Nord (French department)

Name	Nord
Native name
Native name lang	fr instead -->
Type	Department
Image alt
Flag alt
Image shield	Blason Nord-Pas-De-Calais.svg
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Nickname
Motto
Map alt
Map caption	Location of Nord in France
Pushpin map
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Coor pinpoint
Coordinates type	region:FR_type:adm2nd
Coordinates display	inline,title
Coordinates footnotes
Coordinates region	FR
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	France
Subdivision type1	Region
Subdivision name1	Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Established title
Established date
Founder
Seat type	Prefecture
Seat	Lille
Parts type	Subprefectures
Parts style	para
P1	Avesnes- sur-Helpe Cambrai Douai Dunkirk Valenciennes
Government footnotes
Leader party
Leader title	President of the General Council
Leader name	Bernard Derosier
Unit pref	Metric
Area magnitude
Area footnotes
Area total km2	5743
Area note
Elevation footnotes
Elevation m
Elevation min m
Elevation max m
Population total	2565257
Population as of	Jan 1, 2006 est.
Population rank	1st
Population density km2	auto
Population demonym
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Blank name sec1	Department number
Blank info sec1	59
Blank name sec2	Arrondissements
Blank info sec2	6
Blank1 name sec2	Cantons
Blank1 info sec2	79
Blank2 name sec2	Communes
Blank2 info sec2	652
Timezone1	CET
Utc offset1	+1
Timezone1 dst	CEST
Utc offset1 dst	+2
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Website
Footnotes	French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Nord (; ) is a department in the far north of France. It was created from the western halves of the historical counties of Flanders and Hainaut (the eastern halves being in Belgium), and the Bishopric of Cambrai. The modern coat of arms was inherited from the County of Flanders. Nord is the only French département in which a Dutch dialect (French Flemish) is spoken along with French as a native language. It is the country's most populous department.

History

Nord was one of the original 83 departments that were created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was made up of three regions: the Counties of Flanders and Hainaut, and the Bishopric of Cambrai, which were ceded to France in successive treaties (1659, 1668, and 1678). spoken in the arrondissement of Dunkirk, 1874 and 1972]] During the 4th and 5th centuries, the Roman practice of coopting Germanic tribes to provide military and defense services along the route from Boulogne to Cologne created a Germanic-Romance linguistic border in the region that persisted until the 8th century. Saxon colonization into the region from the 5th to the 8th centuries likely extended the linguistic border somewhat south so that by the 9th century most inhabitants north of Lille spoke a dialect of Middle Dutch, while the inhabitants to the south spoke a variety of Romance dialects. This linguistic border is still evident today in the place names of the region. After the 9th century, the linguistic border began to shift north and east, a process accelerated by modern government policies that recognize French as the country's official language. There are currently 20,000 speakers of a subset of the Dutch dialect West Flemish in the arrondissement of Dunkirk and this particular subset is in danger of extinction within decades.

Geography

Nord is part of the current Nord-Pas-de-Calais region and is surrounded by the French departments of Pas-de-Calais and Aisne, as well as by Belgium and the North Sea.

Situated in the north of the country along the western half of the Belgian frontier, the department is unusually long and narrow. Its principal city is Lille, which with nearby Roubaix, Tourcoing and Villeneuve d'Ascq constitutes the center of a cluster of industrial and former mining towns totalling slightly over a million inhabitants. Other important cities are Valenciennes, Douai, and Dunkirk. The principal rivers are the following:

Yser

Lys

Escaut

Scarpe

Sambre

Economy

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.

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

Demographics

Nord is the most heavily populated department, with a population of 2,583,493 and an area of 5,743 km².

Politics

The President of the General Council is the Socialist Bernard Derosier.

{| border="1" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9; border-bottom: 2px solid gray;" !colspan=2| Party || seats |- ! style="background-color: " |• |Socialist Party ||align="right"| 43 |- ! style="background-color: " |• |French Communist Party ||align="right"| 12 |- ! style="background-color: " | |Union for a Popular Movement ||align="right"| 10 |- ! style="background-color: " | |Miscellaneous Right ||align="right"| 8 |- ! style="background-color: " |• |Miscellaneous Left ||align="right"| 3 |- ! style="background-color: " | |MoDem ||align="right"| 2 |- ! style="background-color: " | |New Centre ||align="right"| 1 |- |}

See also

Cantons of the Nord department

Communes of the Nord department

Arrondissements of the Nord department (France)

French Flemish

Université Lille Nord de France

References

INSEE

External links

Prefecture website General Council website

Category:Flanders