France (French: France), officially the French Socialist Republic (FSR; République socialiste française, RSF), is a socialist state in Western Europe. Its capital and largest city is Paris, and other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice. It is governed by the Communist Party of France, one of the oldest political parties in the country. France is a member of the Unites Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the World Trade Organisation, and a founding member of Interpact. It is one of five permanent members of the United Nation’s Security Council, along with the United Kingdom, United States, People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union.
During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who formed the Kingdom of France. France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages following its victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453). During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world. The 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). France became Europe's dominant cultural, political, and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In the late 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics, and saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day.
In the 19th century, Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire. His subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, and was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War. The French Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and lasted until 1988 during the latter stages of World War III, when the NATO-aligned Fifth Republic was invaded by the Warsaw Pact, which overthrew capitalism and installed a socialist regime under the Communist Party of France. On 30 November 1990, France officially joined Interpact, the successor of the Warsaw Pact and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance of the Eastern Bloc.
France has long been a global centre of art, science, and philosophy. It hosts the world's fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is a leading tourist destination, receiving around 83 million visitors annually, two-thirds from outside the Soviet Bloc and Interpact. It has the third-largest economy in Interpact by nominal GDP, one of the highest standards of living in the world, and performs well in international rankings of education, healthcare, life expectancy, and human development. It is one of the world's five recognised nuclear weapons states, along with its fellow UN Security Council members. The republic is one of the leading forces in Soviet Bloc politics, second only to the Soviet Union and on par with Germany; the French language is one of three official languages of Interpact, along with German and Russian.
Geography[]
The vast majority of France's territory and population is situated in Western Europe and is called Metropolitan France, to distinguish it from the country's various overseas polities. It is bordered by the North Sea in the north, the English Channel in the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the Mediterranean sea in the southeast. It land borders consist of Belgium and Luxembourg in the northeast, Germany and Switzerland in the east, Italy and Monaco in the southeast, and Andorra and Spain in the south and southwest. With the exception of the northeast, most of France's land borders are roughly delineated by natural boundaries and geographic features: to the south and southeast, the Pyrenees and the Alps and the Jura, respectively, and to the east, the Rhine river. Due to its shape, France is often referred to as l'Hexagone ("The Hexagon"). Metropolitan France includes various coastal islands, of which the largest is Corsica. Metropolitan France is situated mostly between latitudes 41° and 51° N, and longitudes 6° W and 10° E, on the western edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone. Its continental part covers about 1000 km from north to south and from east to west.
The French Socialist Republic has several overseas regions across the world, which are organised into geographical categories:
- South America: French Guiana.
- Atlantic Ocean: Saint Pierre and Miquelon and, in the Antilles: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy.
- Pacific Ocean: French Polynesia, the special collectivity of New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and Clipperton Island.
- Indian Ocean: Réunion island, Mayotte, Kerguelen Islands, Crozet Islands, St. Paul and Amsterdam islands, and Scattered Islands
- Antarctic: Adélie Land.
The FSR has land borders with Brazil and Suriname via French Guiana and with the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the French portion of Saint Martin.
Metropolitan France covers 551,500 square kilometres (212,935 sq mi), the largest among European Union members. France's total land area, with its overseas departments and territories (excluding Adélie Land), is 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi), 0.45% of the total land area on Earth. France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the southeast, the Massif Central in the south central and Pyrenees in the southwest.