charente

{{Main|History of Charente}}

Charente is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of Angoumois, and western and southern portions of Saintonge.

Prior to the creation of the department as a single unit, much of it was commercially prosperous thanks to traditional industries such as salt and cognac production. Although the river Charente became silted up and was unnavigable for much of the twentieth century, in the eighteenth century it provided important links with coastal shipping routes both for traditional businesses and for newly evolving ones such as paper goods and iron smelting.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

The accelerating pace of industrial and commercial development during the first half of the nineteenth century led to a period of prosperity, and the department's population peaked in 1851.Jean Combes (dir.) et Michel Luc (dir.), La Charente de la préhistoire à nos jours, Imprimerie Bordessoules, coll. "L'histoire par les documents", 1986, 429 p. ({{ISBN|2-903504-21-0}}) During the second half of the nineteenth century Charente, like many of France's rural departments, experienced a decline in population as the economic prospects available in the cities and in France's overseas empire attracted working-aged people. Economic ruin came to many in the Charentais wine industry with the arrival in 1872 of phylloxera.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

During the twentieth century, the department with its traditional industries was adversely impacted by two major world wars, and in the second half of the century, it experienced relatively low growth. The overall population remaining remarkably stable at around 340,000 throughout the second half of the twentieth century, although industrial and commercial developments in the conurbation surrounding Angoulême have added some 10,000 to the overall population during the first decade of the twenty-first century.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

The relatively relaxed pace of economic development in the twentieth century encouraged the immigration of retirees from overseas. Census data in 2006 revealed that the number of British citizens residing in the department had risen to 5,083,{{Cite web|url=https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/1560056|title=Près de 13 000 Britanniques ont choisi de vivre en Poitou-Charentes - e.décim@l | Insee|website=www.insee.fr}} placing the department fourth in this respect behind Paris, Dordogne and Alpes-Maritimes.La Charente libre du 4 janvier 2010

It is largely part of the Aquitaine Basin, with the northeastern part in the Massif Central. The Charente flows through it and gave its name to the department, along with Charente-Maritime. It is composed with the historical region of Angoumois and contains part of the regions of Saintonge, Limousin, Périgord and Poitou.

The department is part of the current region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is surrounded by the departments of Charente-Maritime, Dordogne, Haute-Vienne, Vienne and Deux-Sèvres. The southernmost “major” town (town with over 1,000 people) in the Charente is Chalais.

The most populous commune is Angoulême, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are nine communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:

The inhabitants of the department are called Charentais or in feminine, Charentaise.

Population development since 1791:

{{Historical populations

| cols = 2

| align = none

| percentages = pagr

| footnote = Sources:{{Cite web|url=http://splaf.free.fr/16his.html|title=Historique de la Charente|website=Le SPLAF}}{{cite web|url=https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4176909?geo=DEP-16|title=Évolution et structure de la population en 2016|publisher=INSEE}}

| graph-pos = bottom

| 11=1791 | 12=339,780

| 13=1801 | 14=299,029

| 15=1806 | 16=327,052

| 17=1821 | 18=347,541

| 19=1831 | 20=362,531

| 21=1841 | 22=367,893

| 23=1851 | 24=382,912

| 25=1861 | 26=379,081

| 27=1872 | 28=367,520

| 29=1881 | 30=370,822

| 31=1891 | 32=360,259

| 33=1901 | 34=350,305

| 35=1911 | 36=347,061

| 37=1921 | 38=316,279

| 39=1931 | 40=310,489

| 41=1936 | 42=309,279

| 43=1946 | 44=311,137

| 45=1954 | 46=313,635

| 47=1962 | 48=327,658

| 49=1968 | 50=331,016

| 51=1975 | 52=337,064

| 53=1982 | 54=340,770

| 55=1990 | 56=341,993

| 57=1999 | 58=339,628

| 59=2006 | 60=347,037

| 61=2011 | 62=352,705

| 63=2016 | 64=353,288

| 65=2019 | 66=352,015

}}

The President of the Departmental Council is Philippe Bouty of the Miscellaneous left (DVG), elected in July 2021.

Cognac and pineau are two of the major agricultural products of the region, along with butter. The Charentaise slipper (a type of slipper made from felt and wool) is another well-known traditional product.

File:Angouleme cathedral StPierre ac.JPG|Angoulême Cathedral

File:Vigny Maine-Giraud 2011a.jpg|Champagne-Vigny

File:Verteuil 16 Charente aux Cordeliers.jpg|Verteuil-sur-Charente

File:La Couronne Abbaye2010.jpg|Abbey of La Couronne

File:Plassac-Rouffiac église 2012.jpg|Plassac-Rouffiac

File:Aubeterre 16 Église façade 2013.jpg|Aubeterre-sur-Dronne

File: DeviatLaFaye2.JPG|Château de la Faye

• Arrondissements of the Charente department
• Cantons of the Charente department
• Communes of the Charente department
• Kaolin deposits of the Charentes Basin
• Megalithic sites of Charente

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Charente |volume=5 |short=x}}
• {{in lang|fr}} [https://www.charente.gouv.fr/ Prefecture website]
• {{in lang|fr}} [https://www.lacharente.fr/ Departmental Council website]

{{Departments of France}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1790 establishments in France

Category:Nouvelle-Aquitaine region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia

Category:Departments of Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Category:States and territories established in 1790