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I have been trying for some time to look into the criteria used in 1790 for the creation of the departments. I know that the main one was to end the complicated system of provinces, généralités and various pays with strong regional identities and various and complicated degrees of autonomy from Paris. However, I was wondering some things about how it was done, and hopefully some one can help me out.
How were the prefectures chosen? From there, I know it was supposed to be at most a day in horse ride (how much distance would that be?) but,
What were the criteria or establishing the borders? Natural? Based on the provincial boundaries? Or something else I'm missing?
Lastly, was population or culture taken into account when drawing them or only geographical characteristics?