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User:Coldstreamer20/Provinces of France and their successor department

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Background

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National Constituent Assembly adopted a more uniform division into departments (départements) and districts in late 1789.[1] The provinces continued to exist administratively until 21 September 1791.[1]

The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the historic counties of England. They came into their final form over the course of many hundreds of years, as many dozens of semi-independent fiefs and former independent countries came to be incorporated into the French royal domain. Because of the manner in which the provinces evolved, each had its own sets of feudal traditions, laws, taxation systems and courts; the system represented an impediment to effective administration of the entire country from Paris. During the early years of the French Revolution, in an attempt to centralise the administration of the whole country and to remove the influence of the French nobility over the country, the entirety of the province system was abolished and replaced by the system of departments in use today.

In some cases, several modern regions or departments share names with the historic provinces; their borders may cover roughly the same territory.

List of Provinces and their successor departments

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Below is a list of the provinces (really Military Districts (Governments)) of France before the revolution. These "provinces' were called governments (gouvernements) and administered by a Military Governor appointed by the King to oversee military matters. For administrative purposes, these provinces correlated directly to the old duchies, counties, provinces, and regions, thus making them the continuation of the former. The old regions had two options (three in reality): Union into the Kingdom (ie: becoming part of the Kingdom as a province), Union of their title into the Royal Domain (ie: keeping their old name and becoming an integral part of the Kingdom, examples would be the Duchy (Dukes) of Anjou or Count (County) of Artois), and the third being a "dependency", or another words unofficially an independent state which relies on the Kingdom of France for all needs.

The below list will include all former governments with their location within the 1789 boundaries of France, any sub-regions, their date of establishment (ie: the year the region was incorporated into the Kingdom), the Governmental Seat (Capital), any relevant information, successor departments, and those communes which were part of the province but did not form part of a full department. Each government also included a "Class (1st or 2nd)", the 1st class being those major regions where the governor was allocated 60,000 livres, or the 2nd class being the minor regions where the governor was allocated 30,000 livres.

Pre-1789 Departments
Number (on map) Coat of Arms Reignal Name Type of Region Sub-Elements Map Establishment/Incorporation date[a] Capital Information Successor(s)[b] Map
Duchies
#15 Duchy of Anjou Duchy
1482
Angers Created in 1482
#12 Combined Government of Guyenne and Gascony Duchy Duchy of Guyenne (Guiana)

1453
Bordeaux Combined for administrative purposes in the 17th century. Split into two separate duchies in 1789, but continued as a combined authority.
Duchy of Gascony (Gasconha, Gascunya)

Auch
#13 Duchy of Burgundy

(Borgoigne, Borgoègne, Bregogne, Borgogne)

Duchy
1477
Dijon Created as a Captain-Duchy in 1477.
#34 Duchy of Nivernais (Nivarnois) Duchy
1789
Nevers "Dependent on the Kingdom of France" until 1789, and then absorbed into the Kingdom as a Duchy.
#4 Duchy of Normandy(Normandie, Normaundie) Duchy Perche
1204
Rouen Duchy of Normandy created in 911 and taken into France in 1204.
Counties
#17 County of Angoumois (Angoumois, Engolmés) County
1514
Angoulême Fife of the old Duchy of Aquitaine, separated on formation of the Duchy of Guyenne in 1514.
#28 County of Artois (Artoés, Artesië) County
1659
Arras Absorbed into the Kingdom of France in 1659 following the Treaty of the Pyrenees
#25 County of Auvergne (Auvèrnha) County
1457
Clermont-Ferrand Formed in 1457 by splitting the Merovingian county of the Duchy of Aquitaine, also Carolingian part.
Numbered map of the Kingdom of France (1789) showing Duchies, Provinces, and Counties.

Footnotes

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Notes

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  1. ^ The use of "establishment" in English doesn't directly translate from French. The closest translation of the French term would be "Integration", ie: when the County/Province was integrated into the "French Crown", or another-words joined the Kingdom of France.
  2. ^ When the new departments were created, many provinces had several departments within their old boundaries. Many however had several communes which formed part of other departments which were not completely within said province. Where this applies, the use of "(Following communes only:)" will be added for those communes within the old province, but part of a department not entirely within the old province.

Citations

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  1. ^ a b Legay, Marie-Laure (2003). "La fin du pouvoir provincial (4 août 1789-21 septembre 1791)". Annales historiques de la Révolution française (332): 25–53. doi:10.4000/ahrf.821. ISSN 0003-4436.

References

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