city state · France and the Low Countries
Republic of Mulhouse
Origins
Mulhouse was an imperial town in Upper Alsace that gradually freed itself from local lords and, by the mid-14th century, governed itself through a council and mayor under the emperor. In 1354 it joined the Décapole, the league of ten Alsatian imperial cities.
Rule and society
Threatened by the Habsburgs, Mulhouse allied with Basel and the Swiss cantons, becoming an associate of the Swiss Confederation in 1515 and leaving the Décapole. It adopted the Reformed faith in the 1520s. From 1746 its merchants founded calico-printing works, making printed cotton, the indiennes, the basis of a major textile industry.
Decline and legacy
Surrounded by French territory and strangled by customs barriers after the Revolution, the citizens voted in January 1798 to join the French First Republic. Mulhouse became a leading French industrial city.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (3)
- Republic of Mulhouse was part of Holy Roman Empire1347 CE – 1515 CE
- Republic of Mulhouse was part of Decapolis1354 CE – 1515 CE
- Republic of Mulhouse was a vassal of Old Swiss Confederacy1515 CE – 1798 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Republic of Mulhouse. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/republic-of-mulhouse
- MLA
- “Republic of Mulhouse.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/republic-of-mulhouse. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Republic of Mulhouse.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/republic-of-mulhouse.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Republic of Mulhouse’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/republic-of-mulhouse (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻