Citations:proper

correct

 * 1678 — John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress.
 * And as in other fairs of less moment, there are the several rows and streets, under their proper names, where such and such wares are vended; so here likewise you have the proper places, rows, streets, (viz. countries and kingdoms), where the wares of this fair are soonest to be found.

in the strict sense

 * 1834, Thomas Roscoe, The Tourist In France, page 196:
 * Lorraine aud Burgundy bore little part in the history of France proper.
 * 1870, William Hepworth Dixon, Free Russia: In Two Volumes, volume 1, page 33:
 * This seaport on the Dvina is the only port in Russia proper. Astrachan is a Tartar port; Odessa, an Italian port; Riga, a Livonian port; Helsingfors, a Finnish port. None of these outlets to the sea are in Russia proper.
 * 1901, Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer, Men and Cities of Italy, page 6:
 * Northern or Continental Italy which lay north of the Rubicon, differed radically from Italy proper.
 * 1919, William Warren Sweet, A History of Latin America, page 21:
 * The approximate area of Mexico and the Central American states is 1,000,000 square miles, while the area of the Spanish West Indies is nearly 100,000 square miles, leaving for South America proper an area of over 7,000,000 square miles.
 * 1965, Walter Ze'ev Laqueur, Russia and Germany, page 52:
 * The higher posts usually went to the Baltic Germans, while tutors, technicians and artisans were often newcomers from Germany proper.
 * 1988, Yoshikazu Sakamoto, Asia, Militarization & Regional Conflict, page 100:
 * Okinawa was placed under direct US military rule and after the occupation of Japan proper.