Forêts was a department of the French First Republic, and later the First French Empire, in present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Its name, meaning 'forests', comes from the Ardennes forests. It was formed on 24 October 1795, after the Austrian Netherlands had been annexed by France on 1 October. Before annexation, the territory was part of the Duchy of Luxembourg and little parts of the Duchy of Bouillon. Its capital was Luxembourg City. 14,176 men from the former Duchy of Luxembourg were conscripted into the French Revolutionnary Army and the Grande Armée in these years, of whom 9,809 died on the battlefields of Europe. After Napoleon was defeated in 1814, most of it became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the part on the east side of the rivers Our and Sauer becoming part of Prussia (now Germany). The territory is now divided between the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Belgian province of Luxembourg, and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The department was subdivided into the following arrondissements and cantons (situation in 1812): Luxembourg: cantons Luxembourg (2 cantons), Arlon, Bettembourg, Betzdorf, Grevenmacher, Mersch, Messancy, and Remich (Arlon and Messancy now in Belgium, others in Luxembourg). Bitburg: cantons Bitburg, Arzfeld, Dudeldorf, Echternach, and Neuerburg (Echternach now in Luxembourg, others in Germany). Diekirch: cantons Diekirch, Clervaux, Ospern, Vianden, and Wiltz (now in Luxembourg). Neufchâteau: cantons Neufchâteau, Bastogne, Étalle, Fauvillers, Florenville, Houffalize, Paliseul, Sibret and Virton (now in Belgium). Its population in 1812 was 246,333, and its area was 691,035 hectares. Regime The administrative, institutional, economic, social, and political framework of Luxembourg was swept away without restraint. Unlike a simple transfer of sovereignty, such as Luxembourg had experienced many over the previous decades, this period was to put Luxembourg and surrounding areas on the path to a new kind of society. The privileges of the masters and confraternities of artisans were abolished in November 1795. Under the Austrian Netherlands, civil registrations (births, deaths, marriages) were left to the parishes, and linked to sacraments administered by the Church. From June 1796, this changed: registrations were performed by a civil registration officer. Luxembourg was a Catholic society, in which religion was omnipresent and resistant to change. In this traditional society, the secularisation of marriage and the introduction of divorce were fault lines, which caused great consternation. The institutions and administrative machinery introduced by the French in this period is the origin of