From about 500 AD, theFranks controlled this part of northeastern France, and theCarolingian Empire was the last stage of their rule. The Carolingian territories were divided into three sections in 843 at theTreaty of Verdun, and the area that is now the department of Meuse became part ofMiddle Francia. The new ruler wasLothair I, and on his death in 855, his territory north of the Alps was passed to his second sonLothair II, after whom the hitherto nameless territory was called Lotharingia, which name eventually evolved into the modern Lorraine. Lothair II died without legitimate heirs and Lotharingia was divided into east and west parts. The king ofEast Francia,Louis the German, received the eastern part andCharles the Bald, king ofWest Francia, received the western part, which included Meuse, thus effectively establishing the medieval Kingdoms ofGermany andFrance.[5]
TheBattle of Sedan was fought in the western part of the department during theFranco-Prussian War in 1870. It resulted in the capture of theEmperor Napoleon III and large numbers of his troops and effectively decided the war in favour ofPrussia and its allies.[6] The area was again a battleground inWorld War I when theBattle of Verdun was fought in 1916. In theSecond World War it again saw action inanother battle when the Germans sought to establish a base from which to capture the Meuse bridges and cross the river.[7]
Meuse is a department in northeastern France and is part of the region ofGrand Est. The capital and largest town in the department isBar-le-Duc, and other large towns areCommercy andVerdun. The northern edge of the department is on the border with Belgium, to the east lies the department ofMeurthe-et-Moselle, to the south liesVosges, to the southwest liesHaute-Marne, to the west liesMarne and to the northwest,Ardennes. The main rivers flowing through the department are theRiver Meuse, theAire and theChiers. A ridge running from south to north separates the watersheds of theSeine and theRhine. These hills are called theArgonne and are clothed in oak forests. The area of the department is 2,408 sq mi (6,237 km2).[8]
The total land area of the department is 1,539,700 acres (623,100 ha), and of this, 830,000 acres (340,000 ha) are cultivated for arable crops, 120,000 acres (49,000 ha) are grassland, 440,000 acres (180,000 ha) are woods and forests and 35,000 acres (14,000 ha) are cultivated for the production of grapes.[9] The principal crops grown are wheat, barley and oats, potatoes, oilseed rape, vegetables and fruit. Livestock is raised and timber is extracted from the forests. The main industries are brewing and the manufacture of glass and tiles. Lace-making is a traditional craft in the department.[8]
Part of the department is in theLorraine Regional Natural Park, a stretch of pastoral countryside stretching eastward fromMetz andNancy and spanning three departments. The park has many natural habitats including calcareous grassland, forested valleys,wet meadows, ponds and streams. There are manyNatura 2000 protected areas and it is an important resting area for migratory birds. Among the different habitats it includes a stretch of coast, the plain ofWoëvre, theLac de Madine, the Meuse valley and the Hague plateau. The total area of the park is 205,000 hectares (510,000 acres).[10] It has a very short border with Belgium.
Since the mid-nineteenth century, the exodus of the countryside inhabitants to the cities has caused the population of rural France to fall. Meuse has no big cities to receive population and the total population of the department has thus decreased. It reached 328,657 inhabitants in 1851, with a population density of 52.9, but had fallen to 277,955 by 1911. Meuse experienced the greatest proportional population decline in French departments in just ten years, from 278,000 inhabitants in 1911 into just 207,000 in 1921. The First World War dealt a heavy blow to the department, and by 1921, only 207,309 inhabitants were recorded. Many residents had fled, and entire villages that were on or near thefront line in 1916 were destroyed. Meuse thus has several uninhabited communes because the villages were never rebuilt, and in fact are known as "Morts pour la France" ("Died for France"); the number of displaced persons from the villages varies from 131 to 718.[13] Since the end of theBattle of Verdun in 1916, these communes have been unoccupied with an official population of zero; the villages areBeaumont-en-Verdunois,Bezonvaux,Cumières-le-Mort-Homme,Fleury-devant-Douaumont,Haumont-près-Samogneux andLouvemont-Côte-du-Poivre.[3] In the later part of the twentieth century the number of inhabitants in the department varied little but eventually fell below 200,000 inhabitants in the 1980s.
Because of its low population density Meuse is considered to fall within theempty diagonal.
The most populous commune isVerdun; the prefecture,Bar-le-Duc, is the second-most populous. As of 2019, there are 5 communes with more than 4,000 inhabitants:[3]
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