Item number: EUR833
Genuine Antique Hand-Colored Map
1851
Maker: Levasseur.
Antique map of the Moselle Department of France as it was prior to 1871, from the Atlas National Illustre des 86 Departments et des Possessions de la France, Divise par Arrondissements, Cantons et Communea, by Levasseur, 1851. Surrounded by exquisitely detailed illustrations and vignettes, as well as statistical and general information. Very good condition, Measures approx. 12 x 17.25 inches.
After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, almost all of the Moselle department, along with Alsace and portions of the Meurthe and Vosges departments, went to the German Empire. The Moselle department ceased to exist on 18 May 1871, and the eastern four-fifths of Moselle annexed to Germany was merged with the also German-annexed eastern third of the Meurthe Department into the German Department of Lorraine, within the newly established Imperial State of Alsace-Lorraine. France merged the remaining area of Moselle with the truncated Meurthe department to create the new Meurthe-et-Moselle department (a new name chosen on purpose to remind people of the lost Moselle department). In 1919, following the French victory in the First World War, Germany returned Alsace-Lorraine to France under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. However, it was decided not to recreate the old separate departments of Meurthe and Moselle by reverting to the old department borders of before 1871. Instead, Meurthe-et-Moselle was left untouched, and the annexed part of Lorraine was reconstituted as the new department of Moselle. Thus, the Moselle department was reborn, but with quite different borders from those before 1871.
Genuine Antique Map from 1851
Item Number: EUR833