The Dépôt de la Guerre was France's military archive and cartography department, set up in 1688 under

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

and expanded during the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Ki ...

and the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

History

Established by

François Michel Le Tellier de Louvois François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, Kin ...

, it was put in charge of gathering, conserving, engraving and publishing historical archives, military memoirs, maps and plans and all topographic activity. In the 18th century lieutenant-general Vault played a notable part in the Dépôt's work. Camp de La Valbonne 1873

Effectively dissolved during the early years of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

thanks to a decision by the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

to suppress the military geographical-engineers corps, it was reestablished by Étienne Nicolas de Calon between April 1793 and May 1797, under the new name ''Dépôt général de la Guerre et de la Géographie'' (in full, ''Dépôt général de la Guerre de terre et de mer et de la Géographie'') - this underlined the military importance of creating maps and keeping them up to date. However, the staff provided for it were insufficient for its initial ambitions - a large part of its personnel shifted to the

Bureau des longitudes Bureau ( ) may refer to: Agencies and organizations *Government agency *Public administration * News bureau, an office for gathering or distributing news, generally for a given geographical location * Bureau (European Parliament), the administrat ...

and the Service hydrologique de la Marine.

Pierre Dupont de l'Étang Pierre-Antoine, comte Dupont de l'Étang (4 July 1765 – 9 March 1840) was a French general of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as a political figure of the Bourbon Restoration. Life Revolutionary Wars Born in Chabanais, ...

was briefly put in charge of the Dépôt from May to September 1797, followed by Jean Ernouf from September 1797 to October 1798 and Hugues Alexandre Joseph Meunier until December 1799. Under the

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Eu ...

it was headed by

Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke, 1st Count of Hunebourg, 1st Duke of Feltre (17 October 1765 – 28 October 1818), born to Irish parents from Lisdowney, County Kilkenny, in Landrecies, was a politician and Marshal of France. Clarke was one of the ...

from December 1799 to September 1800,

Antoine François Andréossy Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...

from August 1802 to May 1803,

Nicolas Antoine Sanson Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

from June 1803 to June 1805. It flourished during this period, employing 90 geographical engineers and a huge archive of documents, mapping the

Cisalpine Republic The Cisalpine Republic ( it, Repubblica Cisalpina) was a sister republic of France in Northern Italy that existed from 1797 to 1799, with a second version until 1802. Creation After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte organized t ...

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

and the newly-annexed

Cisrhenian Republic The Cisrhenian Republic (german: Cisrhenanische Republik) was a planned client state during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1797 on the Left Bank of the Rhine under occupation by France, that after a golpe decided for the annexation of the area ...

among others. The corps of engineer geographers was definitively recreated in January 1909. The Dépôt was restructured in 1814, and again in 1823. In 1887, it was split into two separate organisations: * The (SGA, "Army Geographic Service"), which in 1940 became the

Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institute, research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countr ...

(IGN, "National Institute of Geographic and Forestry Information") * The (SHA, "Army Historical Service"), later the (SHAT, "Land Army Historical Service"), now the

Service historique de la défense In France, the Defence Historical Service (''Service historique de la défense'' or ''SHD'') is the archives centre of Ministry of Defence and its armed forces. It was set up by decree in 2005. The SHD consists of the "Centre historique des ar ...

(SHD, "Defence Historical Service"). The Dépôt's archives can be consulted at the SHD site at the

Château de Vincennes The Château de Vincennes () is a former fortress and royal residence next to the town of Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris, alongside the Bois de Vincennes. It was largely built between 1361 and 1369, and was a preferred residence, after ...

References

Bibliography

* Patrice Ract, ''Les ingénieurs géographes des camps et armées du roi, de la guerre de Sept Ans à la Révolution (1756-1791) : étude institutionnelle, prosopographique et sociale'' (thèse de l'

École des chartes École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Sav ...

soutenue en 2002)Les ingénieurs géographes des camps et armées du roi, de la guerre de Sept Ans à la Révolution (1756-1791) : étude institutionnelle, prosopographique et sociale
/ref> *

External links

*
Service historique de la Défense
- official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Depot de la Guerre Geography organizations National mapping agencies Military history of France