Meurthe () is a former department of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

created in 1790. Its

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

(capital) was Nancy. It ceased to exist following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

in 1871.

General characteristics

The department of Meurthe was created on 4 March 1790, during 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 conside ...

, out of a part of the former province of

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

. It took its name from the river Meurthe flowing through it. As of 1866, Meurthe had 714

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, relig ...

. Its area was 6,070 km² (2,344 sq. miles). It was divided into 5

arrondissements An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissements' ...

: Nancy,

Château-Salins Château-Salins (; , from 1941–44 ''Salzburgen'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Until 2015, Château-Salins was a subprefecture of the Moselle department. History The town is relatively recent. ...

Lunéville Lunéville ( ; German, obsolete: ''Lünstadt'' ) is a commune in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It is a subprefecture of the department and lies on the river Meurthe at its confluence with the Vezouze. History L ...

Sarrebourg Sarrebourg (; also , ; Lorraine Franconian: ; older la, Pons Saravi) is a commune of northeastern France. In 1895 a Mithraeum was discovered at Sarrebourg at the mouth of the pass leading from the Vosges Mountains. Geography Sarrebourg i ...

and

Toul Toul () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Geography Toul is between Commercy and Nancy, and the river Moselle and Canal de la Marne au Rhin. Climate Toul ...

History

Alsace Lorraine departments evolution map-en

After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the northeastern part of the Meurthe department was annexed to the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

by the Treaty of Frankfurt. On 18 May 1871 about one-third of the Meurthe, corresponding approximately to the arrondissements of Château-Salins and Sarrebourg in the northeast of the department, were detached from Meurthe and annexed to the German Department of Lorraine, becoming part of the ''Reichsland'' of Alsace-Lorraine. The remaining two thirds of Meurthe were merged with one fifth of the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A ...

department ( arrondissement of Briey, in the extreme west of Moselle, to the northwest of Meurthe) which had escaped German annexation, and on 7 September 1871 the merger gave birth to the new

Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France by Germany at the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...

. However, the old departments of Meurthe and Moselle was not recreated by reverting to the old department borders of before 1871. Instead, Meurthe-et-Moselle was left untouched, and the one-third of Meurthe and the four-fifths of Moselle that had been formed the German region of Lorraine in 1871 were reinstituted as the new department of Moselle, which shares the name of the old department of Moselle but which has quite different borders.

Population

At the 1866 French census, the Meurthe department had a population of 428,387 inhabitants. In 1872, after the annexation and merger, the new Meurthe-et-Moselle department had a population of 365,137 inhabitants. At the 1999 French census, if Meurthe still existed it would have had a population of 647,307 inhabitants. On the other hand, in 1999 Meurthe-et-Moselle had a population of 713,779 inhabitants (the industrial area of Briey and

Longwy Longwy (; older german: Langich, ; lb, label= Luxemburgish, Lonkech) is a commune in the French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, administrative region of Grand Est, northeastern France. The inhabitants are known as ''Longoviciens'' ...

merged in 1871 is more populated than the rural areas of Château-Salins and Sarrebourg lost in 1871).

General characteristics

History

Population

See also