We propose an analysis of the socio-economic development processes at work in territories, at the scale of French communes from 1806 to 2010. This is an extremely fine scale for such analysis, given that there are 36,000 communes in mainland France. The diachronic dimension, spanning two centuries, makes it possible to consider the temporal depth of territorial development. But our primary interest is not so much demographics as the socio-economic dimension of these variations over two centuries. We have analysed demographic changes as the expression of the socio-economic processes which shaped French territory over two centuries. Dynamic mapping of long-term population shifts reflects the industrial expansion of certain territories, decline due to the end of traditional farming practices, the shock produced by two world wars, the Fordist period and the post-war boom; the subsequent impact of an increasingly globalized, metropolitan economy then becomes apparent. We thus identified, mapped and analysed several historico-socio-economic phases.