History of the Loire-Atlantique

( Istouaérr dou departamàn of Loère-Atlantiqe in (Gallo), History of the department of the Loire-Atlantique)

Creation of the department

The Loire-Atlantique was created like the majority of the other French departments to the French revolution, the March 4th 1790, pursuant to the law of the December 22nd 1789, starting from part of the province of Brittany, plus the enclave angevine of Boissière-of-Gilded the as well as the parish poitevine of Remouillé which were well built-in spite of them at the new department of the Loire-Inférieure. The new department was called then Loire-Inférieure , name which it preserved until the March 9th 1957, date on which it took its current name.

The department took again the major part of the territory of old the évêché of Nantes, plus a small portion of the South of the évêché of Rennes, towards the Pays of Mée, but amputee of a part around Redon (detached towards the Ille-et-Vilaine) and of the Pays of Mitau (attached to the Morbihan), in Nord-Ouest.
Le all new department of the Loire-Inférieure inclua in the South-east of its new limits, the parish of Boissière-of-Gilded the which belonged until the XVIIIe century, with the territory of the Mauges integral part of the Anjou, as well as the parish poitevine of Moistened again, attached by error to the department of the Loire-Inférieure.

Countries of the Loire

The June 30th 1941, a decree of the Vichy government created economic areas by gathering certain departments between them. To the great displeasure elected officials of the department, the Loire-Atlantique was not integrated in the area of Rennes (which corresponded besides to the current area Brittany), but in that of Angers (whose limits included the territory of the current area of the Countries of the Loire). The reasons of this division are not clear, certain sources evoke a will to facilitate the supply between Nantes and Angers, distant about less than 100 km and whose routes transportation are well structured, others speaks about a way of slicing between Rennes and Nantes which disputed the prefecture of such an area, will to maintain a capacity centralized extremely which would have been incompatible with the rebirth of the old provinces. It seems however that this decision was made in a precipitated way. In all the cases, the economic areas did not survive a long time the fall of the Régime of Vichy and were dissolved in 1945.

In 1955 were created areas of program in order to optimize town and country planning. Jean Vergeot, general police chief associated in the Plan, was charged to define contours of them. Among the 22 areas which it created, it includes the Loire-Atlantique in that of the Countries of the Loire. This inclusion was seems it difficult to him to slice, but it was based on economic considerations (telephone exchanges, transport, etc) to carry out a project which was at the time purely of internal use of the administration.

Breton identity

The creation of the regional prefects in 1964, the regional public corporations in 1972 and of the areas in 1982 ratify this cutting. For this same period, the Breton identity is affirmed and the position of the Loire-Atlantique in the Pays of the Loire is disputed more and more (the general advice of the department votes in 1972 its wish to be attached to Brittany, for example).

At present, it seems that a majority of inhabitants of the Loire-Atlantique wishes his fastening with the area Brittany (68% according to a survey in 1999, 75% in 2001). The inscriptions 44 = BZH are current and the subject is a local political argument.

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