Editing Departments of France (section)

==History==
{{Main|Territorial evolution of France}}

[[File:Chassis figuratif - France.jpg|thumb|Geometrical proposition rejected]]
[[File:Départements et provinces de France.svg|thumb|French [[Provinces of France|provinces]] before 1790 (color) and today's departments (black borders)]]

The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by [[Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (1623–1700)|Marc-René d'Argenson]] to serve as administrative areas purely for the ''[[Conseil général des ponts et chaussées|Ponts et Chaussées]]'' (Bridges and Highways) infrastructure administration.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pbspjvZst5UC&q=argenson&pg=PA60|title= Provinces, départements, régions: L'organisation administrative de la France d'hier à demain|last= Masson|first= Jean-Louis|date= 1984|website= Google Livres (French Google Books site)|publisher= Éditions Fernand Lanore|isbn= 9782851570031|access-date= 2017-07-15}}</ref>

Before the [[French Revolution]], France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the end of the [[Ancien Régime]] it was organised into [[Provinces of France|provinces]]. During the Revolution they were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. The [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]] decided to create a more uniform division into departments (''département'') and [[Arrondissements of France#History|districts]] in late 1789.<ref name="Legay">{{Cite journal |last=Legay |first=Marie-Laure |year=2003 |title=La fin du pouvoir provincial (4 août 1789-21 septembre 1791) |url=http://journals.openedition.org/ahrf/821 |journal=Annales historiques de la Révolution française |issue=332 |pages=25–53 |doi=10.4000/ahrf.821 |issn=0003-4436|doi-access=free }}</ref> The process began on 4 August 1789 with the elimination of provincial privileges, and a 22 December 1789 decree (with [[letters patent]] in January 1790) provided for the termination of the provincial governments.<ref name="Legay"/>

The modern department system, as all-purpose units of the government, was decreed on 26 February 1790 (with letters patent on 4 March 1790) by the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]].<ref name="Legay"/> Their boundaries served two purposes:
* Boundaries were chosen to break up France's historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences and build a more homogeneous nation.
* Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a day's ride of the capital of a department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the entire national territory under close control.

[[File:France L-2 (1812)-fr.svg|thumb|Departments at the maximum extent of the [[First French Empire]] (1812)]]

The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments. Most were named after an area's principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of [[Seine (department)|Seine]]. [[Savoy]], during its temporary occupation, became the department of [[Mont-Blanc (department)|Mont-Blanc]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1999/12/11/le-nom-des-departements_3595298_1819218.html|title=Le nom des départements|date=11 December 1999|work=Le Monde}}</ref> The provinces continued to exist administratively until 21 September 1791.<ref name="Legay"/>

The number of departments, initially 83, had been increased to [[130 departments of the First French Empire|130]] by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the [[First French Empire]].<ref>See [[Provinces of the Netherlands]] for the annexed Dutch departments.</ref> Following the defeats of [[Napoleon]] in 1814–1815 the [[Congress of Vienna]] returned France to its pre-war size and the number of departments was reduced to 86 (three of the original departments having been split). In 1860 France acquired the [[County of Nice]] and [[Savoy]], which led to the creation of three new departments.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=24 mars 1860 - La France reçoit Nice et la Savoie - Herodote.net|url=https://www.herodote.net/24_mars_1860-evenement-18600324.php#:~:text=Le%2024%20mars%201860,%20par,Italie%20centrale%20par%20le%20Pi%C3%A9mont.|access-date=2021-11-05|website=herodote.net}}</ref> Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of [[Alpes-Maritimes]] was created from Nice and a portion of the [[Var (department)|Var]] department.<ref name=":0" /> The 89 departments were given numbers based on the alphabetical order of their names.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Départements 1867|url=http://crohee.chez.com/departements/departements-1867.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-05|website=crohee.chez.com|archive-date=2021-11-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105083500/http://crohee.chez.com/departements/departements-1867.html}}</ref>

The department of [[Bas-Rhin]] and parts of [[Meurthe (department)|Meurthe]], [[Moselle (department)|Moselle]], [[Vosges (department)|Vosges]] and [[Haut-Rhin]] were ceded to the [[German Empire]] in 1871 following France's defeat in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. A small part of Haut-Rhin, however, remained French and became known as the [[Territoire de Belfort]]; the remaining parts of Meurthe and Moselle were merged into a new [[Meurthe-et-Moselle]] department. When France regained the ceded departments after [[World War I]], the Territoire de Belfort was not reintegrated into Haut-Rhin. In 1922 it became France's 90th department. Likewise the Lorraine departments were not changed back to their original boundaries, and a new Moselle department was created in the regained territory, with slightly different boundaries from the pre-war department of the same name.

The reorganisation of Île-de-France in 1968 and the division of [[Corsica]] in 1975 added six more departments, raising the total in Metropolitan France to 96. By 2011, when the [[overseas collectivity]] of [[Mayotte]] became a department, joining the earlier [[overseas department and region|overseas departments]] of the Republic (all created in 1946) – [[French Guiana]], [[Guadeloupe]], [[Martinique]] and [[Réunion]] – the total number of departments in the French Republic had become 101. In 2015 the [[Urban Community of Lyon]] was split from [[Rhône (department)|Rhône]] to form the [[Lyon Metropolis|Métropole de Lyon]], a ''sui generis'' entity, with the powers of both an intercommunality and those of a department on its territory, formally classified as a "territorial collectivity with particular status" ({{langx|fr|collectivité territoriale à statut particulier}}) and as such not belonging to any department. As of 2019 [[Corse-du-Sud]] and [[Haute-Corse]] are still administrative departments, although they no longer have the status of departmental "[[Territorial collectivity|territorial collectivities]]": region and department functions have been managed by a "[[single territorial collectivity]]" since 2018.

Despite the intention to avoid the old nomenclature, often the names of pre-1790 provinces remained in use. For example, the name of [[Berry, France|Berry]], though no longer having an official status, remains in widespread use in daily life.