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The provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the department (French: département) system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the historic counties of England. They came into their final form over the course of many hundreds of years, as many dozens of semi-independent fiefs and former independent countries came to be incorporated into the French royal domain. Because of the haphazard manner in which the provinces evolved, each had its own sets of feudal traditions, laws, taxation systems, courts, etc., and the system represented an impediment to effective administration of the entire country from Paris. During the early years of the French Revolution, in an attempt to centralize the administration of the whole country, and to remove the influence of the French nobility over the country, the entirety of the Province system was abolished and replaced by the system of départements, which is still in use today.
In some cases, several modern regions or départements share names with the historic provinces, and their borders may cover roughly the same territory.
The list below shows the major provinces of France at the time of their dissolution during the French Revolution. Capital cities are shown in parentheses. Bold indicates a city that was also the seat of a judicial and quasi-legislative body called either a parlement (not to be confused with a parliament) or a conseil souverain (sovereign council). In some cases, this body met in a different city than the capital.
Partial display of historical provincial arms:
Le Havre, Rouen, Caen, Duchy of Normandy, Cider
Nantes, Rennes, Loire-Atlantique, Vannes, Saint-Malo
House of Savoy, France, Chambéry, Italy, Switzerland
London, United Kingdom, France, Amsterdam, Berlin
France, Paris, Germany, Italy, Marseille
France, Occitan language, Corsica, Haute-Vienne, Regions of France
Kingdom of France, Regions of France, Aube, Campania, Ancient Rome
Kingdom of France, Poitiers, Maine, New Brunswick, Louisiana
France, Ancien Régime, Great Officers of the Crown of France, Henry II of France, Louis XV of France
Besançon, Kingdom of France, Jura (department), Regions of France, Departments of France