Before 1860, the territory of the modern Haute-Savoie and Savoie departments had been part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, as a Duchy, since 1713. Annexation of the region by France was made in 1860. In that year, the EmperorNapoléon III divided the territory in two departments: Savoie, to the south, with the city of Chambéry, and Haute-Savoie, to the north, with the city of Annecy.
Haute ("High") in the name Haute-Savoie is not because of the altitude but because of its position, to the north, in the territory.
History
The department of Haute-Savoie was created in 1860 from the northern part of the Duchy of Sardinia with four arrondissements: Annecy, Bonneville, Saint-Julien and Thonon. The capital was Annecy.[4]
On 10 September 1926, the arrondissement of Saint-Julien was eliminated but became again an arrondissement in 1933.[4]
During World War II, the department was occupied by the fascistItaly, from November 1942 to September 1943.
The Haute-Savoie department is within the watershed of the Rhôneriver but with short rivers. There are two important lakes in the department: the Lake Geneva, shared with Switzerland, and the Lake Annecy.
The following is a list of the 17 cantons of the Haute-Savoie department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:[9]
The inhabitants of Haute-Savoie are known, in French, as Haut-Savoyards (women: Haut-Savoyardes).[10]
Haute-Savoie had a population, in 2014, of 783,127,[3] for a population density of 178.5 inhabitants/km2. The arrondissement of Annecy, with 276,382 inhabitants, is the arrondissement with more inhabitants.[7]
Evolution of the population in Haute-Savoie
The communes in the department with more inhabitants are:
↑ 2.02.1"Département de la Haute-Savoie (74)". Comparateur de territoire (in French). Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques - INSEE. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
