France

(in French, France), officially the French Republic (République

française), is a sovereign country, member of the European Union,

constituted as a social and democratic State of law and whose form of

government is the semi-presidential republic. Its territory, which includes

overseas regions, extends over a total area of 643 801 km².1 In 2015

the country had 66.3 million inhabitants, 64.2 in metropolitan France and

2.1 in the overseas territories .5

The territory of France, and its metropolitan or continental part, 6 is

located in Western Europe, where it borders, to the south, the

Mediterranean Sea, Monaco (4.4 km) and Italy (488 km); to the

southwest, with Spain (623 km), Andorra (56.6 km) and the Cantabrian

Sea; to the west, with the Atlantic Ocean; to the north, with the Channel

of the Channel, United Kingdom (22.6 m., in the middle of the submarine

tunnel that unites them), the North Sea and Belgium (620 km), and to

the east, with Luxembourg (73 km) , Germany (451 km) and Switzerland

(573 km). Its European insular territory includes the island of Corsica, in
the western Mediterranean, and several coastal archipelagos in the

Atlantic Ocean. In America, French Guiana is the territory of France,

which borders Brazil (673 km) 7 and Suriname (510 km), and the islands

and archipelagos of Martinique, Guadeloupe, San Bartolomé, San

Martín and San Pedro y Miquelón. In the Indian Ocean it has the islands

of Mayotte and Reunion, as well as the archipelagos of French

Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna and New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean.

The uninhabited territories of France are the Clipperton Island atoll, in

the eastern Pacific, and the so-called French Southern and Antarctic

Lands.

France is the fifth world economy with a very high cultural diffusion in the

international context. It is a member of the G8, the euro zone and the

Schengen area, and hosts many of the most important multinational

companies, leaders in various segments of the industry and the primary

sector, as well as being the first tourist destination in the world, with 83

million of foreign visitors per year (7% of GDP) .8 France, where the

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 was written, is a

founding member of the United Nations Organization and one of the five

permanent members of its Security Council.9 France hosts the

headquarters of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament,

both in Strasbourg, and those of the Organization for Economic Co-

operation and Development and Unesco, in Paris. It is also one of the

eight recognized nuclear powers10 and a member of NATO.

During the nineteenth century, the country was a colonial power, and for

a long time the French language was the main language of diplomacy.

Even today, it is one of the languages with the greatest projection, and

French culture and civilization form the link between the countries of the

Francophonie. In addition, the country was a member of the dissolved

Latin Union.

There are important remains of the Lower Paleolithic in the Somme River

and the traditional Pyrenees (Neanderthal man), as well as in La

Chapelle-aux-Saints, Le Moustier and La Ferrassie. From the Upper

Palaeolithic there are abundant vestiges of the Cro-Magnon, Grimaldi

and Chancelade men, dating back some 25,000 years, which are

located in the Dordogne valley.11 Among the most famous cave

paintings in the world are those of Lascaux and Font de Gaume, in the

French Pyrenees.

In the Mesolithic some agricultural activities were replacing in

importance to the caves, and in the Neolithic (from the III millennium BC)

arose the megalithic culture (which used menhirs, dolmens and burials).

From around 1500 a. C. the bronze age begins, developing commercial

routes. It has been found tooling of the industry achelense of homo

erectus from 900 000 to 1 000 000 years in the grotto Le Vallonnet, in

the south of France. The Iron Age and the Celtic cultures are located

within the 1st millennium BC. C.

The Maison Carrée was a temple of the Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus

(modern Nimes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the Roman

Empire.

The borders of modern France (1810) are roughly the same as those of

Ancient Gaul, which was inhabited by the Celtic groups known as Gauls,

who were the inhabitants of the region and almost all central Europe

since prehistory. Gaul was conquered by Rome and its leader Julius
Caesar (who defeated the Gallic chief Vercingetorix12) in the 1st century

BC. C., and the Gauls adopted the Roman language (the Latin, from

which the French evolved along with the presence of Celtic dialects like

the Breton). Christianity took root in the second and third centuries, and

was firmly established during the fifth and sixth centuries, at that time

Jeronimo de Estridón (San Jerónimo) wrote that Gaul was the only

region "free of heresy."

Kingdom of France (481 AD -843 AD)

The territorial expansion of the francs between 481 and 814.

With the conversion of Clovis to Catholicism in 498, the frank, elective

and secular monarchy, until then, became hereditary and of divine right.

Main article: France in the Middle Ages

In the year 451, Attila, the leader of the Huns invaded Gaul with the help

of the Frankish and Visigoth peoples, 13 managing to settle in the main

part of Gaul. In the fourth century, the eastern border of Gaul along the
Rhine was crossed by Germanic peoples, mainly the Franks, from which

derives the old name of «Francie». "Modern France" owes its name to

the feudal domain of the French capeto kings, around Paris. The Franks

were the first tribe among the Germanic conquerors of Europe, after the

fall of the Roman Empire, to convert to Christianity following the baptism

of King Clovis in 498; thus, France obtained the title of "Greater Daughter

of the Church," and the country would adopt this as a justification to be

called "the most Christian kingdom in France."

France during the Middle Ages was ruled by the following dynasties:

The Merovingians, descendants of Meroveo and Clodoveo.

The Carolingians, descendants of Carlos Martel.

The capetos and their secondary branches Valois and Bourbon,

descendants of Hugo Capet.

The Merovingian dynasty ruled present-day France and part of Germany

between the 5th and 8th centuries. The first king was Clodoveo I who

conquered great part of the Gallic territory between 48614 and 507; and
he converted to Orthodox Christianity (as opposed to the Arian heresy),

being baptized in Reims towards 496.15, obtaining the support of the

Gallo-Roman elites and establishing an important historical link between

the French crown and the Catholic Church