France (frăns, Fr. fräNs) , officially French Republic, republic (2005 est. pop. 60,656,000), 211,207 sq mi (547,026 sq km), W Europe. France is bordered by the English Channel (N), the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay (W), Spain and Andorra (SW), the Mediterranean Sea (S), Switzerland and Italy (SE), and Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium (NE). The natural land frontiers are the Pyrenees, along the border with Spain; the Jura Mts. and the Alps, along the border with Switzerland and Italy; and the Rhine River, which is part of the border with Germany. France's capital and largest city is Paris.

Land

Although France's old historic provinces were abolished by the Revolution, they remain the country's basic geographic, cultural, and economic divisions. These provinces mirror France's natural geographic regions and, despite modern administrative centralization, retain their striking diversity. The heart of France N of the Loire River is the province of Île-de-France, which occupies the greater part of the Paris basin, a fertile depression drained by the Seine and Marne rivers. The basin is surrounded by the provinces of Champagne and Lorraine in the east; Artois, Picardy, French Flanders (see Nord dept.), and Normandy in the northeast and north; Brittany, Maine, and Anjou in the west; and Touraine, Orléanais, Nivernais, and Burgundy in the south. Further south are Berry and Bourbonnais. Further east, between the Vosges Mts. and the Rhine, is Alsace; S of Alsace, along the Jura, is Franche-Comté.
South-central France is occupied by the rugged mountains of the Massif Central, one of the country's major natural features. It comprises the provinces of Marche, Limousin, Auvergne, and Lyonnais. To the E of the Rhône River, which divides the Massif Central from the Alps, are Savoy, Dauphiné, and Provence. The French Alps have some of the highest peaks in Europe, including Mont Blanc. The Rhône valley widens into a plain near its delta on the Mediterranean; part of the coast of Provence forms the celebrated French Riviera. Languedoc extends from the Cevennes Mts. to the Mediterranean coast W of the Rhône. Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast. The southwestern part of France comprises the small Pyrenean provinces of Roussillon, Foix, Béarn, and French Navarre and the vast provinces of Gascony and Guienne. The last two constitute the great Aquitanian plain, drained by the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, which flow into the Bay of Biscay. The central section of the west coast, between the Gironde estuary and the Loire, is occupied by the provinces of Saintonge, Angoumois, Aunis, and Poitou.
Since 1972 France has been administratively divided into 22 regions, many of which correspond to the nation's historical provinces. These regions are: Alsace, Aquitane, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne (Burgundy), Bretagne (Brittany), Centre, Champagne-Ardenne, Corse (Corsica), Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie, Île-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrenees, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Pays de la Loire, Picardie (Picardy), Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, and Rhone-Alpes.
France also has a number of overseas departments, territories, and countries which, legally, are part of the French Republic. The overseas departments are Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion, and French Guiana. The overseas countries and territories are New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna Islands, and the French Southern and Antarctic Territories. Mayotte is a departmental collectivity, and St. Pierre and Miquelon is a territorial collectivity.

People

In the late 1990s there were 40 French cities that had more than 100,000 inhabitants, but only Paris exceeded one million. About 75% of the population live in urban areas. Until the end of World War II the population increase in France was perhaps the lowest in Europe, but in postwar decades the rate has increased. The mingling of peoples over the centuries as well as immigration in the 20th cent. has given France great ethnic diversity. A large influx of predominantly North African immigrants has had a great effect on the cities, especially Paris and Marseille.
French is the nation's language. There are also a number of regional dialects, which are largely declining in usage. Alsatian, a German dialect, is spoken in Alsace and in parts of Lorraine. A small number speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect, in French Flanders. In Celtic Brittany, Breton is still spoken, as is Basque in the Bayonne region, Provençal in Provence, Catalan at the eastern end of the Pyrenees, and Corsican on the island of Corsica.
Roman Catholicism is by far the largest religion in France, nominally professed by about 80% of the population, although only an estimate 5% are churchgoers. With growing immigration from Asia, Turkey, and North Africa, France also has a large Muslim population, estimated at 3 to 5 million. There are smaller numbers of Protestants and Jews. Separation of church and state was made final by law in 1905. The educational level in France is high. Among the universities the largest are those of Paris, Lyons, Toulouse, Aix-Marseilles, Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Rennes, Grenoble, and Nancy.

Economy

France is one of the world's major economic powers. Agriculture plays a larger role than in the economies of most other industrial countries. A large proportion of the value of total agricultural output derives from livestock (especially cattle, hogs, poultry, and sheep). The mountain areas and NW France are the livestock regions. The country's leading crops are wheat, sugar beets, corn, barley, and potatoes, with the most intensive cultivation N of the Loire; the soil in the Central Massif is less fertile. Fruit growing is important in the south. France is among the foremost producers of wine in the world. The best-known vineyards are in Burgundy, Champagne, the Rhône and Loire valleys, and the Bordeaux region. The centers of the wine trade are Bordeaux, Reims, Épernay, Dijon, and Cognac.
France's leading industries produce machinery, chemicals, automobiles, metals, aircraft, electronics equipment, and foods (especially cheese). Advanced technology industries are growing as well. Tourism is an important industry, and Paris is famous for its luxury goods. In addition to the Paris area, important industrial cities are, in the northeast, Metz, Strasbourg, Roubaix, and Lille; in the southeast, Lyons, Saint-Étienne, Clermont-Ferrand, and Grenoble; in the south, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nice, and Nîmes; and in the west, Bordeaux and Nantes. Other important cities are Orléans, Tours, Troyes, and Arles.
More than half of France's trade is with other European Union members. Japan, the United States, and China are also important trading partners. Leading exports are machinery and transportation equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs, agricultural products, iron and steel products, textiles, and clothing. Leading imports are crude oil, machinery and equipment, agricultural products, chemicals, and iron and steel products. Nuclear energy furnishes 75% of all electricity produced in France. The chief ports are Rouen, Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, Saint-Nazaire, Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulon, Dunkirk, and Marseilles.
France has an extensive railway system, the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF). The first of a number of high-speed rail lines (TGVs) was completed in 1983, linking Paris and Lyons. Subsequent lines connected Paris to several other French cities, as well as Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and, via the Channel Tunnel, Great Britain.
The government previously had majority ownership in many commercial banks, some key industries, and various utilities, including the telephone system. There has been recent movement toward privatization, with the government reducing its holdings in many companies, although it still controls energy production, public transportation, and defense industries.

Government

Since the Revolution of 1789, France has had an extremely uniform and centralized administration, although constitutional changes in 2003 now permit greater autonomy to the nation's regions and departments. The country is governed under the 1958 constitution, which established the Fifth French Republic and reflected the views of Charles de Gaulle. It provides for a strong president, directly elected for a five-year term (changed from a seven-year term in 2000). A premier and cabinet, appointed by the president, are responsible to the national assembly, but they are subordinate to the president. Parliament consists of the national assembly and the senate. Deputies to the assembly are elected for five-year terms from single-member districts. Senators are elected for nine-year terms from each department by an electoral college composed of the deputies, district council members, and municipal council members from the department.
Parliament is solely responsible for legislation regarding civil, fiscal, and penal law, electoral law, civil liberties, the budget, and amnesty and labor laws. The president has power of appointment of the prime minister, the executive ministers, high civil servants, and judges. The president presides over the council of ministers, is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and has power to dissolve the national assembly. Major parties include the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the Socialist Party (PS), the National Front (FN), the Union for French Democracy (UDF), the Communist party (PCF), and the Green party.
France's 22 regions (see above under Land) each have a directly elected regional council, primarily responsible for stimulating economic and social activity. The regions are further divided into 96 departments (not including the four overseas departments), which are governed by a locally elected general council, with one councilor per canton, elected for a six-year term. As a result of constitutional amendments in 2003, regions and departments may seek greater autonomy than was possible previously. Further subdivisions are districts, cantons, and communes. The districts (arrondisements) and cantons have little power. The communes, however, are more powerful because they are responsible for municipal services and are represented in the national government by the mayor.

History

Ancient Gaul to Feudalism
Some of the earliest anthropological and archaeological remains in Europe have been found in France, yet little is known of France before the Roman conquest (1st cent. B.C.). The country was known to the Romans as Gaul. It was inhabited largely by Celts, or Gauls, who had mingled with still older populations, and by Basques in what became the region of Gascony. Some of the Gallic tribes undoubtedly were Germanic. Settlements on the Mediterranean coast, notably Marseilles, were established by Greek and Phoenician traders (c.600 B.C.), and Provence was colonized by Rome in the 2d cent. B.C. The conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar (58–51 B.C.; see Gallic Wars) became final with the defeat of Vercingetorix. Early in the course of the following five centuries of Roman rule Gaul accepted Latin speech and Roman law, developed a distinct Gallo-Roman civilization, and produced many large and prosperous cities. Lugdunum (Lyons) was the Roman capital.
Christianity, introduced in the 1st cent. A.D., spread rapidly. From the 3d cent., however, the internal decline of the Roman Empire invited barbarian incursions. Among the Germanic tribes that descended upon fertile Gaul, the Visigoths, Franks, and Burgundii were the most important. Rome and its governors in Gaul sought, by alliances, to play the barbarians off against each other. Thus Aetius defeated (A.D. 451) the Huns under Attila with the help of the Franks. But in 486 (10 years after the traditional date for the fall of Rome) the Franks, under Clovis I, routed Syagrius, last Roman governor of Gaul. Clovis, who had made himself ruler of all the Franks, then defeated the Visigoths and, after accepting Christianity (496), conquered the Alemanni. He extinguished the Arian heresy (see Arianism) and founded the dynasty of the Merovingians—but he failed to provide for the unity of Gaul when, as was customary, he divided his lands among his sons at his death.
Throughout the 6th and 7th cent., Gaul was torn by fratricidal strife between the Merovingian kings of Neustria and of Austrasia, the two realms that ultimately emerged from Clovis's division and were united only for brief periods under a sole ruler. Especially after Dagobert I (d. 639), Merovingian rule sank into indolence, cruelty, and dissipation. Gaul was depopulated, the cities were left in ruins, commerce was destroyed, and the arts and sciences were ignored. In the 8th cent. the only remnant of Roman civilization, the church, was threatened by extinction when the Saracens invaded Gaul.
In the meantime a more rigorous dynasty, the Carolingians, had come to rule Austrasia as mayors of the palace in the name of the decadent Merovingian kings, and had united (687) Austrasia with Neustria. In 732, the Carolingian Charles Martel decisively defeated the Saracens between Poitiers and Tours. His son, Pepin the Short, dethroned the last Merovingian in 751 and proclaimed himself king with the sanction of the pope. Pepin's son was Charlemagne.
Crowned emperor of the West in 800, Charlemagne expanded his lands by conquest. He gave his subjects an efficient administration, created an admirable legal system, and labored for the rebirth of learning, piety, and the arts. But his son, Emperor Louis I, could not maintain the empire he inherited. At Louis's death (840), his three sons were fighting each other. In 843 the brothers, Charles II (Charles the Bald), king of the West Franks, Louis the German, and Emperor Lothair I, redivided their territories (see Verdun, Treaty of). Charles was recognized as the ruler of the lands that are now France.
The Carolingians had only superficially transcended the economic, social, and political fragmentation of the land. The weakness of central authority was a major reason for the development of feudalism and the manorial system. Raids by Norsemen, beginning in the late 8th cent., contributed to the decline of royal authority; in 885–86, the Norsemen even besieged Paris. The authority of the kings was increasingly usurped by feudal lords. Among the most powerful of these were the dukes of Aquitaine and of Burgundy and the counts of Flanders, of Toulouse, of Blois, and of Anjou. In 911 the Norse leader Rollo was recognized as duke of Normandy.