Territoire de Belfort
| Territoire de Belfort | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| — Department — | |||
|
|||
 |
|||
| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | France | ||
| Region | Franche-Comté | ||
| Prefecture | Belfort | ||
| Subprefectures | (none) | ||
| Government | |||
| - President of the General Council | Yves Ackermann (PS) | ||
| Area1 | |||
| - Total | 609 km2 (235.1 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| - Total | 144,600 | ||
| - Rank | 95th | ||
| - Density | 237.4/km2 (615/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Department number | 90 | ||
| Arrondissements | 1 | ||
| Cantons | 15 | ||
| Communes | 102 | ||
| ^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2 | |||
The Territoire de Belfort is a department in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France.
Contents |
Administration
Its departmental code is 90, and its prefecture (capital) is Belfort.
History
The administrative district Territoire de Belfort was created under the terms of the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt. The German Empire annexed almost all of Alsace, but the French were able to negotiate retention of the Territoire de Belfort which thereby was separated from the rest of Alsace. There were three principal reasons for this exceptional treatment:
- The population in and around Belfort was French speaking.
- Belfort had demonstrated heroic resistance, under Colonel Pierre Denfert-Rochereau, to the German invasion. Belfort's left-wing Catholic Deputy Émile Keller now conducted a similarly forceful political campaign in the National Assembly. He argued that ceding heroic Belfort to Germany after the war would be unthinkable, his nationalist passion persuasively encapsulating several of the most politically powerful currents of the age.
- With the loss of Lorraine and most of Alsace, France lost a number of well fortified and naturally favoured military positions that would otherwise have deterred future military aggression from the east. Belfort, on steep ground and lined up with the Vosges Mountains, would form part of a natural line of defence for France's newly imposed eastern frontier. This encouraged the politicians in Paris to hold out for its retention.
After retaining its unique status as a Territoire for just over half a century, Belfort officially received recognition as France's 90th département in 1922. France had recovered Alsace three years earlier, but the decision was taken not to reintegrate Belfort into its former department. There was talk of giving it a new departmental name, with suggestions that included "Savoureuse" or "Mont Terrible" (a name which recalled the name of a former Napoleonic department embracing parts of Switzerland), but there was no consensus for a name change and the department continues to be known as the Territoire de Belfort.
Geography
Geographers might contend that Belfort lies on the ridge that divides two regions of France, but before 1870 it was politically part of Alsace. However, in terms of the political regions established in 1982, the Territoire de Belfort has found itself in the Franche-Comté rather than Alsace.
The department has an area of only 609 km² (235 sq. miles), being the fifth smallest of France (after Paris and its suburbs Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne).
See also
- Communes of the Territoire de Belfort department
- Cantons of the Territoire de Belfort department
- Arrondissements of the Territoire de Belfort department
External links
- (French) Prefecture website
- (French) General council website
- (English) Tourist Office website
- (English) Territoire de Belfort Tourist Information
|
|||||
 |
This Franche-Comté geographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |