This article is about the

country. For other uses,

see France (disambiguation).

French
Republic
Rpublique
franaise (Fre
nch)

Flag

Motto: "Libert,
galit,

fraternit" (French)
"Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity"

Anthem: "La
Marseillaise"
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Territory of the
French Republic[I]

Location
of metropolitan
France, the
European part of
France (dark green)
in Europe (green
& dark grey)
in the European
Union (green)

Capital Paris
4851.4
and
largest N 221.05
E
city

Official French[II]
langua
ge
and
national
languag
e
Demon French
ym
Govern Unitarys
ment
emi-pres
identialc
onstitutio
nal
republic
Preside Franois
nt
Hollande

Prime
Ministe
r
Preside
nt of
the
Senate
Preside
nt of
the
Nation
al
Assem
bly

Manuel
Valls
Grard
Larcher
Claude
Bartolon
e

Legisla Parliame
ture
nt

Upper
house

Senate

Lower
house

National
Assembl
y

Establishment
Francia 486
unified
Treaty August
of
843
Verdun[
III]

Republi 22
c
Septemb
establis er 1792

hed
Founde
d the E
EC[IV]
Current
constit
ution[V]
Area
Total

1
January
1958
4
October
1958

643,801
km [VI][1]
(41st)
248,600
sq mi
Metrop 551,695
olitan F km2[VII]
rance(I (50th)
GN)
213,010
2

sq mi
Metrop 543,940.
olitan F 9 km2[VIII][2]
rance( (50th)
Cadast 210,026
re)
sq mi
Population
Total
66,736,0
2016 e 00[VI][3]
stimate (20th)
Metrop 64,590,0
olitan F 00[4] (22n
ranceJ d)
une
2016
estimat
e

Density 116/km [IX

]

(89th)
301/sq
mi
2

GDP (P
PP)
Total

Per
capita
GDP (n
ominal)
Total

2015 est
imate
$2.647
trillion
(10th)
$41,181[5
]
(24th)
2015 est
imate
$2.422
trillion
(6th)

Per
capita

$37,675[5
]
(20th)

Gini (2
013)

30.1[6]
medium

HDI (20 0.888[7]

14)
very
high 22
nd

Curren

cy

Time

Euro (
EUR)[X]
CFP
franc (X
PF)[XI]
CET[XII] (

zone
UTC+1)
Summ CEST[XIII]
er (DS (UTC+2)
T)
Date
format

dd/mm/y
yyy

Drives
on the

right

Calling +33[XIV]
code
ISO
FR
3166
code
Interne .fr[XV]
t TLD

France (French: [f s]),

officially the French
Republic (French: Rpubliqu
e franaise [epyblik
f sz]), is a sovereign
statecomprising territory in
western Europe and
several overseas regions and
territories.[XVI] The European,
or metropolitan, area of
France extends from

the Mediterranean Sea to

the English Channel and
the North Sea, and from
the Rhine to the Atlantic
Ocean.Overseas
France include French
Guiana on the South
American continent and
several island territories in
the Atlantic, Pacific andIndian
oceans. France spans

643,801 square kilometres

(248,573 sq mi)[1] and has a
total population of 66.7
million.[VI][8] It is aunitary semipresidential republic with
the capital in Paris, the
country's largest city and
main cultural and commercial
centre. During the Iron Age,
what is now metropolitan
France was inhabited by

the Gauls, a Celtic people.

The area was annexed in 51
BC byRome, which held Gaul
until 486, when
the Germanic Franks conquer
ed the region and formed
the Kingdom of France.
France emerged as a major
European power in the Late
Middle Ages, with its victory in
the Hundred Years'

War (1337 to 1453)

strengthening state-building a
nd political centralisation.
During the Renaissance,
French culture flourished and
a global colonial empire was
established, which by the
20th century would be the
second largest in the world.
[9]

The 16th century was

dominated byreligious civil

wars between Catholics and

Protestants (Huguenots).
France became Europe's
dominant cultural, political,
and military power
under Louis XIV.[10] 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, whose
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 the First World
War, from which it emerged
victorious, and was one of

the Allied Powers in

the Second World War, 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 Fifth
Republic, led by Charles de
Gaulle, was formed in 1958

and remains to this day.

Algeria and the colonies in
Indochina became
independent in the 1950s
after long, bloody wars.
Nearly all the other colonies
became independent in the
1960s withminimal
controversy and typically
retained close economic and

military connections with

France.
France has long been a
global centre of art, science,
and philosophy. It hosts
Europe's third-largest number
of cultural UNESCO World
Heritage
Sites (after Italy and Spain)
and receives around 83
million foreign tourists

annually, the most of any

country in the world.[11] France
is a developed country with
the world's sixth-largest
economy by nominal
GDP[12] and ninth-largest by p
urchasing power parity.[13] In
terms of aggregate household
wealth, it ranks fourth in the
world.[14] France performs well
in international

rankings of education, health

care, life expectancy,
and human development.[15]
[16]

France remains a great

power in the world,[17]being a

founding member of
the United Nations, where it
serves as one of the
five permanent members of
the UN Security Council, and
a founding and leading memb

er state of the European

Union (EU).[18] It is also a
member of the Group of
7, North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), Organis
ation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD),
the World Trade
Organization(WTO), and La
Francophonie.

Contents
[hide]

1Etymology

2History
o 2.1Prehistory (before the
6th century BC)
o 2.2Antiquity (6th century
BC5th century AD)
o 2.3Early Middle Ages (5th
century10th century)
o 2.4Late Middle Ages (10th
century15th century)

o 2.5Early modern period

(15th century1789)
o 2.6Modern period (1789
1914)
o 2.7Contemporary period
(1914present)

3Geography
o

3.1Location and Borders

3.2Climate

3.3Environment

o 3.4Geology, topography
and hydrography
o

3.5Administrative divisions

3.5.1Regions
3.5.2Overseas
territories and collectivities

4Politics
o

4.1Government

4.2Law

4.3Foreign relations

4.4Military

4.5Government finance

5Economy
o

5.1Agriculture

5.2Tourism

5.3Energy

5.4Transport

5.5Sciences

6Demographics
o

6.1Ethnic groups

6.2Major cities

6.3Language

6.4Religion

6.5Health

6.6Education
7Culture

7.1Art

7.2Architecture

7.3Literature

7.4Philosophy

7.5Music

7.6Cinema

7.7Fashion

7.8Media

7.9Society

7.10Cuisine

7.11Sports
8See also

9Footnotes

10References

11External links
Etymology

Main article: Name of France

Originally applied to the
whole Frankish Empire, the
name "France" comes from
the Latin Francia, or "country
of the Franks".[19] Modern
France is still named
today Francia in Italian and

Spanish, Frankreich in
German and Frankrijk in
Dutch, all of which have the
same historical meaning.
There are various theories as
to the origin of the name
Frank. Following the
precedents of Edward
Gibbon and Jacob Grimm,
[20]

the name of the Franks has

been linked with the

word frank (free) in English.

[21]

It has been suggested that

the meaning of "free" was

adopted because, after the
conquest of Gaul, only Franks
were free of taxation.
[22]

Another theory is that it is

derived from the ProtoGermanic word frankon,

which translates
as javelin or lance as the

throwing axe of the Franks

was known as a francisca.
[23]

However, it has been

determined that these

weapons were named
because of their use by the
Franks, not the other way
around.[24]
History

Main article: History of

France
Prehistory (before the 6th century BC)

Main article: Prehistory of

France

One of the Lascaux paintings: a

horse Dordogne, approximately
18,000 BC

The oldest traces of human

life in what is now France
date from approximately 1.8
million years ago.
[25]

Humans were then

confronted by a harsh and

variable climate, marked by
several glacial eras. Early
homonids led
a nomadic hunter-gatherer life
.[25] France has a large number
of decorated caves from
the upper Palaeolithic era,
including one of the most
famous and best

preserved: Lascaux[25]
(approximately 18,000 BC).
At the end of the last glacial
period (10,000 BC), the
climate became milder;[25] from
approximately 7,000 BC, this
part of Western Europe
entered the Neolithic era and
its inhabitants
became sedentary. After
strong demographic and

agricultural development
between the 4th and 3rd
millennia, metallurgy
appeared at the end of the
3rd millennium, initially
working gold, copper and bro
nze, and later iron.[26]France
has
numerous megalithic sites
from the Neolithic period,
including the exceptionally

dense Carnac stones site

(approximately 3,300 BC).