The Territorial Formation of Contemporary France

A capstone in the evolution of Geopolitics in public discourse was the day,Yves Lacoste,the Geographer was invited by Bernard Pivot,the moderator of a literary TV show to present his Géopolitiques Des Régions Françaises or the Political Geography of French Regions to his viewers. An epic divided into three volumes describing the physical,electoral,economic and the demographic features of the 22 administrative regions. In the years that followed the release of the work of Yves Lacoste,researchers related geopolitics to agriculture,industrial production and the pharmaceutical sector to mark the second phase in the popularity of the subject. And the replacement of the 22 regions by 13 administrative zones in 2015 could be tagged as another phase in the territorial formation that started many centuries ago.

The Territorial Legacy of the Merovingian Dynasty

Entities administered by King Clovis,the founder of the Merovingian dynasty after his victory at the battle of Vouillé in 507 were the initial territory of the Frank kingdom and the Carolingian dynasty continued the tradition of unbridled territorial expansions in the middle ages.The provisions of the treaty of Verdun in 843 shared the territories covering present day Paris and its adjacent areas between the three sons of Louis le Pieux:Charles le Chauve,Louis le Germanique and Lothaire.By nominating territorial officials and by making them accountable to the Crown.King Philippe Auguste(1180-1223) introduced the system of Royal instructions.The periods of English and French territorial expansions between 1337-1453 classified as the 100 years war were closed with the liberation of the city of Orleans by Joan of Arc and the victory of Charles VII at Bordeaux in the south western part, enabled the consolidation of Royal authority by 1451 with the existence of the Counts of Bourgogne,Champagne and Flanders.

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The Years of diplomatic and border Agreements

However, the most significant acquisition in the territorial configuration of France was the marriage between François I and Anne de Bretagne,that made the region of Brittany part of the kingdom in 1532.This territorial acquisition on the western fringe was consolidated with the 1648 treaty of Westhpalia that made the cities of Verdun and Metz parts of the eastern enclave.While in the south,the 1659  Pyrénees peace agreement closed 25 years of war as well as the cession of Rousillon and Lorraine.By 1679,the treaty of Nimegue recognised the areas of the Franche Comté, the city of Strasbourg and the treaty of Ryswick(1688-1697) made Alsace part of the national entity.The 1763 demarcation section in the peace treaty between England,Spain and France clarified the status of the Martinique and the Guadeloupe(now overseas territories) and the decisions taken at the Congress of Vienna in 1818 mandated France to respect the borders of the kingdom as at 1789.

The Territorial Act of 2015

Both the regions of Alsace and Lorraine came under the control of Prussia by the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 but the two regions were recovered in 1918 and 1944 completely.After the end of the second world war, a landmark territorial decision took place in 1972 and in 1982 the decentralisation initiatives of Gaston Defferre,the minister of internal affairs  affirmed the system of 22 regions.And for public service efficiency,strategic planning needs,the 22 administrative structure were replaced with 13 regions,(in metropolitan france)that are subdivided into 101 departments and 34 965 communes by the terriorial act of 2015.The parliamentary debate was highly stimulating but the public ignored the essence of the territorial reform,to the extent that,when you hear in conversations,Hauts-de-France,Occitanie,Grand Est,Nouvelle-Aquitaine,you wonder whether these destinations are in France or not!

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