Editing Cottian Alps (section)

== History ==
For a long part of the [[Middle Ages]] the Cottian Alps were divided between the [[Duchy of Savoy]], which controlled their northern part and the easternmost slopes, and the [[Dauphiné]], which at the time was independent from [[France]]. The ''[[List of Counts of Albon and Dauphins of Viennois|Dauphins]]'' also held, in addition to the southwestern slopes of the range ([[Briançon]] and [[Queyras]], now on the French side), the upper part of some of the valleys that were [[tributaries]] of the [[Po River]] ([[Valle di Susa]], [[Chisone]] valley, [[Varaita Valley]]). The Alpine territory of Dauphiné, known as ''[[Escartons]]'', used to have a limited autonomy and elected its own [[parliament]].<ref>''Escartons, hommes libres'', [http://www.escartons.eu/?id=228 www.escartons.eu] (accessed on 2012-04-05)</ref> This semi-autonomous status lasted also after the annexation of the Dauphiné to [[France]] (1349), and was only abolished in 1713 due to the [[Treaty of Utrecht]], which assigned to the [[House of Savoy]] all the mountainous area on the eastern side of the Cottian Alps.<ref name=wald>
{{cite book
| title = The Waldensian Way to God
| publisher = Xulon Press
| author = Joseph Visconti
| year = 2003
}}</ref>

After the treaty annexing Nice and Savoy to France, signed in Turin in March 1860 ([[Treaty of Turin (1860)|Treaty of Turin]]), the north-western slopes of the range became part of the French republic.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/traites/1860turin.htm | title = Traité de Turin, Signé à Turin le 24 mars 1860 entre la France et la Sardaigne. | access-date = 2010-01-01 | publisher = mjp.univ-perp.fr}}</ref>

Two eastern valleys of the Cottian Alps ([[Pellice]] and [[Germanasca]]) have been for centuries a kind of sanctuary for the [[Waldensians]], a [[Christian movement]] that was persecuted as [[heretical]] from the 12th century onwards by the catholic church.<ref name=ME>Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 874&ndash;876</ref>