TheDepartment of Oran (French:département d'Oran,[depaʁtəmɑ̃dorān],Arabic:عمّالة وهران) was a Frenchdépartement inAlgeria existing from 1848 until 1962.
Originally a French province, it was departmentalised on 9 December 1848. Its principal town,Oran, was made theprefecture of thedépartement. There were three Frenchdépartements in Algeria: Oran in the west,Alger in the center, andConstantine in the east. Oran covered 67,262 km2, encompassing fivesub-prefectures ofMascara,Mostaganem,Sidi Bel Abbès,Tiaret andTlemcen.
Considered as a French province, Algeria was departmentalised on 9 December 1848, thereby operating according to the same administrative structure asmetropolitan France. Three civil zones (départements) replaced the threebeyliks into which theOttoman former rulers had divided the territory. The principal town of the westerndépartement, also calledOran, became theprefecture of the eponymousdépartement. The two other Algerian departments wereAlgiers in the center andConstantine in the east.
The department of Oran was created on 9 December 1848, at the same time as the departments of Algiers and Constantine. Like them, it bears the name of its capital.
In 1864, the department comprised four districts: Oran, Mascara, Mostaganem and Tlemcen. This number subsequently increased to six with the creation of the districts of Sidi Bel Abbès in 1875 and Tiaret in 1939.
The decree of 28 August 1955, created three new districts: Aïn Temouchent, Maghnia and Relizane.
In 1956, the department was divided into three new departments:Oran Province,Mostaganem Province, andTiaret Province. The new department of Oran then comprised five districts: Oran, Aïn Temouchent, Perrégaux, Sidi Bel Abbès and Telagh.
In 1958, a fourth department was created from the former department of Oran, that ofSaïda Province, made up of several districts taken from the new departments, including that of Telagh. However, this district returned to the department of Oran on 7 November 1959.
After independence the department continued to exist until 1974 when it was split intoMascara Province, Oran Province, Saïda Province,Sidi Bel Abbès Province andTlemcen Province.[1]
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