Oreeginally applee'd tae the hailFrankish Empire, the name "Fraunce" comes frae theLaitinFrancia, or "kintra o theFranks".[19] Modren Fraunce is still named the dayFrancia in Italian an Spaingie,Frankreich in German anFrankrijk in Dutch, aw o whilk hae the same historical meanin.
Thare is various theories as tae the origin o the name Frank. Follaein the precedents oEdward Gibbon anJacob Grimm,[20] the name o the Franks haes been airtit wi the wirdfrank (free) in Inglis.[21] It haes been suggestit that the meanin o "free" wis adoptit acause, efter the conquest o Gaul, anerly Franks war free o taxation.[22] Anither theory is that it is derived frae theProto-Germanic wirdfrankon, whilk translates asjavelin orlance as the thrawin axe o the Franks wis kent as afrancisca.[23] Housomeiver, it haes been determined that thir wappens war named acause o thair uise bi the Franks, nae the ither wey aroond.[24]
In 600 BC,IonieGreeks, oreeginatin fraePhocaea, foondit thecolony o Massalia (present-dayMarseille), on the shores o theMediterranean Sea. This maks it Fraunce's auldest ceety.[25][26] At the same time, some Gallic Celtic tribes penetratit pairts o the current territory o Fraunce, an this occupation spread tae the rest o Fraunce atween the 5t an 3rd century BC.[27] The concept oGaul emerged at that time; it corresponds tae the territories o Celtic settlement rangin atween theRhine, theAtlantic Ocean, thePyrenees an the Mediterranean.
Aroond 125 BC, the sooth o Gaul wis conquered bi the Romans, wha cried this regionProvincia Nostra ("Oor Province"), whilk ower time evolved intae the nameProvence in French.[28]Julius Caesar conquered the remainder o Gaul an owercame a revolt carried oot bi the Gallic chieftainVercingetorix in 52 BC.[29] Gaul wis dividit biAugustus intae Roman provinces.[30] Mony ceeties war foondit durin theGallo-Roman period, includinLugdunum (present-dayLyon), whilk is conseedert the caipital o the Gauls.[30]
Frae the 250s tae the 280s AD, Roman Gaul suffert a serious crisis wi itsfortified borders bein attacked on several occasions bibarbarians.[31] Nivertheless, the situation impruived in the first hauf o the 4t century, whilk wis a period o revival an prosperity for Roman Gaul.[32] In 312, the emperorConstantin I convertit tae Christianity. Subsequently, Christians, wha haed been persecute till then, increased rapidly athort the entire Roman Empire.[33] But, frae the beginnin o the 5t century, theBarbarian Invasions resumed,[34] anGermanic tribes, sic as theVandals,Suebi anAlans crossed the Rhine an settled in Gaul, Spain an ither pairts o thecollapsin Roman Empire.[35]
At the end o theAntiquity period, auncient Gaul wis dividit intae several Germanic kinricks an a remeenin Gallo-Roman territory, kent as theKinrick o Syagrius. Simultaneously,Celtic Britons, fleein theAnglo-Saxon settlement o Breetain, settled the wastren pairt oArmorica. As a result, the Armoricanpeninsula wis renamedBrittany,Celtic cultur wis revived an independentpetty kinricks arose in this region. The paganFranks, frae that the auncient name o "Francie" wis derived, oreeginally settlet the north pairt oGaul, but unnerClovis I conquered maist o the ither kinricks in northren an central Gaul. The Franks embraced the ChristianGallo-Roman cultur an auncient Gaul wis hinderly renamedFrancia ("Laund o the Franks"). The Germanic Franks adoptitRomanic leids, except in northren Gaul whaur Roman settlements war less dense an whaurGermanic leids emerged. Clovis made Paris his caipital an estaiblished theMerovingian dynasty, but his kinrick wadnae survive his daith. The Franks treatit laund purely as a private possession an dividit it amang thair heirs, sae fower kinricks emerged frae Clovis's: Paris,Orléans,Soissons, anRheims. Thelest Merovingian keengslost pouer tae thairmayors o the palace (heid o hoosehauld). Ane mayor o the palace,Charles Martel, defeatit anIslamic invasion o Gaul at theBattle o Tours (732) an earned respect an pouer amang the Frankish kinricks. His son,Pepin the Short, seized the croun o Francie frae the waikened Merovingians an foondit theCarolingian dynasty. Pepin's son,Charlemagne, reunitit the Frankish kinricks an biggit a vast empire athortWastren an Central Europe.
The French Renaissance saw a spectacular cultural development an the first staundartisation o the French leid, whilk wad acome theoffeecial leid o Fraunce an the leid o Europe's aristocracy. French explorers, sic asJacques Cartier orSamuel de Champlain, claimed lands in the Americas for Fraunce, pavin the wey for the expansion o theFirst French colonial empire. The rise o Protestantism in Europe led Fraunce tae a ceevil war kent as theFrench Wars o Releegion, whaur, in the maist notorious incident, thoosands oHuguenots wis murthert in theSt. Bartholomew's Day massacre o 1572.[41] The Wars o Releegion war endit biHenry IV'sEdict o Nantes, which granted some freedom o releegion tae the Huguenots.
The monarchy reached its peak durin the 17t century an the reign oLouis XIV. Fraunce obteened mony owerseas possessions in Americae, Africae an Asie. Louis XIV. amang mony things,revoked the Edict o Nantes, forcin thoosands o Huguenots intae exile. UnnerLouis XV, Louis XIV's grandson, Fraunce lostNew Fraunce an maist o itsIndie possessions efter its defeat in theSeiven Years' War, whilk endit in 1763. An unpopular king, Louis XV's waik rule, his ill-advised financial, poleetical an militar deceesions– as weel as the debauchery o his coort– discreditit the monarchy, whilk arguably paved the wey for the French Revolution 15 year efter his daith.[42][43]
Facin financial truibles,Louis XVI summoned theEstates-General (gatherin the threeEstates o the realm) in Mey 1789 tae propose solutions tae his govrenment. As it cam tae an impasse, the representatives o theThird Estate formed intae aNaitional Assembly, signallin the ootbreak o theFrench Revolution. Fearin that the king wad suppress the newly creatit Naitional Assembly, insurgentsstormed the Bastille on 14 Julie 1789, a date which wad acomeFraunce's Naitional Day. The absolute monarchy wis subsequently replaced bi aconstitutional monarchy. While Louis XVI, as aconstitutional keeng, enjoyed popularity amang the population, his disastrousflicht tae Varennes seemed tae juistify rumours he haed tied his howps o poleetical salvation tae the prospects o foreign invasion. His credibility wis sae deeply unnermined that theaboleetion o the monarchy an establishment o a republic acame an increasin possibeelity.
Louis XVI wisconvictit otraison anguillotined in 1793. Facin increasin pressur frae European monarchies, internal guerrilla wars ancoonterrevolutions (sic as theWar in the Vendée), theyoung Republic fell intae theReign o Terror. Atween 1793 an 1794, atween 16,000 an 40,000 fowk war executit. In Wastren Fraunce, the ceevil war atween theBleus ("Blues", supporters o the Revolution) an theBlancs ("Whites", supporters o the Monarchy) lestit frae 1793 tae 1796 an led tae the loss o atween 200,000 an 450,000 lifes.[44][45] Baith foreign airmies an French coonter-revolutionaries wis crushed an the French Republic survived.
Fraunce wis a member o theTriple Entente whan the First Warld War ootbrak. A smaw pairt o Northren Fraunce wis occupied, but Fraunce an its allies emerged victorious agin theCentral Pouers at a tremendous human an material cost. Warld War I left 1.4million French sodgers deid, 4% o its population.[47]
The GPRF laid the grundwark for a new constitutional order that resultit in theFowert Republic, which saw spectacular economic growthe (lesTrente Glorieuses). Fraunce wis ane o the foondin members oNATO (1949). Fraunce attemptit taeregain control o French Indocheenae but wis defeatit bi theViet Minh in 1954 at the climacticBattle o Dien Bien Phu. Anerly months later, Fraunce faced anitheranti-colonialistconflict in Algerie.Tortur and illegal executions war perpetratit bi baith sides an the debate ower whether or nae tae keep control oAlgerie, then hame tae ower ane millionEuropean settlers,[53] wracked the kintra an nearly led tae a coup an ceevil war.[54] In 1958, the waik an unstable Fowert Republic gae wey tae theFift Republic, which includit a strenthened Presidency.[55] In the latter role, Charles de Gaulle managed tae keep the kintra thegether while takin steps tae end the war. The Algerie War wis concludit wi theÉvian Accords in 1962 that led tae Algerie unthirldom.
The European pairt o Fraunce is criedMetropolitan Fraunce an it is locatit in ane o the occidental ends o Europe. It is bordered bi theNorth Sea in the north, theInglis Channel in the northwast, theAtlantic Ocean in the wast an the Mediterranean sea in the sootheast. It bordersBelgium anLuxembourg in the northeast,Germany andSwisserland in the east,Italy anMonaco in the sootheast, anSpain anAndorra in the sooth an soothwast. The borders in the sooth an in the east o the kintra are moontain ranges: the Pyrenees, the Alps an the Jura, the mairch in the east is frae theRhine river, while the mairch in the north an the northeast melts in na naitural elements.
Fraunce haesOwerseas regions athort the warld. Thir territories hae varyin statuses in the territorial admeenistration o Fraunce an are locatit:
At4,810.45 metre (15,782ft)[61] abuin sea level, the heichest pynt in Wastren Europe,Mont Blanc, is situatit in the Alps on the French an Italian border. Fraunce haes extensive river seestems sic as theSeine, theLoire, theGaronne, an theRhone an aa, which divides the Massif Central frae the Alps an flows intae the Mediterranean Sea at theCamargue. Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast.
Maist o the law-lyin auries o metropolitan Fraunce excludin Corsica are locatit in the oceanic climate zone, Cfb, Cwb an Cfc in theKöppen clessification. A smaw pairt o the territory borderin the mediterranean basin lies in the Csa an Csb zones.
Fraunce wis ane o the first kintras tae creaut an environment meenistry, in 1971.[62] Awtho it is ane o the maist industrialised kintras in the warld, Fraunce is rankedanerly 17t bi carbon dioxide emeessions, behind less populous naitions sic as Canadae or Australie. This is acause Fraunce decidit tae invest innuclear pouer follaein the1973 ile crisis,[63] which nou accoonts for 75% o its electricity production[64] an results in less pollution.[65][66] Forests accoont for 28% o Fraunce's laund aurie,[67][68] an are some o the maist diverse in Europe, comprisin mair nor 140 species o trees.[69] Thare are ninenaitional pairks[70] an 46naitural pairks in France.[71]
↑FrenchLaund Register data, whilk exclude lochs, ponds anglaciers lairger nor 1km² (0.386sqmi or 247acres) as weel as the estuaries o rivers.
↑Metropolitan Fraunce anly. Thepopulation density for the whole territory o the French Republic (includin aw owerseas départements) is103.49099/km2 (268.04043/sqmi).
↑Whole o the French Republic except the owerseas territories in the Paceefic Ocean.
↑French owerseas territories in the Pacific Ocean anerly.
↑In addeetion tae.fr, several ither Internet TLDs are uised in French owerseasdépartements an territories:.re,.mq,.gp,.tf,.nc,.pf,.wf,.pm,.gf an.yt. Fraunce an aa uises.eu, shared wi ither members o the European Union. The.cat domain is uised inCatalan-speakin territories.
↑"Global Wealth Report"(PDF). Credit Suisse. Retrieved27 October 2014."In euro and USD terms, the total wealth of French households is very sizeable. Although it has just 1% of the world's adults, France ranks fourth among nations in aggregate household wealth– behind China and just ahead of Germany. Europe as a whole accounts for 35% of the individuals in the global top 1%, but France itself contributes a quarter of the European contingent.
↑Perry, Walter Copland (1857). The Franks, from Their First Appearance in History to the Death of King Pepin. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts.
↑Examples:"frank".American Heritage Dictionary.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)"frank".Webster's Third New International Dictionary.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) And so on.
↑Jacques Hussenet (dir.)," Détruisez la Vendée! " Regards croisés sur les victimes et destructions de la guerre de Vendée, La Roche-sur-Yon, Centre vendéen de recherches historiques, 2007
.svg)
.svg)
