The
Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine ( or
Elsass-Lothringen) was a territory created by the
German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of
Alsace and the
Moselle department of Lorraine following its victory in the
Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the
Rhine River and east of the
Vosges Mountains. The Lorraine section was in the upper
Moselle valley to the north of the Vosges.