Sambre-et-Meuse department

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Map of the departments in today's Benelux region

The Département de Sambre-et-Meuse ( German  Department of Sambre and Maas ; Dutch Departement van Samber en Maas ) was a department belonging to the French state from 1795 to 1814 on the territory of today's provinces of Namur and Luxembourg in Belgium . It was named after the two rivers Sambre and Maas .

history

Until 1792 the area of ​​the department belonged to the county of Namur , which was part of the Austrian Netherlands . In April 1792, the French declared National Assembly of the Habsburg Monarchy the war . After the Battle of Jemappes (November 1792), the Austrian Netherlands came completely under French control . On the 9th Vendémiaire of the year IV of the Republic (October 1, 1795), the area was united with France on the basis of the "Law on the Unification of Belgium and the Liège Land with the Republic", which was confirmed by the Treaties of Campo Formio (1797) and Lunéville (1801) was confirmed under international law .

The area was divided into nine departments in accordance with the administrative structure newly introduced in France , which were subdivided into arrondissements , cantons and communes. The cantons were also district courts of justice .

After Napoleon's defeat in the Battle of Leipzig (October 1813), in the First Peace of Paris (May 1814), the borders between Belgium and France were restored to the state of January 1, 1792. With regard to the department of the Sambre and Meuse, the cantons Walcourt, Florennes, Beauraing and Gedinne were excluded from this; they initially remained with France. As a result of the agreements made at the Congress of Vienna (June 1815), the old United Provinces of the Netherlands and the former Belgian provinces were merged to form the new Kingdom of the Netherlands . In August 1815 the new Kingdom of the Netherlands was divided into provinces, the Sambre and Maas department became the province of Namur , and part of it was assigned to the territory of the new Grand Duchy of Luxembourg .

In the Second Peace of Paris (November 1815), the border between France and the Netherlands was redefined to the status of 1790, so that the cantons of Walcourt, Florennes, Beauraing and Gedinne were also incorporated into the province of Namur. The province of Namur has belonged to Belgium since 1830 .

structure

Département de Sambre et Meuse

The main town ( chef-lieu ) of the department or seat of the prefecture was the city of Namur at the mouth of the Sambre and the Meuse. It was divided into four arrondissements and 21 cantons as well as 488 communes:

Arrondissement Main towns in the cantons, seat of the courts of justice
Namur Andenne , Dhuy , Fosses-la-Ville , Gembloux , Namur (2 cantons)
Dinant Beauraing , Ciney , Dinant , Florennes , Walcourt
Marche-en-Famenne Durbuy , Érezée , Havelange , La Roche-en-Ardenne , Marche-en-Famenne , Rochefort
Saint-Hubert Gedinne , Nassogne , Saint-Hubert , Wellin

The department had an area of ​​4,579 square kilometers and in 1812 a total of 180,655 inhabitants.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jean-Baptiste Nothomb : Historical-diplomatic presentation of the foundation of the Kingdom of Belgium under international law , Tübingen, Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, 1836, p. 450 ( Google Books )
  2. ↑ Karl Heinrich Ludwig Pölitz : The Constitutions of the European States for the Last 25 Years , Volume 2, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1817, p. 496 ( Google Books )
  3. ^ Albrecht Friedrich Ludolph Lasius : The French Kayser State under the government of the Kayser Napoleon the Great in 1812 . A Geographical-Historical Manual, First Department, Osnabrück: Johann Gottfried Kißling, 1813, p. 442 ( Google Books )
  4. ^ A b Almanach Impérial 1812 , Paris, p. 460 ( Bibliothèque nationale de France )
  5. ^ Heinrich Karl Wilhelm Berghaus : Germany for a Hundred Years , Second Section, Third Volume, Leipzig: Voigt & Günther, 1862, p. 80 ( Google Books )