Administrative change
Administrative division of Brittany, 1941
A wartime administrative decree separated the Loire-Inférieure department from the rest of historic Brittany, a division still in force today.
What happened
A decree of 30 June 1941, issued under the Vichy regime's system of regional prefects, divided historic Brittany's five departments into two administrative units: Ille-et-Vilaine, Morbihan, Finistère and Côtes-du-Nord were grouped into a region administered from Rennes, while Loire-Inférieure (later Loire-Atlantique), containing Nantes, was attached to the region administered from Angers.[1] The motives behind the split, including a popular narrative that it was intended to weaken Breton nationalism, remain disputed among historians and commentators.[2]
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: A decree of 30 June 1941, issued under the Vichy regime's system of regional prefects, divided historic Brittany's five departments into two administrative units: Ille-et-Vilaine, Morbihan, Finistère and Côtes-du-Nord were grouped into a region administered from Rennes, while Loire-Inférieure (later Loire-Atlantique), containing Nantes, was attached to the region administered from Angers.
- Brittany (administrative region) (Wikipedia) link, History section. Source record
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2.
Claim: The motives behind the 1941 administrative split, including a popular narrative that it was intended to weaken Breton nationalism by separating Nantes from the rest of Brittany, are disputed among historians and commentators.
- Ce n'est pas Vichy qui a séparé Nantes de la Bretagne (Slate.fr) link, article argument. Source record