painting credit: Albert Bettannier