Canton of Léman

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Canton du Léman
Canton of Léman

1798 – 1803


Flag	Coat of arms

The Helvetic Republic, as at the constitution of 12 April 1798, showing the canton of Léman in yellow, leftmost, to the north and west of Lake Geneva.

Capital

Lausanne

History

- Révolution Vaudoise: independence from Berne

January 24, 1798

- Helv. Rep. proclaimed

April 12, 1798

- Act of Mediation

February 19, 1803

Léman was the name of a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, corresponding to the territory of modern Vaud. As a former subject territory of Berne, Vaud had been independent for only four months in 1798 as the Lemanic Republic before it was incorporated in the centralist Helvetic Republic. Léman comprised all of the Vaud detached from Bernese occupation, apart from the Avenches and the Payerne which, after 16 October 1802, were annexed by the canton of Fribourg until the Napoleonic Act of Mediation the following year, when they were restored to the newly-established and newly-sovereign canton of Vaud.

The capital of the canton was Lausanne, with the préfet’s residence, the administrative chamber and the judicial tribunal. The canton was divided into 17 administrative districts, each with a sous-préfet. Léman was also one of the five cantons — purely administrative subdivisions — of the Rhodanic Republic planned in March 1798 by the French general Guillaume Brune.