The Lower Meuse Department ( French: Département de la Meuse-Inférieure ) is the administrative unit of the First French Empire , located on the lands of the modern Belgian province of Limburg and the modern Dutch province of Limburg . The name of the department comes from the river Meuse .
| Department of the First French Empire | |
| Department of Lower Meuse | |
|---|---|
| Meuse-inférieure | |
 Department of Lower Meuse in the territory of the historical Netherlands in 1811 | |
←  ←   → →October 1, 1795 - May 30, 1814 | |
| Capital | Maastricht |
The department was created on October 1, 1795, after the Austrian Netherlands was occupied by French troops. It includes the former county of Loon , the Austrian and Dutch parts of Upper Geldern , the county of Horn , the abbey of Thorn , the district of Maastricht and part of the duchy of Limburg
After the defeat of Napoleon, these lands became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as the province of Limburg , with the exception of Niderkruchten and Herzogenrath transferred to Prussia (after the formation of Belgium, it was divided between Belgium and the Netherlands).