2 million foreign tourists annually.[21] France is a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, G20, NATO, OECD, WTO, and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and possesses the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world.[22] Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2.1 Rome to Revolution 2.2 Monarchy to Republic 3 Geography 3.1 Cities 4 Environment 5 Government 6 Law 7 Foreign relations 7.1 Development aid 8 Military 9 Conventions and notations 10 Transport 11 Administrative divisions 11.1 Metropolitan regions and departments 11.2 Overseas regions/departments, collectivities, and territories 12 Economy 12.1 Agriculture and agrobusiness 12.2 Labour market 12.3 Tourism 13 Demography 13.1 Religion 13.2 Public health 13.3 Education 14 Culture 14.1 Arts 14.1.1 Architecture 14.1.2 Literature 14.1.3 Music 14.1.4 Cinema 14.2 Sports 14.3 Society and reputation 14.4 Cuisine 14.5 Marianne 15 International rankings 16 See also 17 Notes and references 18 External links // [edit] Etymology Main article: Name of France See also: List of country name etymologies The word "Frank" had been loosely used from the fall of Rome to the Middle Ages, yet from Hugh Capet's coronation as "King of the Franks" ("Rex Francorum") it became usual to strictly refer to the Kingdom of Francia, which would become France. The Capetian Kings were descended from the Robertines, who had produced two Frankish kings, and previously held the title of "Duke of the Franks" ("dux Francorum"). This Frankish duchy encompassed most of modern northern France but because the royal power was sapped by regional princes the term was then applied to the royal demesne as shorthand. It was finally the name adopted for the entire Kingdom as central power was affirmed over the entire kingdom.[23] The name "France" itself comes from Latin Francia, which literally means "land of the Franks," or "country of the Franks".[24] There are various theories as to the origin of the name of the Franks. One is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca.[25] Another proposed etymology is that in an ancient Germanic language, Frank means free as opposed to slave. This usage still survives in the name of the national currency prior to the adoption of the euro, the franc. However, it is also possible that the word is derived from the ethnic name of the Franks,[26] because as the conquering class only the Franks had the status of freemen. In German (and other Germanic language, such as Scandinavian languages and Dutch), France is still called "Realm of the Franks" (Frankreich,Frankrike, Frankrige). In order to distinguish from the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne, Modern France is called Frankreich in German, while the Frankish Realm is called Frankenreich. In some languages, such as Greek, France is still known as Gaul. [edit] History Main articles: History of France, Economic history of France, and Territorial formation of France See also: France in the Middle Ages, Absolute monarchy in France, Ancien Regime, Early Modern France, and List of French monarchs [edit] Rome to Revolution The borders of modern France are approximately the same as those of ancient Gaul, which was inhabited by Celtic Gauls. Gaul was conquered by Rome under Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC,[27] and the Gauls eventually adopted Roman speech (Latin, from which the French language evolved) and Roman culture. Christianity first appeared in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, and became so firmly established by the fourth and 5th centuries that St. Jerome wrote that Gaul was the only region “free from heresy”. France after the Hundred Years War. Red line: Boundary of the Kingdom of France; Light blue: the directly held royal domain In the 4th century AD, Gaul’s eastern frontier along the Rhine was overrun by Germanic tribes, principally the Franks, from whom the ancient name of “Francie” was derived. The modern name “France” derives from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of France around Paris. The Franks were the first tribe among the Germanic conquerors of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Catholic Christianity rather than Arianism (their King Clovis did so in 498); thus France obtained the title “Eldest daughter of the Church” (La fille aînée de l’Église),[28] and the French would adopt this as justification for calling themselves “the Most Christian Kingdom of France”. The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572) during the French Wars of Religion. Napoleon I, Empereur des Français, built a Great Empire across Europe Jeanne d'Arc by Le Brun de Charmettes Existence as a separate entity began with the Treaty of Verdun (843), with the division of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire into East Francia, Middle Francia and West Francia. Western Francia approximated the area occupied by modern France and was the precursor to modern France.[29] The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of France.[30] His descendants, the Direct Capetians, the House of Valois and the House of Bourbon, progressively unified the country through a series of wars and dynastic inheritance into a Kingdom of France. The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars of Occitania (the southern area of modern-day France). In the end, both the Cathars and the independence of southern France were exterminated.[31] In 1066, the Duke of Normandy added King of England to his titles. Later Kings expanded their territory to cover over half of modern continental France, including most of the North, Centre and West of France. The exact boundaries changed greatly with time, but French landholdings of the English Kings remained extensive for centuries. Strong French counterattacks, helped by English weakness during the Wars of the Roses, won back mainland territory until only Calais remained. Under Mary I of England this was lost to the Spanish Netherlands. Charles IV (The Fair) died without an heir in 1328.[32] Under the rules of the Salic Law adopted in 1316, the crown of France could not pass to a woman, nor could the line of kinship pass through the female line.[32] Accordingly, the crown passed to the cousin of Charles, Philip of Valois, rather than through the female line to Charles' nephew, Edward, who would soon become Edward III of England. In the reign of Philip of Valois, the French monarchy reached the height of its medieval power.[32] However, Philip's seat on the throne was contested by Edward III of England and in 1337, on the eve of the first wave of the Black Death,[33] England and France went to war in what would become known as the Hundred Years' War.[34] In the most notorious incident during the French Wars of Religion (1562–98), thousands of Huguenots were murdered in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572.[35] The monarchy reached its height during the 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV. At this time, France possessed the largest population in Europe (see Demographics of France) and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. Since the 18th century, French was the most used language in diplomacy, science, literature and international affairs, before English took the lead in the 20th century.[36] Much of the Enlightenment occurred in French intellectual circles, and major scientific breakthroughs were achieved by French scientists in the 18th century. In addition, France obtained many overseas possessions in the Americas, Africa and Asia. [edit] Monarchy to Republic Main articles: France in the nineteenth century and France in the twentieth century See also: French Revolution, Napoleonic era, and French colonial Empire Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 The monarchy ruled France until the French Revolution. It did not fall immediately after the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, but endured until the creation of the First Republic in September 1792. Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed (in 1793), along with thousands of other French citizens during the Reign of Terror. A guerrilla war and counterrevolution, known as the Revolt in the Vendée, cost more than 100,000 lives before it was crushed in 1796.[37] After a series of short-lived governmental schemes, Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the Republic in 1799, making himself First Consul, and later Emperor of the First Empire (1804–1814). In the course of several wars, his armies conquered most of continental Europe, with members of the Bonaparte family being appointed as monarchs of newly established kingdoms. About a million Frenchmen died during the Napoleonic wars.[38] Following Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, the monarchy was re-established (1814–1830), but with new constitutional limitations. In 1830, a civil uprising established the constitutional July Monarchy, which lasted until 1848. The short-lived Second Republic ended in 1852 when Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaimed the Second Empire. Louis-Napoléon was unseated following defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and his regime was replaced by the Third Republic. France had colonial possessions, in various forms, since the beginning of the 17th century until the 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, its global overseas colonial empire was the second largest in the world behind the British Empire. At its peak, between 1919 and 1939, the second French colonial empire extended over 12,347,000 square kilometres (4,767,000 sq mi) of land. Including metropolitan France, the total area of land under French sovereignty reached 12,898,000 square kilometres (4,980,000 sq mi) in the 1920s and 1930s, which is 8.6% of the world's land area. France issued the single European currency, the euro, in 2002, together with 16 other EU member states it forms the Eurozone. Here is shown a French side of a one euro coin. A small part of Northern France was occupied during World War I. The human and material losses in the first war, which left 1.4 million French soldiers dead,[39] exceeded those of the second where 567,600 French died. The interbellum phase was marked by a variety of social reforms introduced by the Popular Front government. Following the German Blitzkrieg campaign in World War II metropolitan France was divided in an occupation zone in the north and Vichy France, a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, in the south. The Fourth Republic was established after World War II and, despite spectacular economic growth (les Trente Glorieuses), it struggled to maintain its political status as a dominant nation state. France attempted to hold on to its colonial empire, but soon ran into trouble. The half-hearted 1946 attempt at regaining control of French Indochina resulted in the First Indochina War, which ended in French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Only months later, France faced a new, even harsher conflict in Algeria. The debate over whether or not to keep control of Algeria, then home to over one million European settlers,[40] wracked the country and nearly led to civil war. In 1958, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic, which contained a strengthened Presidency.[41] In the latter role, Charles de Gaulle managed to keep the country together while taking steps to end the war. The Algerian War was concluded with peace negotiations in 1962 that led to Algerian independence. France has been at the forefront of the European Union member states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to create a more unified and capable European Union political, defence, and security apparatus.[42] The French electorate voted against ratification of the European Constitutional Treaty in May 2005,[43] but the successor Treaty of Lisbon was ratified by Parliament in February 2008.[44] [edit] Geography Satellite image of France Main article: Geography of France See also: Outline of France While Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe, France also has a number of territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica.[45] These territories have varying forms of government ranging from overseas department to overseas collectivity. France's overseas departments and collectivities share land borders with Brazil and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and the Netherlands Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin). Metropolitan France covers 547,030 square kilometres (211,209 sq mi),[10] having the largest area among European Union members.[16] France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the south-east, the Massif Central in the south-central and Pyrenees in the south-west. At 4,810.45 metres (15,782 ft)[46] above sea level, the highest point in Western Europe, Mont Blanc, is situated in the Alps on the border between France and Italy. Metropolitan France also has extensive river systems such as the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the Rhône, which divides the Massif Central from the Alps and flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the Camargue. Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast. The Exclusive Economic Zone of France extends over 11,000,000 km2 (4,200,000 sq mi) of ocean across the world.[47] Metropolitan French cities with over 100,000 inhabitants Metropolitan France is situated between 41° and 51° North, on the western edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone France's total land area, with its overseas departments and territories (excluding Adélie Land), is 674,843 km2 (260,558 sq mi), 0.45% of the total land area on Earth. However, France possesses the second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world,[48] covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,637 sq mi), approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world, just behind the United States (11,351,000 km2/4,382,646 sq mi) and ahead of Australia (8,232,000 km2/3,178,393 sq mi).[49] The north and northwest have a temperate climate, while a combination of maritime influences, latitude and altitude produce a varied climate in the rest of Metropolitan France.[50] In the south-east a Mediterranean climate prevails. In the west, the climate is predominantly oceanic with a high level of rainfall, mild winters and cool to warm summers. Inland the climate becomes more continental with hot, stormy summers, colder winters and less rain. The climate of the Alps and other mountainous regions is mainly alpine, with the number of days with temperatures below freezing over 150 per year and snow cover lasting for up to six months. [edit] Cities The largest cities in France, in terms of metropolitan area population, are Paris (11,769,433), Lyon (1,748,271), Marseille (1,605,000), Lille (1,164,716), Nice (1,197,751), Toulouse (1,102,882), Bordeaux (999,149), Nantes (804,000) and Strasbourg (639,000). [edit] Environment The pointe du Van, located in western Brittany See also: Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Sea, National parks of France, and Regional natural parks of France France was one of the first countries to create a Ministry of the Environment, in 1971.[51] Although France is one of the most industrialised and developed countries, it is ranked only seventeenth by carbon dioxide emissions, behind such less populous nations as Canada, Saudi Arabia or Australia. This situation results from the French government's decision to invest in nuclear power in 1974 (after the 1973 oil crisis[52]), which now accounts for 78% of France's energy production[53] and explains why France pollutes less than comparable countries.[54][55] Like all European Union members, France agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 20% of 1990 levels by the year 2020,[56] in comparison the USA agreed to a fall of 4% of its emissions[57] whereas China stated it wanted to "reduce its carbon intensity by 40-45% by the year 2020" (compared with 2005 levels),[58] which means with a GDP growth of 8% yearly an augmentation of 80%[57] to 250%[59] of the Chinese carbon emissions by 2020. In 2009, the French carbon dioxide emissions per capita level is lower than the Chinese one.[60] France was even set to impose a carbon tax in 2009 at 17 Euros per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted.[61] The carbon tax would have brought in 4.3 billion Euros of revenue per year.[62] However, 6 months later, the plan for a carbon tax was abandoned for various reasons, one being that French companies would have a more difficult time competing with companies in neighboring countries who would not have to pay such steep taxes on carbon dioxide emissions. Instituting a carbon tax was also an unpopular political move for President Sarkozy.[63] In 2010, a study at Yale and Columbia universities ranked France the most environmentally conscious nation of the G20.[64][65] Forests account for 28,27% of the land area of France,[66] that is to say a superficy of 15.9 million of hectares.[67] France is the second most wooded country of the EU.[68] French forests are also ones of the most diversified of Europe, with more than 140 differents varieties of trees.[69] There are 9 national parks[70] and 46 natural parks in France.[71] France wants to convert 20% of its Exclusive Economic Zone in a Marine Protected Area by 2020.[72] [edit] Government Logo of the French Republic Main articles: Government of France, Constitution of France, and Politics of France The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential republic with strong democratic traditions. The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958.[73] It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders: the President of the Republic, currently Nicolas Sarkozy, who is head of state and is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years),[74] and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister, currently François Fillon. Nicolas Sarkozy is the President of the French Republic since 2007 The French parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and a Senate.[75] The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 5-year terms.[76] The Assembly has the power to dismiss the cabinet, and thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year terms), and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years starting in September 2008.[77] The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National Assembly has the final say.[78] The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament. French politics are characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred around the French Socialist Party, and the other right-wing, centred previously around the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) and now its successor the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).[79] The executive branch is currently composed mostly of the UMP. [edit] Law Main article: Law of France The basic principles that the French Republic must respect are found in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen France uses a civil legal system;[10] that is, law arises primarily from written statutes; judges are not to make law, but merely to i