Editing Hautes-Alpes (section)

== History ==
Hautes-Alpes is one of the original 83 departments created during the [[French Revolution]] on 4 March 1790. It consists of the southeast of the [[Provinces of France|former province]] of [[Dauphiné]] and the north of [[Provence]]. At the time when the department was created, the two mountain communes of [[La Grave]] and [[Villar-d'Arêne]] successfully campaigned to be included in Hautes-Alpes and not in the neighbouring department of [[Isère]] to which they had originally been assigned. This was because they hoped to benefit from the relative autonomy and certain fiscal privileges enjoyed by the region since the 14th century under the terms of the [[Republic of the Escartons|Statute of the Briançon Escartons]].

[[Napoleon]] passed through Gap when he returned to reclaim France after his exile on [[Elba]] using what is now known as [[Route Napoléon]]. After Napoleon's defeat at the [[Battle of Waterloo]], the department was occupied by Austrian and Piedmontese troops from 1815 to 1818.

During World War II, Italy occupied Hautes-Alpes from November 1942 to September 1943.