The
Kingdom of France was organized into
provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the
department (French:
département) system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the
historic counties of England. They came into their final form over the course of many hundreds of years, as many dozens of semi-independent
fiefs and former independent countries came to be
incorporated into the French royal domain. Because of the haphazard manner in which the provinces evolved, each had its own sets of
feudal traditions, laws, taxation systems, courts, etc., and the system represented an impediment to effective administration of the entire country from Paris. During the early years of the
French Revolution, in an attempt to centralize the administration of the whole country, and to remove the influence of the
French nobility over the country, the entirety of the province system was abolished and replaced by the system of departments in use today.