France is a 

unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and

main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban
areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice. France, including its overseas
territories, has the most time zones of any country, with a total of twelve.
During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls. The area
was annexed by Rome in 51 BC, developing a distinct Gallo-Roman culture that laid the foundation
of the French language. The Germanic Franks arrived in 476 and formed the Kingdom of Francia,
which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the
empire, with West Francia becoming the Kingdom of France in 987.
In the High Middle Ages, France was a highly decentralized feudal kingdom in which the authority of
the king was barely felt. King Philip Augustus achieved remarkable success in the strengthening of
royal power and the expansion of his realm, doubling its size and defeating his rivals. By the end of
his reign, France had emerged as the most powerful state in Europe. In the mid-14th
century, French monarchs were victorious in the Hundred Years' War with England. The Italian
Wars with Spain followed during the Renaissance. French culture flourished and a global colonial
empire was started, which by 1900 would become the second largest in the world. The second half
of the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars with Catholics expelling Protestant
(Huguenots), which severely weakened the country. But France once again emerged as Europe's
dominant cultural, political, and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV following
the Thirty Years' War. Despite the wealth of the nation the government had inadequate financial and
taxation systems that could not fund endless and costly wars. Especially costly were the Seven
Years' War and the American War of Independence. The French Revolution in 1789 saw the fall of
the absolute monarchy that characterized the Ancien Régime. The French First Republic drafted
the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The declaration expresses the nation's ideals
to this day.
In 1799-1814 France reached its political and military zenith under Napoléon Bonaparte, subjugating
much of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. The French
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of European and world history. After the
collapse of the empire and a relative decline, France endured a tumultuous succession of
governments culminating in the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870 in the midst of
the Franco-Prussian War. France was one of the prominent participants of World War I, from which
it emerged victorious, and was one of the Allied powers in World War II, but came
under occupation by the Axis 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 nearly all other French colonies
became independent in the 1960s, with most retaining close economic and military connections with
France.
France retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of art, science, and philosophy. It hosts
the world's fifth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the leading tourist
destination, receiving over 89 million foreign visitors in 2018.[13] France is a developed country with
the world's seventh-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the tenth-largest by PPP. 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] It remains a great
power in global affairs,[17] being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council and an official nuclear-weapon state. France is a founding and leading member of the
European Union and the Eurozone,[18] and a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
the World Trade Organization (WTO), and La Francophonie.

Contents
 1Etymology and pronunciation
 2History
o 2.1Prehistory (before the 6th century BC)
o 2.2Antiquity (6th century BC–5th century AD)
o 2.3Early Middle Ages (5th–10th century)
o 2.4High and Late Middle Ages (10th–15th century)
o 2.5Early modern period (15th century–1789)
o 2.6Revolutionary France (1789–1799)
o 2.7Napoleon and 19th century (1799–1914)
o 2.8Contemporary period (1914–present)
 3Geography
o 3.1Location and borders
o 3.2Geology, topography and hydrography
o 3.3Climate
o 3.4Environment
o 3.5Administrative divisions
 3.5.1Regions
 3.5.2Overseas territories and collectivities
 4Politics
o 4.1Government
o 4.2Law
o 4.3Foreign relations
o 4.4Military
o 4.5Government finance
 5Economy
o 5.1Agriculture
o 5.2Tourism
 5.2.1Paris region
 5.2.2French Riviera
 5.2.3Châteaux
 5.2.4Other protected areas
o 5.3Energy
o 5.4Transport
o 5.5Science and technology
 6Demographics
o 6.1Ethnic groups
o 6.2Major cities
o 6.3Language
o 6.4Religion
o 6.5Health
o 6.6Education
 7Culture
o 7.1Art
o 7.2Architecture
o 7.3Literature
o 7.4Philosophy
o 7.5Music
o 7.6Cinema
 o 7.7Fashion
o 7.8Media
o 7.9Society
o 7.10Cuisine
o 7.11Sports
 8See also
 9Footnotes
 10References
 11Further reading
o 11.1Topics
 12External links
o 12.1Economy
o 12.2Government
o 12.3Culture

Etymology and pronunciation

Main article: Name of France
Originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or
"realm of the Franks".[19] Modern France is still named today Francia in Italian and Spanish,
while Frankreich in German, Frankrijk in Dutch and Frankrike in Swedish all mean "Land/realm of the
Franks".
The name of the Franks is related to the English word frank ("free"): the latter stems from the Old
French franc ("free, noble, sincere"), ultimately from Medieval Latin francus ("free, exempt from
service; freeman, Frank"), a generalization of the tribal name that emerged as a Late Latin borrowing
of the reconstructed Frankish endonym *Frank.[20][21] It has been suggested that the meaning "free"
was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation, [22] or more
generally because they had the status of freemen in contrast to servants or slaves. [21]
The etymology of *Frank is uncertain. It is traditionally derived from the Proto-Germanic word
*frankōn, which translates as "javelin" or "lance" (the throwing axe of the Franks was known as
the francisca),[23] although these weapons may have been named because of their use by the Franks,
not the other way around.[21]
In English, 'France' is pronounced /fræns/ FRANSS in American English
and /frɑːns/ FRAHNSS or /fræns/ FRANSS in British English. The pronunciation with /ɑː/ is mostly
confined to accents with the trap-bath split such as Received Pronunciation, though it can be also
heard in some other dialects such as Cardiff English, in which /frɑːns/ is in free variation with /fræns/.
[24][25]

History
Main article: History of France
Prehistory (before the 6th century BC)
Main article: Prehistory of France
One of the Lascaux paintings: a horse – approximately 17,000 BC. Lascaux is famous for its "exceptionally
detailed depictions of humans and animals".[26]
The oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from approximately 1.8 million years ago.
[27]
 Over the ensuing millennia, humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by
several glacial periods. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life.[27] France has a large
number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and
best preserved, Lascaux[27] (approximately 18,000 BC). At the end of the last glacial period (10,000
BC), the climate became milder;[27] 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 bronze, as
well as later iron.[28] France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the
exceptionally dense Carnac stones site (approximately 3,300 BC).