Canton (administrative division)

A canton is a type of administrative division of a country.^[1] In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, the most politically important cantons are the Swiss cantons. As the constituents of the Swiss Confederation, theoretically and historically, they are semi-sovereign states.^[2]

The term is derived from the French word canton, meaning "corner" or "district" (from which "cantonment" is also derived).^[3]

In specific countries

Cantons exist or previously existed in the following countries:

• Cantons of Belgium^[4]
• Cantonal Government of Bohol^[5]
• Cantons of Bolivia^[6]
• Cantons of Bosnia and Herzegovina: federal units of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina^[7]
• Canada: Canadian French equivalent for the English word "township", since the translation municipalité is already used for a different level of government (see township).
  • Cantons of Quebec^[8]
• Cantons of Costa Rica: national second order subdivision of the first order Provinces. Cantons are further subdivided into the third order Districts. Each canton has its own municipality, or local government.^[9]
• Cantons of Ecuador: subdivisions below the provinces of Ecuador.^[10]
• Cantons of El Salvador: divisions of a municipality outside the more urban caserios, which border the town or city. Cantones can be thought as the more rural parts of a city or town, generally far from the actual urban population.^[11]
• Cantons of France: a subdivision of arrondissements and départements, grouping several communes.^[12]
• Cantons of Lebanon: unofficial militias and factions during the Lebanese Civil War and afterwards. Most areas have been returned to Lebanese government control.^[13]
• Cantons of Luxembourg: first order administrative subdivisions
• Cantonal Government of Negros: short-lived provisional government in the Visayas during the Filipino-American Wars in the 19th–20th centuries Republic of Negros.^[5]
• Cantons of Rojava (Western Kurdistan, Syria)^[14]
• Cantons of Switzerland: each a semi-sovereign state within Switzerland.^[2]
• Cantons of Togo: Subdivisions of Togo's prefectures, and further divided into villages.^[15]
• subdivisions of vingtaines in Jersey^[16]
• subdivisions of the parishes of Guernsey^[17]

In former countries

• Cantons of Prussia: military enrollment districts between 1733 and 1813^[18]
• Cantons of Eastern Rumelia, the subdivisions below the departments.^{[clarification needed]}
• Cantons of the Soviet Union, subdivisions of several autonomous regions of the country before 1941.^[19]
• In the Republic of New Granada, cantons were subdivisions below the provinces.^[20]
• In 1873, "Cantonalists" took over the city of Cartagena, Spain, a haven for the Spanish Navy, and declared the city independent (see Cantonal Revolution).^[21]

References

1. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Canton" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 221.
2. "Bundesverfassung". www.parlament.ch. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
3. Oxford English Dictionary cantonment and canton, v.
4. "LOI – WET". www.ejustice.just.fgov.be. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
5. . Archived from the original on 2021-10-15. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
6. González, Sergio (2010). "El cantón Bolivia o Central durante el ciclo de expansión del nitrato". Estudios Atacameños (39): 85–100. ISSN 0716-0925. JSTOR 41550503.
7. "Sprema se ukidanje pet županija!". archive.ph. 2013-01-15. Archived from the original on 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
8. "Répertoires des cantons du Québec". Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources naturelles (in French). Retrieved 2021-06-13.
9. "Declara oficial para efectos administrativos, la aprobación de la División Territorial Administrativa de la República Nº 42838-MGP" (in Spanish). Sistema Costarricense de Información Jurídica, Procuraduría General de la República de Costa Rica. 28 January 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
10. . presidencia.gob.ec. Archived from the original on 15 August 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
11. "Gaceta Oficial" (PDF). San Salvador. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
12. Brunet, Roger (2015). "Nouveaux cantons en France: jeux de noms". Espace géographique. 44 (1): 73. doi:10.3917/eg.441.0073. ISSN 0046-2497.
13. Viorst, Milton (1983-10-02). "A Solution: The 4 Nations of Lebanon". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
14. Allsopp, Harriet; Wladimir van Wilgenburg (2019). The Kurds of Northern Syria : governance, diversity and conflicts. London. ISBN 978-1-78831-483-1. OCLC 1066193784.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
15. "Annuaire Statistique du Togo (2010–2013)" (in French). October 2019. from the original on 2021-05-26. Retrieved 2021-08-06.
16. Balleine, G. R.; Marguerite Syvret; Joan Stevens (1998). Balleine's history of Jersey (Rev. and enlarged ed.). Chichester: Phillimore. ISBN 1-86077-065-7. OCLC 963688358.
17. "Cantons | St. Peter Port Parish". www.stpeterport.gg. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
18. Guddat, Martin (2011). Handbuch zur preußischen Militärgeschichte 1688–1786 (2nd revised ed.). Hamburg. ISBN 978-3-8132-0925-9. OCLC 742574946.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
19. Tso-Liang, Hsiao (1967). "Chinese Communism and the Canton Soviet of 1927". The China Quarterly. 30 (30): 49–78. doi:10.1017/S0305741000029192. ISSN 0305-7410. JSTOR 651862. S2CID 153378793.
20. "Constitución de la República de Nueva Granada de 1843". Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-06-13.
21. "Le Bon – Psychologie: Die Wählermassen". www.textlog.de. Retrieved 2021-06-13.