Pre-Revolution France existed in Provinces, ruled over by high level nobility, exacting burdening taxes from the peasants and the Bourgeois (middle class). During the Revolution, the country was reestablished into regions and departments, with the current city officials still governing. But they weren’t except from the Terror either.
Before the revolution, French borders and boundaries, shifted ownerships (if that is the right word to use) between warring neighboring countries. Brutal power hungry leaders continued during and after the Revolution. They continue on today, except that hands of reason of well-governed people keeps them at bay.
As French Republics boundaries, regions and names of departments evolved and shifted through time, French departments were either renamed, dissolved or became part of another department or country. A good example of this, was the department of Sambre et Meuse created during the first French Republic in 1795, and it is now divided between what we now know as Provinces of Namur and Luxembourg, Belgium. Except for history books, the department of Sambre et Meuse ceased to exist.
| Côtes-du-Nord | |
| Charente- Inférieure | |
| Loire-Inférieure | |
| Seine- Inférieure | |
| Seine | Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne |
| Mont Blanc | |
| Mayenne et Loire | |
| Meurthe | |
| Sambre et Meuse | Namur & Luxembourg, Belgium |
| Mont-Terrible | |
| Basses-Pyrénées | |
| l’Ourthe | |
| Seine-et-Oise | |
| Pyrénées-Occidentales |