Editing Réunion (section)

== Name ==

The French took possession of the island in the 17th century, naming it '''Isle Bourbon''' after the [[House of Bourbon]] which then ruled France. To break with this name, which was too attached to the ''[[Ancien Régime]]'', the [[National Convention]] decided on 23 March 1793<ref>Jean Baptiste Duvergier, ''Collection complète des lois [...]'', éd. A. Guyot et Scribe, Paris, 1834, «Décret du 23 mars 1793», <abbr>p.</abbr> 205</ref> to rename the territory '''Réunion'''. ("Réunion", in French, usually means "meeting" or "assembly" rather than "reunion". This name was presumably chosen in homage to the meeting of the [[fédéré]]s of Marseilles and the Paris [[National Guard (France)|National Guards]] that preceded the [[insurrection of 10 August 1792]]. No document establishes this, and the word "meeting" could have been purely symbolic.)<ref>Daniel Vaxellaire, ''Le Grand Livre de l'histoire de La Réunion'', <abbr>vol.</abbr> 1 : ''Des origines à 1848'', éd. Orphie, 2000, 701 p. ISBN 978-2-87763-101-3 et 978-2877631013), <abbr>p.</abbr> 228 (avec fac-similé du décret).</ref>

The island changed its name again in the 19th century: in 1806, under the [[First French Empire|First Empire]], General Decaen named it '''Isle Bonaparte''' (after [[Napoleon]]), though in 1810 it became Isle Bourbon again. It was eventually renamed Réunion after [[French Revolution of 1848|the fall of the July monarchy]] by a decree of the provisional government on 7 March 1848.<ref>''Nouveau recueil général de traités, conventions et autres transactions remarquables – Année 1848'', éd. Librairie de Dieterich, 1854, «Arrêté du gouvernement provisoire portant changement du nom de l'île Bourbon, Paris, 7 mars», <abbr>p.</abbr> 76</ref>

In accordance with the original spelling and the classical spelling and typographical rules,<ref>''Lexique des règles typographiques en usage à l'Imprimerie nationale'', Imprimerie nationale, 1990 ISBN 978-2-11-081075-5 ; réédition 2002 ISBN 978-2-7433-0482-9 ; réimpressions octobre 2007 et novembre 2008 ISBN 978-2-7433-0482-9, <abbr>p.</abbr> 90 et 93.</ref> "la Réunion" was written with a lower case in the article, but during the end of the 20th century the spelling "La Réunion" with a capital letter was developed in many writings to emphasize the integration of the article in the name. This last spelling corresponds to the recommendations of the ''Commission nationale de toponymie''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Commission nationale de toponymie – Collectivités territoriales françaises |url=http://www.cnig.gouv.fr/upload/ressource/r1147273214.DOC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081112114347/http://www.cnig.gouv.fr/upload/ressource/r1147273214.DOC |archive-date=12 November 2008}}</ref> and appears in the current [[Constitution of France|Constitution of the French Republic]] in articles 72-3 and 73.