Regions and Départements of France. The ‘hexagone’ of present-day France is the outcome of a long historical process, the creation of a nation by the gradual annexation of neighbouring territories. Over this long period, France has known a variety of internal administrative divisions.
1. The Creation of Modern France
The Frankish kingdom of the Merovingians, and subsequently the empire of Charlemagne, extended over most of present-day France (except for Brittany) and beyond. After the period of strife and anarchy following the death of Charlemagne, the territory controlled by the French king was much reduced. At the end of the 10th c. Hugues Capet ruled directly over a demesne corresponding roughly to the Île-de-France; he was, however, acknowledged as their feudal overlord by the rulers of many surrounding duchés and comtés [see Monarchy; Feudalism]. By the end of the 12th c. virtually half of present-day France was part of the Angevin empire and subject to rule from England ; the reconquest of this territory began in earnest under Philippe-Auguste, but it was only completed, after centuries of warfare, when Calais fell to the French in 1558.
Over the same centuries, by conquest, marriage, or treaty, the other lands which currently make up France were gradually added to the kingdom. The violence of the so-called Albigensian Crusade [see Cathars] brought Languedoc under French rule; Dauphiné, Brittany, and Provence were successively acquired; and after the feud of the Armagnacs and Burgundians had torn France apart, the Burgundian lands finally became French at the end of the 15th c. By the end of the 16th c. the greater part of modern France was united under a single ruler.
The following three centuries saw the acquisition of the remaining major territories: Roussillon, Franche-Comté, and Alsace in the 17th c.; Lorraine and Corsica in the 18th; Nice and the northern part of the former Duchy of Savoy in the 19th. Alsace and Lorraine were lost to Germany in 1870-1918 and again in 1940-4. Until its independence in 1962, Algeria was treated as part of metropolitan France, as were (and still are) certain French islands in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean [see DOM-TOM].
2. The Ancien Régime: Provinces and Généralités
In the 17th and 18th c. France was primarily divided into more than 30 major provinces or gouvernements . These corresponded in part to the territories absorbed into France during the Middle Ages; they were controlled (in name at least) by provincial gouverneurs, high-ranking nobles whose role tended to become more honorific as a good deal of their power passed to the royal intendants. The latter presided over new administrative districts known as généralités (also sometimes called provinces, though they were not identical with the gouvernements).
There were many further divisions of ancien régime France, producing an administrative system of redoubtable complexity and inertia; local and provincial rights were jealously maintained. Judicially, the country was divided up between the 13 parlements, and there were innumerable subdivisions: prévôtés, baillages, sénéchaussées, etc. [see Parlements]. In addition, there was a distinction between the pays d'état (provinces such as Brittany, Burgundy, Provence, and Languedoc which had been allowed to retain their états, regional assemblies) and the so-called pays d'élection; in the latter the généralités were divided up for fiscal purposes into élections, which originally corresponded to yet another type of division, ecclesiastical dioceses. Taxation was very unevenly distributed, the pays d'état generally paying less than the pays d'élection.
3. Départements
Not surprisingly, the Revolutionary authorities set out to reorganize the rich chaos outlined above. They proceeded to a new carving-up of the country into départements, originally 83 in number. The frontiers of these tended to follow those of the old gouvernements where possible, but the names of the old provinces were eliminated (départements were named after geographical features such as rivers or mountains). Each département was of roughly equivalent size, the principle being that it was possible to ride a horse from any point in the département to its administrative centre (chef-lieu) in a day.
The département was in the charge of a préfet (now called commissaire de la République) appointed by the government, and the corps préfectoral became a powerful instrument for maintaining central control over the provinces. Each département was (and still is) divided into a number of sous-préfectures or arrondissements (the term also used for the districts of Paris). These in turn are divided into cantons and then into communes. The commune, the smallest administrative unit, is presided over by an elected mayor, who may be repeatedly re-elected and may thus come to exert great local power (it is possible, indeed common, for a mayor also to be a député in the Assemblée Nationale).
The administrative map established during the Revolution has lasted remarkably well. Among the subsequent changes one may mention the following: in the 1790s there were 15 annexed départements in Flanders in the East, while between 1870 and 1914 the departments of Alsace and Lorraine ceased to be part of France, with the exception of the small Territoire de Belfort; Algeria was divided into three départements, which were lost at Independence; several départements were renamed in the 1960s to avoid the supposedly humiliating connotations of certain adjectives (Seine Inférieure became Seine Maritime); at about the same time seven new départements took the place of the former Seine and Seine-et-Oise in the densely populated Paris area. There are currently (1993) 95 départements in metropolitan France plus four départements d'outre-mer [see DOM-TOM].
4. Regions
While the departmental system worked efficiently, it was less successful in attracting loyalty; many French people continued to feel that they belonged rather to the old provinces, such as Brittany, Picardy, or Provence. It was in relation to the provinces or smaller terroirs that a good deal of local culture defined itself throughout the 19th and 20th c. There was writing in the local languages or dialects [see Patois And Dialect Writing], the collection of local folklore [see Folk-Tale; Popular Song], and particularly in the 20th c. the flourishing of the ‘regional novel’ (e.g. Giono, Pourrat, Pergaud), written in French but distilling the character and manners of a given provincial area.
The persistence of regional loyalty was often accompanied by distrust of Paris, resentment at the discrimination against local language and culture, and hostility to the excessive, ‘Jacobin’ centralization of French political life. In the second half of the 20th c., building on previous endeavours, a number of important initiatives, including the establishment of Maisons de la Culture and the ‘décentralisation théâtrale’, set out to redress the balance.
Regionalism and decentralization also became major political issues, constituting, for instance, a major plank in the programme of the new Parti Socialiste in the 1970s. Regional reform has been constantly on the agenda of successive governments during the Fourth and Fifth Republics. The 1950s saw the beginning of a new administrative division of France into regions. There are currently (1993) 22 metropolitan regions as follows: Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne, Bretagne, Centre, Champagne-Ardennes, Corse, Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie, Île-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrénées, Nord, Pays de la Loire, Picardie, Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Côte d'Azur, Rhône-Alpes. Some of the names are those of the old provinces, but the boundaries of regions and provinces rarely correspond.
The main task of the regions is to promote economic development. Under the presidency of François Mitterrand steps were taken to promote greater regional autonomy; each region is administered both by a representative of central government (the commissaire de la République) and by a Conseil Régional (directly elected since 1986) and a Comité Économique et Social. However, the real autonomy of the regions and the nature of their relations both with central government and with the départements remain open questions.
— Peter France
