Nord (French department) explained

Nord
Native Name Lang:fr
Type:Département
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:France
Subdivision Type1:Region
Subdivision Name1:Hauts-de-France
Seat Type:Prefecture
Seat:Lille
Parts Type:Subprefectures
Parts Style:para
P1:Avesnes-
sur-Helpe

Cambrai
Douai
Dunkirk
Valenciennes
Leader Title:President of the Departmental Council
Leader Name:Christian Poiret[1]
Unit Pref:Metric
Area Total Km2:5743
Population Rank:1st
Population Density Km2:auto
Blank Name Sec1:Department number
Blank Info Sec1:59
Blank Name Sec2:Arrondissements
Blank Info Sec2:6
Blank1 Name Sec2:Cantons
Blank1 Info Sec2:41
Blank2 Name Sec2:Communes
Blank2 Info Sec2:648
Timezone1:CET
Utc Offset1:+1
Timezone1 Dst:CEST
Utc Offset1 Dst:+2
Iso Code:FR-59
Footnotes: French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Nord (pronounced as /fr/; officially French: département du Nord; départémint dech Nord; Dutch; Flemish: Noorderdepartement,) is a département in Hauts-de-France region, France bordering Belgium. It was created from the western halves of the historical counties of Flanders and Hainaut, and the Bishopric of Cambrai. The modern coat of arms was inherited from the County of Flanders.

Nord is the country's most populous département. It had a population of 2,608,346 in 2019.[2] It also contains the metropolitan region of Lille (the main city and the prefecture of the département), the fourth-largest urban area in France after Paris, Lyon and Marseille. The department is the part of France where the French Flemish dialect of Dutch has historically been spoken as a native language. Similarly, the distinct French Picard dialect Ch'ti is spoken there.

History

Until the 17th century, the history of the North (Nord, French department) was largely in common with the history of Belgium (the Celtics Belgians during Antiquity were a multitude of Celtic peoples from the north of Gaul). The historical French provinces that preceded Nord are French Flanders, French Hainaut (part of Hainaut and Flanders is in the Kingdom of Belgium). Tribes of the Belgae, such as the Menapii and Nervii were the first peoples recorded in the area later known as Nord.

During the 4th and 5th Centuries, Roman rulers of Gallia Belgica secured the route from the major port of Bononia (Boulogne) to Colonia (Cologne), by co-opting Germanic peoples north-east of this corridor, such as the Tungri. In effect, the area known later as Nord became an isogloss (linguistic border) between the Germanic and Romance languages. Saxon colonisation of the region from the 5th to the 8th centuries likely shifted the isogloss further south so that, by the 9th century, most people immediately north of Lille spoke a dialect of Old Dutch. This has remained evident in the place names of the region. After the County of Flanders became part of France in the 9th century, the isogloss moved north and east.[3]

During the 14th century, much of the area came under the control of the Duchy of Burgundy and in subsequent centuries was therefore part of the Habsburg Netherlands (from 1482) and the Spanish Netherlands (1581).

Areas that later constituted Nord were ceded to France by treaties in 1659, 1668, and 1678, becoming the Counties of Flanders and Hainaut, and part of the Bishopric of Cambrai.

On 4 March 1790, during the French Revolution, Nord became one of the original 83 departments created to replace the counties.

Modern government policies making French the only official language have led to a decline in use of the Dutch West Flemish dialect. There are currently 20,000 speakers of a sub-dialect of West Flemish in the arrondissement of Dunkirk and it appears likely that this particular sub-dialect will be extinct within decades.[3]

Geography

Nord is part of the current Hauts-de-France region and is surrounded by the French departments of Pas-de-Calais, Somme, and Aisne, as well as by Belgium and the North Sea. Its area is 5742.8km2.[4] It is the longest department in metropolitan France, measuring 184 km from Fort-Philippe in the north-west to Anor in the south-east.

Situated in the north of the country along the western half of the Belgian frontier, the department is unusually long and narrow. The principal rivers are the following: Yser, Lys, Escaut, Scarpe, Sambre.

Principal towns

The most populous commune is Lille, the prefecture. With nearby Roubaix, Tourcoing and Villeneuve-d'Ascq, it constitutes the center of a cluster of industrial and former mining towns totalling slightly over a million inhabitants. As of 2019, there are 10 communes with more than 30,000 inhabitants:[2]

CommunePopulation (2019)
Lille234,475
Roubaix98,828
Tourcoing98,656
Dunkirk86,279
Villeneuve-d'Ascq61,957
Valenciennes43,229
Wattrelos40,898
Douai39,613
Marcq-en-Barœul38,486
Cambrai32,176

Demographics

With a population of 2,608,346 in 2019,[2] Nord is the department with the largest population.

Politics

See main article: Departmental Council of Nord. The President of the Departmental Council is the unaffiliated right-winger Christian Poiret.[5]

The first President of the Fifth Republic, General Charles de Gaulle, was born in Lille in the department on 22 November 1890.

Party Seats[6]
Union of the Right (UD) 30
Union of the Left (UG) 18
Miscellaneous right (DVD) 10
Union of the Centre and the Right (UCD) 8
French Communist Party (PCF) 4
Miscellaneous left (DVG) 4
Union of the Left and Ecologists (UGE) 4
Miscellaneous centre (DVC) 2
Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV) 2

Presidential elections second round

ElectionWinning CandidateParty%2nd Place CandidateParty%
2022Emmanuel MacronLREM52.85Marine Le PenRN47.15
2017[7] Emmanuel MacronLREM56.90Marine Le PenFN43.10
2012François HollandePS52.88Nicolas SarkozyUMP47.12
2007Nicolas SarkozyUMP51.75Ségolène RoyalPS48.25
2002Jacques ChiracRPR78.28Jean-Marie Le PenFN21.72
1995[8] Lionel JospinPS53.70Jacques ChiracRPR46.30

Current National Assembly Representatives

See main article: List of constituencies in Nord.

ConstituencyMember[9] Party
Nord's 1st constituencyAdrien QuatennensLa France Insoumise
Nord's 2nd constituencyUgo BernalicisLa France Insoumise
Nord's 3rd constituencyChristophe Di PompeoLa République En Marche!
Nord's 4th constituencyBrigitte LisoLa République En Marche!
Nord's 5th constituencySébastien HuygheThe Republicans
Nord's 6th constituencyCharlotte LecocqLa République En Marche!
Nord's 7th constituencyFrancis VercamerUnion of Democrats and Independents
Nord's 8th constituencyCatherine OssonLa République En Marche!
Nord's 9th constituencyValérie PetitLa République En Marche!
Nord's 10th constituencyVincent LedouxThe Republicans
Nord's 11th constituencyLaurent PietraszewskiLa République En Marche!
Nord's 12th constituencyAnne-Laure CattelotLa République En Marche!
Nord's 13th constituencyChristian HutinCitizen and Republican Movement
Nord's 14th constituencyPaul ChristopheThe Republicans
Nord's 15th constituencyJennifer de TemmermanLiberties and Territories
Nord's 16th constituencyAlain BruneelFrench Communist Party
Nord's 17th constituencyDimitri HoubronLa République En Marche!
Nord's 18th constituencyGuy BricoutUnion of Democrats and Independents
Nord's 19th constituencySébastien ChenuNational Rally
Nord's 20th constituencyFabien RousselFrench Communist Party
Nord's 21st constituencyBéatrice DescampsUnion of Democrats and Independents

Economy

Until recently, the department was dominated economically by coal mining, which extended through the heart of the department from neighbouring Artois into central Belgium.

At the forefront of France's 19th century industrialisation, the area suffered severely during World War I and now faces the economic, social and environmental problems associated with the decline of coal mining with its neighbours, following the earlier decline of the Lille-Roubaix textile industry.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Répertoire national des élus: les conseillers départementaux. data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 4 May 2022. fr.
  2. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/fichier/6011060/dep59.pdf Populations légales 2019: 59 Nord
  3. Web site: Dutch dialect . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.multilingual-matters.net/jmmd/023/0022/jmmd0230022.pdf . 2022-10-09 . live .  
  4. Web site: Comparateur de territoire − Comparez les territoires de votre choix - Résultats pour les communes, départements, régions, intercommunalités... Insee. 2022-01-13. www.insee.fr. fr.
  5. Web site: 2021-07-01. Christian Poiret, élu président du conseil départemental du Nord. 2022-01-13. France Bleu. fr.
  6. Web site: Départementales 2021 dans le Nord : découvrez les résultats définitifs du second tour. 2022-01-13. France 3 Hauts-de-France. fr-FR.
  7. Web site: Présidentielles / Les résultats / Elections - Ministère de l'Intérieur . fr . Interieur.gouv.fr . 2022-04-30.
  8. Web site: Résultats de l'élection présidentielle de 1995 par département . Politiquemania . 2022-04-30.
  9. Web site: Assemblée Nationale . Assemblée nationale ~ Les députés, le vote de la loi, le Parlement français . Assemblee-nationale.fr . 2022-04-25 . 2022-04-30.