The shadow of the wars of 1870 and 1914 in the Resistance. The example of Northern France

Building on a history of the Resistance that is open to the crossroads of time, this paper endeavours to show the links between the Resistance and previous experiences of war and occupation. Northern France is a privileged observatory in which the “double resistance” (in 1914 and then in 1940) by remarkable individuals sheds light on these links. On a collective level, a memory of the Great War specific to the territories invaded in 1914 provides the basis for transfers of experience to the Resistance in 1940. In the North, the figure of the civilian who stands up to the enemy revived the image of the “franc-tireur” of 1870 and crossed regional borders, especially in the feminine guise of the heroine. The Resistance of 1940 inherited this interweaving of experiences and representations, whose territorial roots were combined with the crossing of borders, both spatial and gender-based.