Арденн департаментінің халқы және демографиялық өзгерістері

Department of France

Ardennes (aʁdɛn) is a department in the Grand Est region of northeastern France named after the broader Ardennes. Its prefecture is the town Charleville Mézières. The department has 270,582 inhabitants. The inhabitants of the department are known as Ardennais or Ardennaises.|graph pos=bottom|13=1791|14=247,612|15=1801|16=246,925|17=1821|18=266,985|19=1831|20=290,622|21=1841|22=319,167|23=1851|24=331,296|25=1861|26=329,111|27=1872|28=320,217|29=1881|30=333,675|31=1891|32=324,923|33=1901|34=315,589|35=1911|36=318,896|37=1921|38=277,811|39=1931|40=293,746|41=1936|42=288,632|43=1946|44=245,335|45=1954|46=280,490|47=1962|48=300,247|49=1968|50=309,380|51=1975|52=309,306|53=1982|54=302,338|55=1990|56=296,357|57=1999|58=290,130|59=2006|60=284,749|61=2016|62=275,371

Despite a high birth rate (the highest rate in France in 1968), the department continues to lose population: 275,371 in 2016 due to high unemployment (hence "migration" continues). The two world wars have each time resulted in a loss of population (such as the "exodus" of 1940). There were 330,000 people at the end of the 19th century. That the major urban areas of the department are the most affected is characterized by a stagnation of the population – a population decline of up to 2% compared to 1999 in the city centres and suburbs (Charleville Mézières, Revin, Fumay, Givet, Rethel). The communes, however, are gaining inhabitants (the phenomenon of urban sprawl). This is explained by the search for better living in the countryside which matches the desire of many people to build a small land holding, typically a house with land to the detriment of their proximity to their workplace. This highly contemporary concept favours commuting between Home and Work. This is the phenomenon of suburbanization which has become common in the whole of France from which Ardennes does not escape. On 1 January 2006, the Ardennes population stood at 295,653 inhabitants. The population is declining in urban areas but five times less than in rural areas. The limited decline in the urban space where two thirds of the Ardennes people live is the result of two opposite dynamics. Semi urban communes have gained 0.5% of inhabitants per year over the period 1999–2006 at the expense of urban centres (downtown and suburbs) which lost 0.6% per year. For thirty years the population has lagged in the main cities of Ardennes. Between 1999 and 2006, the annual decline was 0.2% for Sedan and Rethel, 1.8% for Revin, and 1% for Charleville Mézières. The most unfavourable rural population change came from degradation of rural employment centres, such as Fumay or Vouziers and to a lesser extent that of their periphery. This was slightly mitigated by a small increase in population in other rural communes.

The most populous commune is the prefecture Charleville Mézières. As of 2019, there are seven communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants: and at the same time the birth of the French Third Republic on 4 September 1870. During the two world wars, for strategic reasons, the region each time became the passage for the invading armies because of the narrow width of the Meuse and its deep valley. The French military believed that the region was defended by its terrain and thick forests present in the northern of the department and so neglected the defence of the territory. During the First World War, the Battle of the Ardennes was fought in the department, and Charleville Mézières became the headquarters of the German Crown Prince. It was at Vouziers and other places that the Czechoslovak legions fought, and it was also near the same city that the aeroplane of Roland Garros was shot down. It was the only French department to have been fully occupied during that conflict, except for northern Lorraine (Moselle) and Alsace, which had been under German administration since 1871. During the Second World War, the main effort of the German army was again focused on this area, especially on the right bank of the River Meuse, symbolized by the breakthrough at Sedan which would lead the French troops into the strategic trap the Yellow Plan designed by General von Manstein and approved by Hitler. It is in this department that the Maginot Line ended: the last fort of the line (Fort Villy la Ferte) was located about five kilometres from Carignan. The French General staff did not want to continue the line of defence along the border with Belgium, a neutral and friendly country. Furthermore, they hoped that the unique geography and the forest would stop the German army. After the armistice of 1940, Ardennes was declared a "forbidden zone" (actually a German settlement area) throughout the occupation by the Nazi army. In 1944, the Battle of the Bulge was fought partly in this department.

The name of the department is related to the toponym Ardenne which could derive from the Gallic ardu meaning "high". It would have been transformed into Arduenna by the Romans to designate the ancient Ardennes forest and the mountains mentioned by Julius Caesar in the work attributed to him: Commentaries on the Gallic War. Arduenna Sylva was used for the pine forest on the plateau of Bastogne. It was then transformed into Ardenna in the 6th century. This toponym is absent from the names of communes in the department of Ardennes while those of Argonne (Beaumont en Argonne), Porcien (Château Porcien, Novion Porcien, Chaumont Porcien, and even Champagne (Vaux Champagne) are sometimes fused and all have a connotation of regional belonging. This is why the name of Ardenne is not specific to the department as it is found in many other parts of France – for example in western and central western France, Belgium, and Luxembourg where it has its usual sense – from Celtic origin – of "high", "high woods" or "forest".

The seat of the prefecture of the department is at Charleville Mézières and the three sub prefectures are Rethel, Sedan, and Vouziers. Rocroi was also a sub prefecture until 1926. Under the intercommunality framework, Ardennes consists of an urban community organized around the city préfecture, called Heart of Ardennes and has fifteen communities of communes including in Sedan the Communauté de communes du Pays sedanais which is the most important. In addition, the Ardennes has 33 communes that do not adhere to any Intercommunal cooperative organisation (EPCI).

The President of the Departmental Council is Noël Bourgeois of The Republicans.

ElectionWinning CandidateParty%2nd Place CandidateParty%2022Emmanuel MacronLREM43.34Marine Le PenRN56.66 2017 Emmanuel Macron LREM 50.73 Marine Le Pen FN 49.27 2012 François Hollande PS 51.89 Nicolas Sarkozy UMP 48.11 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy UMP 53.53 Ségolène Royal PS 46.47 2002 Lionel Jospin PS 53.29 Jacques Chirac RPR 46.71

The economy of the department, after previously resting on agriculture (forestry and livestock – crops are poor), has been based for over a century now on industry (now in a difficult position) and the services sector, although the proportion of the Ardennes labour force working in this sector is lower than the national average. At the beginning of the 19th century, the region was the largest in France for metal working using charcoal. There was no coal found in the department (only slate from Fumay was usable) but the metallurgical industry developed there (bolts, screws, nails). The railway with many branches (Compagnie des chemins de fer des Ardennes from the Sellière family which merged with the Compagnie de l'Est) accelerated the industrialization at the end of the 19th century in Charleville, Sedan (which had its trams), and Revin. The newspaper L'Usine ardennaise (The Ardennes Factory) became L'Usine nouvelle (The New Factory). The crisis in the 1970s precipitated the decline of metallurgical activity in the department (the blast furnace and small workshops closed one after the other: Blagny, Vireux Molhain, Murtin et Bogny, etc.). Today there are still many subcontractors for the railway industry (TGV for example) and the car industry (GMC, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Mercedes Benz, among others), Hermès has recently installed themselves at Murtin et Bogny, PSA Peugeot Citroën is installed at Les Ayvelles. There is also a nuclear site – the Chooz Nuclear Power Plant with several reactors including the first pressurized water reactor (REP) in France. Agriculture has grown considerably using industrial techniques (wheat, maize, sugar beet). There are direct TGV trains from the Gare de l'Est in Paris to Charleville Mézières (1h 35 m), Sedan, and several TGV trains to Reims with a change for Charleville Mézières. A "Y" road has also been set up with the A4 Reims Paris, the A34 (freeway), and the links to Lille and Brussels which need to take the N5 to join the motorway ring of Charleroi. Similarly, the junction with the highway leading to Luxembourg and Cologne needs to use a portion of highway in France. There is the Ardennes forest, the "Green Way" (a bicycle path connecting Montcy Notre Dame near Charleville Mézières to Givet along the Meuse valley) promoting weekend tourism and tourist routes (green tourism). Cultural tourism is booming with many music festivals (Le Cabaret Vert, the Douzy'k festival, the Aymon Folk Festival) not to mention museums (such as the Museum of the Ardennes) and castles and the growing interest in industrial heritage. Finally, the creation of the Natural Regional Park of Ardennes (Regional Natural Park of Ardennes) on 21 December 2011 should continue to increase this type of tourism.

Home purchases by Belgians and Dutch people are common in the region because the prices are much lower than in their countries of residence. However, as of 2020, 3.5% of available housing in the department are second homes which is rather low.

For more than 40 years (the first time in 1961 at the initiative of Jacques Félix) there has been in Charleville Mézières the World Festival of Puppet Theatre (now every three years). At the last festival in 2009 more than 200,000 people were present. In the same city there is also a school: the International Institute of Puppetry. The Rock Festival and Territory Le Cabaret Vert had more than 50,000 festival goers at the seventh festival in 2011 and this takes place every year in Charleville Mézières making it the 7th largest festival in France by attendance. The festival The Poetic Otherworld organizes events in October in some Ardennes communes. At Sedan the medieval festival is held every year around the Castle of Sedan, the largest castle in Europe. This is an event that brings together more than 30,000 spectators. At Rethel there are the famous festivals of Saint Anne which have been held for over 200 years. At Bogny sur Meuse there is the Aymon Folk Festival which brings together nearly 10,000 people. The Ardennes also has other well known festivals such as the Festimeuse which attracts 10,000 people, the festival of Cassine with 7,000 people at the 3rd festival in 2010. The metal festival of Vouziers attracts about 2000 people. The Rock festival in El Mont at Aiglemont hosted more than 2,000 people in 2010. Lastly there is at Douzy every July and every second year the Douzy'k Festival which brings between 5,000 and 7,000 people each time. The Argonne does not have only two musical events. For 14 years, the village of Louvergny has staged a lyrical festival called Encounters of Louvergny in early August as the heart of the Argonne campaign, with singers from different countries. More recently Notes of Argonne propose to cross the Argonne mountains with concerts of classical music with regional and national performers. The May 2008 festival included Patrice Fontanarosa and his wife Marielle Nordmann. Both events had an immediate success in the region and the public has not stopped coming since.

For a long time the region was a land of legends with its rocks, rivers, lakes, and thick dark forests: for example The Four Sons of Aymon, knights on their horse called Bayard helped by the enchanter Maugis who gave his name to village of Noyers Pont Maugis at the time of Charlemagne.