The Revolution

After 1789, the new departments completely redrew the map of the country. On March 9, 1790, the National Assembly offered La Grave and Villar-d'Arène a rare choice: to depend on Isère or on the Hautes-Alpes. The inhabitants took the decision seriously: emissaries were sent to Grenoble and Briançon to examine roads, administrations, advantages, and constraints. In the end, the proximity of Briançon, its safer road, and certain privileges, such as a more favorable price for salt, won support. La Grave therefore chose the Hautes-Alpes, hoping to preserve the local freedoms inherited from the 14th century by drawing closer to the Briançonnais, which also had a tradition of emancipation. But this hope was short-lived: the centralizing Jacobinism of the young Republic quickly abolished the old direct democracy that had structured life in the valley for centuries. The Revolution also brought its excesses. On May 24, 1793, the 8th Battalion of the Ain plundered all the churches of the canton and burned the archives of La Grave, triggering a lasting scandal. An irreplaceable part of local memory then disappeared, taking with it precious testimonies about the beginnings of the two communes.