Metadata: Contrée Boundaries

in France, c. 1790
C ÉDRIC C HAMBRU*

Identification information

Citation

Title: Contrée Boundaries in France, c. 1790

Originator: Cédric Chambru
Publication Date: July 2020
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: Vector digital data
Name: france_contrees_1790.gpkg

Suggested citation: Chambru, Cédric (2020). “Contrée Boundaries in France, c. 1790.” https:
//doi.org/10.7910/DVN/CRY4ZB, Harvard Dataverse, V2.

Abstract

Abstract: This file contains digital vector boundaries for contrées in France as at early 1790.

Keyword

Place Keyword: Europe; France

Temporal Keyword: 1790; French Revolution; 18th century
Theme Keyword: Administrative boundaries; Contrées

* Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zürichbergstrasse 14, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland (email:
cedric.chambru@tutanota.com).

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Purpose

This data set is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and
mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and
map output production, or to provide a base map to support graphical overlays and analysis
with other spatial data.

Spatial reference information

Coordinate Reference System: EPSG:4236, WGS84

Bounding Coordinates:
West bounding coordinate: -4.793472497
East bounding coordinate: 9.559614867
North bounding coordinate: 51.089000311
South bounding coordinate: 41.365821330

Point of Contact

Contact person: Cédric Chambru

Organisation name: University of Zurich

Address type: mailing physical address

Address: Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zürichbergstrasse 14
Postal Code: 8032 Zurich
Country: Switzerland

E-mail: cedric.chambru@tutanota.com

Licence

Name: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Version: 4.0
Description: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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Status

Progress: Complete
Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

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 Description: Contrée Boundaries
in France, c. 1790

Description

This document describes the various procedures used to create the digital vector data of French
contrées as at early 1790. This data set is based on a mixture of contemporaneous maps
and historical maps, which sometimes required the reconstruction of historical boundaries of
specific spatial units. In creating those files, however, some issues arose that shade and shape
their interpretation and use. This document is designed to encourage use of this new resource
but also alert the user to these issues.

A Procedure

I created the vector data set in the process of completing a research project on 19th-century
France. To digitise and geo-reference historical maps, I used Quantum GIS (QGIS) v.3.10.2.1
I used the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) which sets the units in degrees (°) and adds
Greenwich as the starting point for the longitude (0°). The unique reference code (EPSG code)
of this coordinate systems is 4326.

B Sources

Contrées as a formal administrative division of France never existed. In early 1790, amid the
debates on the creation of French departments, the Dépôt de l’atlas national published numerous
maps displaying the new administrative structure of France. In one of them, it suggested to
divide the kingdom into a methodical way: France would have had nine regions (régions)

1 GIS Development Team (2020). QGIS Geographic Information System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation
Project. http://qgis.osgeo.org.

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composed of three contrées themselves composed of three departments.2 Each region and
contrée were named after its geographic position and/or its natural characteristics.3
To create the historical boundaries of contrées, I relied on the vector data set of French
department boundaries as at early 1790 (Chambru 2020). This vector data set has been built
using a mixture of contemporaneous data and historical maps to reproduce as closely as
possible the boundaries of departments as defined in the two decrees of 22 December 1789
and 15 January 1790.4
Because historical maps can be spatially inaccurate, the vector data set should be use with
caution when focusing specifically on boundary zones. In particular, in few cases, some
communes switched from one department to another and merged with another commune
making it difficult to trace the historical boundary with a high level precision. Additionally, it
should be reminded that these boundaries never formally existed and were merely a suggestion
among others.

C Construction of the administrative limits

This data set contains overall 28 polygons. I merged the 83 polygons from the Department
Boundaries data set based on the indications provided in the map, Carte de la France divisée en
ses 83 Départemens (Dépôt de l’atlas national 1790). Each contrée was created by merging the
polygons of three departments. There are two notable exceptions: the contrée ouest in the region
Nord included Paris as a fourth department; the department of Corsica constituted one region
by itself and was not further divided in contrées.5
The list of contrées with their respective region and departments is available in the csv file,
france_contrees_1790.csv, enclosed in the data set folder.

2 This map produced in 1790 by the Dépôt de l’atlas national is entitled Carte de la France divisée en ses 83
Départemens. Vérifiée au Comité de Constitution sur les originaux des Plans de chaque Département. Présentée dans
un Ordre Méthodique et Dédiée à l’Assemblée Nationale par les Auteurs de l’Atlas National de France en 1790. A digital
copy of this map is available on the BnF digital library at: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8493178s.
3 “Pour rendre cette nouvelle géographie de la France méthodique, on a imaginer de la diviser en 9 Régions, et
de composer chaque régions de 3 contrées, et chaque contrées de 3 départements, au total 9 départements par
Région, et 27 contrées pour tout le royaume. [...] On s’est servi d’un moyen aussi simple pour les CONTRÉES.
On les a distingué seulement par les points cardinaux qu’ils occupent respectivement.” (Dépôt de l’atlas national
1790).
4 This data set is derived from the 2016 edition of the GEOFLA data set maintained by the Institut National de
l’Information Géographique et Forestière (IGN) and available under the Open Licence. The GEOFLA data set is
accessible on the French Open Data Platform: https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/admin-express/. For
more details, see the Description section in the data set documentation available at: https://doi.org/10.7910/
DVN/HJISNR.
5 The authors of the map did not include Corsica in the total of nine regions. Corsica was simply reported as
“Island in the Mediterranean Sea” (Isle dans la Méditerranée).

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D List of variables

Variable Description
id unique ID
region_name_1790 name of the (theoretical) region in 1790
contree_name_1790 name of the (theoretical) contrée in 1790

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 Release Notes: Contrée Boundaries
in France, c. 1790

Version history

This document gives a record of the changes made to the data set since its initial release. I
recommend users to always use the latest version available. To help me to improve the quality
of the data set, I encourage users to report all errors they encounter in the data set.

Version 1.0

• Initial release of the data set.

Version 2.0

• Modify department boundaries to include areas that are in nowadays in Switzerland:

– I redrew the historical boundaries of the department of Ain to include the communes
of Chambésy, Collex-Bossy, Le Grand-Saconnex, Meyrin, Prégny, and Versoix, which
became part of Switzerland on 20 November 1815, but were previously part of the
department of Ain.

• Modify department boundaries to exclude enclaves corresponding to independent polit-

ical entities as at early 1790:

– I redrew the historical boundaries of the department of Moselle to exclude the

enclave of the comté de Créhange, which became part of France on 13 February 1793.

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References
Chambru, Cédric (2020). Department Boundaries in France, c. 1790. Version V4. Harvard Data-
verse. DOI: 10.7910/DVN/HJISNR.
“Décret du 22 décembre 1789 concernant la constitution des assemblées représentatives et des
assemblées administratives, en annexe de la séance du 15 janvier 1790” (1880). In: Archives
Parlementaires de la Révolution Française Tome XI, pp. 191–195.
Dépôt de l’atlas national (1790). Carte de la France divisée en ses 83 Départemens. Vérifiée au Comité
de Constitution sur les originaux des Plans de chaque Département. Présentée dans un Ordre
Méthodique et Dédiée à l’Assemblée Nationale par les Auteurs de l’Atlas National de France en
1790. Bibliothèque nationale de France. IFN-8493178. URL: https : / / gallica . bnf . fr / ark :
/12148/btv1b8493178s.
“Texte des décrets relatifs à la division du royaume en annexe de la séance du 26 février 1790”
(1880). In: Archives Parlementaires de la Révolution Française Tome XI, pp. 716–724.