Bône ([bon], Arabic: عنابة‎ ‘Annāba) was a French département in Algeria which existed between 1955 and 1974. Considered as a French province, Algeria was departmentalised on 9 December 1848. Three civil zones (départements) replaced the three beyliks into which the Ottoman former rulers had divided the territory. The easternmost of the three original Algerian departments was called Constantine. For over a century the town of Annaba, known at that time as Bône (and in classical times as Hippo), was a sub-prefecture in the département of Constantine: this changed in 1955.