French departments in Central Europe from 1792 to 1814
As a result of the French Revolution , during the Revolutionary Wars from 1792 and in the Napoleon Bonaparte era, large areas of western and central Europe were annexed by France and gradually integrated into the departmental structure.
This affected today's Benelux countries, parts of Germany (the entire left bank of the Rhine and, from 1811, the estuaries of the Ems, Weser and Elbe ), Switzerland and Italy . At the height of the French conquests (1811) there were 130 departments, and cities like Brussels 72,280 inhabitants, Amsterdam 220,000 inhabitants, Hamburg 150,000 inhabitants, Aachen , Geneva , Turin or Rome were part of the French Empire . All these areas were lost again in 1814 with the fall of Napoleon.
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On November 4, 1789, the French National Assembly divided the territory of France into 83 departments. By the year 1814 the following were added through annexation:
- the departments Alpes-Maritimes (Maritime Alps), Mont Blanc (Savoy), Vaucluse ( Avignon and Comtat Venaissin ), Mont Terrible ( Principality of Basel ) and Léman ( Geneva and the northern part of the Mont-Blanc department)
- the departments of Dyle, Escaut (Scheldt), Fôrets (forests), Jemappes, Lys, Meuse-Inferieure (lower Meuse), Deux-Néthes (the two Nethes), Ourthe, Sambre-et-Meuse (Sambre-and-Meuse); ( Austrian Netherlands and the Principality of Liège = approx. 32,500 km² with 2,934,263 inhabitants)
- the departments of Roer (Rur), Sarre (Saar), Rhin-et-Moselle (Rhine and Moselle) and Mont-Tonnerre (Donnersberg) ( left bank of the Rhine , approx. 23,860 km² with 1,480,986 inhabitants)
- the departments of the Apennines, Montenotte, Gênes (Genoa) (the area of the former Ligurian Republic = approx. 10,500 km² with 850,000 inhabitants)
- the departments of Doire, Marengo, Pô, Sésia and Stura (formerly Piedmont or Subalpine Republic = approx. 21,225 km² with 1,561,176 inhabitants)
- the departments of Tarre ( Parma and Piacenza = approx. 6,000 km² with 250,000 inhabitants), Arno, Méditerrané (Mediterranean Sea) and Ombrone ( Tuscany = approx. 19,500 km² with 1,100,000 inhabitants)
- the departments of Rome and Trasimene ( Papal States = 17,500 square kilometers with 620,000 people)
- the departments of Scheldt, Maas, Rhine, Yssel, Fries (Friesland), Zuyderzee, East-Ems, West-Ems and Oberyssel ( Kingdom of Holland = 31,790 km² with 2,126,000 people)
- the department of Simplon (= Wallis or "République rhodanienne", 5,224 km² with approx. 65,500 inhabitants)
- the departments of Lippe, Elbe estuaries, Weser estuaries and Ober-Ems (since 1811, northwest Germany from Wesel to Lübeck = 36,080 km² with 1,300,000 people)
- the departments of Bouches-de-l'Èbre, Montserrat, Sègre and Ter (since 1812, Catalonia , approx. 32,000 km² with 814,412 inhabitants)
The French Empire had grown by 875,000 people (?). 46 million people lived on 860,000 km².
The following table shows the annexed areas with the year of annexation and current nationality. ("Number" = as stated in the postmarks)
| number | Surname | main place | Period | Today's states |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 86 | Jemappes | Mons | 1795-1814 | Belgium, France |
| 91 | Lys ( Leie ) | Bruges | 1795-1814 | Belgium |
| 92 | Escaut ( Scheldt ) | Ghent | 1795-1814 | Belgium, Netherlands |
| 93 | Deux-Nèthes | Antwerp | 1795-1814 | Belgium, Netherlands |
| 94 | Dyle | Brussels | 1795-1814 | Belgium |
| 95 | Meuse-Inférieure ( Niedermaas ) | Maastricht | 1795-1814 | Netherlands, Belgium, Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia) |
| 96 | Ourthe ( urt ) | Liege | 1795-1814 | Belgium, Germany |
| 97 | Sambre-et-Meuse ( Sambre and Meuse ) | Namur | 1795-1814 | Belgium |
| 98 | Forêts ( forests ) | Luxembourg | 1795-1814 | Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate) |
| 99 | Léman | Geneva | 1798-1814 | France, Switzerland (Geneva) |
| 100 | Mont-Tonnerre ( Donnersberg ) | Mainz | 1801-1814 | Germany ( Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland) |
| 101 | Sarre ( Saar ) | trier | 1801-1814 | Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland) , Belgium |
| 102 | Rhin-et-Moselle ( Rhine and Moselle ) | Koblenz | 1801-1814 | Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia) |
| 103 | Roer ( Rur ) | Aachen | 1801-1814 | Germany, Netherlands |
| 104 | Pô or Eridan | Turin | 1802-1814 | Italy |
| 105 | Stubbornness | Cuneo | 1802-1814 | Italy |
| 106 | Marengo | Alessandria | 1802-1814 | Italy |
| 107 | Sésia | Vercelli | 1802-1814 | Italy |
| 108 | Tanaro | Asti | 1802-1805 | Marengo, Stura, Montenote; today: Italy |
| 109 | Doire ( Dora Baltea ) | Ivrea | 1802-1814 | Italy |
| 113 | Méditerranée | Livorno | 1808-1814 | Italy |
| 116 | Rome (called Tibre until 1810) | Rome | 1809-1814 | Italy |
| 117 | Trasimène | Spoleto | 1809-1814 | Italy |
| 118 | Zuyderzée ( Zuiderzee ) | Amsterdam | 1811-1814 | Netherlands |
| 119 | Bouches-de-la-Meuse ( Meuse Estuary ) | The hague | 1811-1814 | Netherlands |
| 120 | Bouches-de-l'Yssel ( IJssel estuary ) | Zwolle | 1811-1814 | Netherlands |
| 121 | Yssel-Supérieur ( Oberijssel ) | Arnhem | 1811-1814 | Netherlands |
| 122 | Frize ( Friesland ) | Leeuwarden | 1811-1814 | Netherlands |
| 123 | Ems-Occidental ( Westems ) | Groningen | 1811-1814 | Netherlands, Germany (Lower Saxony) |
| 124 | Ems-Oriental ( Ostems ) | Aurich | 1811-1814 | Germany (Lower Saxony) |
| 125 | Bouches-de-l'Escaut ( Scheldt estuary ) | Middelburg | 1810-1814 | Netherlands (Zeeland) |
| 126 | Bouches-du-Rhin ( mouth of the Rhine ) | 's-Hertogenbosch | 1810-1814 | Netherlands |
| 127 | Simplon | Sion | 1810-1814 | Switzerland (Valais) |
| 128 | Bouches-de-l'Elbe ( Elbe estuary ) | Hamburg | 1811-1814 | Germany (Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein) |
| 129 | Bouches-du-Weser ( mouth of the Weser ) | Bremen | 1811-1814 | Germany (Lower Saxony, Bremen) |
| 130 | Ems-Supérieur ( Oberems ) | Osnabrück | 1811-1814 | Germany (Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia) |
| 131 | lip | Muenster | 1811-1814 | Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia) |