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Alpes-Maritimes (; ; , "Maritime Alps") is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it encompasses the French Riviera alongside neighbouring Var. Alpes-Maritimes had a population of 1,094,283 in 2019. Its prefecture (and largest city) is Nice, with Grasse as the sole subprefecture. Alpes-Maritimes has become one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations in recent years, featuring renowned cities and towns such as Nice, Grasse, Cannes, Antibes, Menton, Èze, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Sainte-Agnès, as well as numerous alpine ski resorts. It also entirely surrounds the Principality of Monaco. The department's inhabitants are called Maralpins (masculine) or Maralpines (feminine); its flag and arms are those of the City of Nice. In terms of politics, Alpes-Maritimes is one of France's most right-wing departments, as the majority led by The Republicans in the departmental council holds all but two of the 54 seats following the 2021 election. [edit] History
The Roman military district of Alpes Maritimae was created by Augustus in 14 BC. It became a full Roman province in the middle of the 1st century AD, with its capital first at Cemenelum (today Cimiez, a suburb north of Nice) and subsequently at Embrun. At its greatest extent in AD 297, the province reached north to Digne and Briançon. Conquered by the French First Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars, a department of Alpes-Maritimes was first set up in 1793 with different boundaries from those of the modern department. In 1793, Alpes-Maritimes included Monaco (Port Hercules), but not Grasse, which was then part of the department of Var as an historical part of France. In 1805, San Remo (San Rème) was included after the disbandment of the Ligurian Republic. In 1812, the department had three arrondissements with the following cantons:
The population of the department in 1812 was 131,266, and its area was , covering both present-day Arrondissement of Nice, Principality of Monaco and Province of Imperia.[1] In 1814, at the close of the Napoleonic Wars, the territory was restored to the Crown of Savoy by the Congress of Vienna. In 1860 Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, one of the architects of Italian unity with the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, negotiated support for Napoleon III in exchange for Savoy and the County of Nice as set forth in the Treaty of Turin. The annexation was confirmed on 15 and 16 April 1860 by 30,712 male electors enrolled in the 89 communes of the County of Nice who, for the first time, had universal male suffrage by plebiscite. The "Yes" vote for reunification with France was 83.8% of registered voters and 99.2% of votes. The new department of Alpes-Maritimes consisted of the former County of Nice, divided into an Arrondissement of Nice and an Arrondissement of Puget-Théniers (both arrondissements existed in the former Department (1793–1814)), and a portion of the Var department, which formed the Arrondissement of Grasse. However, the County of Nice did not include Tende and La Brigue, which were still part of Piedmont-Sardinia. For economic reasons, the Arrondissement of Puget-Théniers was merged into the Arrondissement of Nice in 1926. Since that time, the department has had two arrondissements. In 1947, in accordance with the Treaty of Paris and as a referendum result favourable to their attachment to France, the communes of Tende and La Brigue (also parts of communes in the high valleys of Vésubie and Tinée: part the commune of Isola) which had not been ceded to France in 1860, were attached to the department. [edit] Heraldry[edit] Research Tips
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