Great history, culture, significant scientific and industrial potential has the West European country of France. The description in the media, literature, and art of her bright past, dynamic present invariably attracts the attention of the international community.
Statistics show: this country is the most visited by foreign tourists! Some are attracted by the truly impressive cultural heritage of the Fifth Republic, while others are attracted by spa holidays. If you are a travel enthusiast, you probably noticed: France always has a special place among travel agency offers. Photo of the Eiffel Tower - one of the most popular images on the websites of tour operators. Is this a coincidence? In 2013, France was visited by more than 85 million foreign citizens. Of these, 1 million Russian tourists.
Industry, Transport
France is recognized in the world as a dynamically developing industrial and agricultural country. Its GDP is $ 2.6 trillion. The state has benefited from the creation of the European Union, the advantage of the country is its geographical position in the center of Europe and the main European trade routes passing through its territory. France in the global economy firmly holds the 6th position in its industrial potential.
In France, the largest share is occupied by engineering, non-ferrous and ferrous metals, petrochemical and chemical industries, light industry, and perfumery. Three quarters of the electricity is received by the country's industry from nuclear power plants, and it is supplemented by a hydroelectric power system. Traditionally, the country imports oil and gas due to the lack of deposits. France exports agricultural products. Its farmers are real workers, they produce a quarter of the products of the entire European Union.
The transport network of the country, which is served by innovative high-speed rail transport, is respected. France is proud of the TVG trains traveling at a speed of 320 km / h. Photos of such express can be seen below.
The length of the country's roads is 29,370 km with an area of its continental part of 535.3 thousand km 2 . This provides great opportunities for the development of logistics.
Among the countries of the Western world, France is traditionally distinguished by foreign policy, which involves a dialogue with Russia, although we note that relations between the two countries have always been difficult.
Historically, the greatest rapprochement between the two states, marked by the creation of a military-political union, was noted at the end of the 19th century. Monuments of that thaw of interstate relations were the Trinity bridge, erected by the Eiffel project in St. Petersburg, and the bridge bearing the name of Alexander III, respectively, in Paris.
French politics
France is actively involved in international decision-making as a member of the UN Security Council. The Fifth Republic is one of the co-founders of the European Union and the founders of the World Bank and IMF. Since May 2007, France returned to NATO (the exit from the North Atlantic bloc was at one time initiated by President de Gaulle). On the whole, the policy of France, both internal and external, invariably follows the principles of social equality and democracy.
Armed forces
The possession of nuclear weapons allows France to pursue an independent foreign policy. The military-industrial complex of the Fifth Republic is self-sufficient and produces a full range of modern national weapons. However, the country does not participate in the arms race. The French army is undoubtedly powerful, but limited according to the principle of conscious sufficiency. It is armed with strategic nuclear deterrence forces, numbering four nuclear submarines and about a hundred aircraft - nuclear missile carriers.
France: population
A state enjoying international prestige in the world, at the same time, has great development prospects than many European states. What is the difference between the country - France? Description of differences may take more than one page.
Let us single out the main thing: the problem of almost all countries of the European Union is the aging of nations. However, the latter does not apply to the Fifth Republic. According to current data received from the countrymeters website. info, the number of inhabitants of this country as of 16:00 on 07/05/2014 is 64,075,783. At the same time, from the beginning of this year, 394,563 babies were born in the country, and 281,236 people died for various reasons.
Also, such a factor as net migration contributes to population growth in the country we are studying. Its indicator for the current year at 16:00 on 07/05/2014 is 46,874 people.
Thus, the population growth of the country from the beginning of 2014 on the above date amounted to 160,208 people.
Territory, climate
Where does the population of France live ? What is the geography of this country? The French themselves call their homeland a star. Why? Take a look at the map and you will see what shape the country of France has. A description of its borders, uniting 22 continental metropolises (we do not consider 5 overseas departments now), suggests that France really resembles a five-pointed star on the map. Star Country ... Romantic! It occupies almost 20% of the territory of the European Union.
Its sea borders are 5500 km long. The coast of France is washed by the Mediterranean Sea in the south, the Atlantic from the west, and the English Channel from the north.
To a greater extent, two-thirds of its territory, France is a flat country. However, its relief is uneven. In the southeast, the harsh Alps and the Jura Mountains rise. In the center are the Vosges, in the north - the Ardennes, in the south-west - the Pyrenees. Its rivers: the longest is the Loire, the deepest is the Rhone, draining the Paris Seine basin, flowing through the birthplace of d'Artagnan Garonne. The system of these four rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and united by canals irrigates the country of France. A description of the features of its climate is of interest. It is subtropical in the south of France, Atlantic in the west, Mediterranean in the south, and continental in the central part. More than a quarter of the country is covered with forests.
Cultural history
One of the reasons why the Fifth Republic is so attractive for tourists is its architecture. Its tourists call a man-made miracle. On the territory of France, more Romanesque buildings have been preserved: for example, an amphitheater in the city of Nimes, a Romanesque basilica temple dedicated to the Toulouse martyr, St. Saturninus. However, French Gothic temples built in the 12th – 15th centuries are even more famous.
Tourists are attracted by richly decorated facades with stone figures frozen on them, tall, pointed towers, pointed arches, art stained-glass windows. Among the Gothic buildings, the Reims Cathedral, in which the coronations of the French monarchs, Notre Dame de Paris, where the emperor Napoleon I was crowned, was popular.
The 16th century introduced into the architecture the originality of the Renaissance. The history of French culture of that time is characterized by the construction of castles, or chateaux, as they are called by the French themselves. Among the most famous are the Amboise castle, built by the Valois dynasty, on whose territory the ingenious Leonardo da Vinci is buried, If castle, which served as the birthplace of the legend of the prisoner - the Iron Mask, the story of which was told to us by Alexander Dumas, Chambord castle - a chic residence of kings.
The 17th century brought a refined Baroque style to architecture, expressed in magnificent palace ensembles. An example is Versailles - the main royal residence. The culture of France of the 19th century was marked by yet another style - classicism, and not only in architecture, but also in the visual arts. In the architecture of this period, architectural projects for the planning of urban centers were finally implemented. In the middle of the 19th century, French painting became the leading one in the world thanks to such artists as Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas. Unfortunately, the rise of French painting was interrupted by the fascist occupation.
History of Power: Merovingian Dynasty
Of particular interest is the evolution of the social system of this state. Since ancient times, civilization has existed on its territory: in the era of Rome, it was part of this vast empire as the province of Gaul.
The German tribe of Franks, led by King Clovis, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, conquered it in the 5th century AD. e., torn from Roman rule. The further history of France can be briefly presented over many centuries as a change of the ruling feudal royal dynasties.
The power of the Merovingians was weakening, and the former vassals, mayordoms, enjoyed growing influence. One of them, Pepin Short (father of Charlemagne), in the 7th century took the throne of the gaining state of the Franks, establishing the Carolingian dynasty.
Carolingian Dynasty
The famous son Pipin managed to unite most of the lands of Europe (including the territory of France) into a single empire.
However, the levers of power of a huge state, united by the amazing charisma of Charlemagne, were finally lost after the death of his son, Ludwick I the Pious. The empire was divided between the three descendants of the Carolingian.
In the West Frankish state, located on the territory of France, the youngest son of Ludwick I, Karl Lysy, began to rule. In the X century, France (it was already called that) was a feudal-fragmented weakly-governed country. This was used by the Vikings, headed by the king Rollon, having conquered its northern province and calling it Normandy (Norman land). The goal of the Norwegian Viking rogue was to conquer the kingdom, which he, in fact, did.
Capetian Dynasty
In 987, instead of the last of the Carolingians, childless Louis V, by the will of the royal vassals, Count Hugo Capet, founder of the Capetian dynasty, the third in the history of the country, sat on the throne. In this era, the foreign policy of France was reduced to the Crusades, and the domestic - to religious wars in the country itself. In this harsh time, when the clans ruled, the history of France is summarized as the replacement of the ruling dynasties with their side branches. In this way, the Capetians were replaced in 1328 by the Valois dynasty, which was ruled by the Hundred Years War, the exploit of Joan of Arc, the defeat of Brittany, the unification of the country, the war between the Protestants (Huguenots) and Catholics. After the murder of the last of Valois, Henry III, by the monk Jacques Clement, recruited by the Catholic League, France began to rule another side branch of the Capetings - the Bourbon dynasty.
The French Revolution
The history of the kings of France is interrupted by Louis XVI, a mediocre ruler, mired in feasts and estranged from public affairs. Under him, there was a recession in the industrial development of France, precedents of hunger, the confrontation between the powers that be and the people. The views on the decaying monarchy of the progressive part of French society (including the bourgeoisie, the clergy and the nobility) were very clearly expressed by the philosopher Montesquieu. He called royal power a brake on the progress of society and the usurpation of the inalienable rights of various segments of the population. This antagonism escalated into the Great French Revolution, which marked the establishment of the First Republic.
For the first time in world history, instead of kneeling, people chose freedom, equality, fraternity. People were tired of being a mob, they wanted to become citizens. It happened in France!
The revolution began with the assault on the Bastille on 07.07.1789. Louis, king of France, was executed, accused in court as a citizen of Louis Capet for usurping power and treason. The revolution ended with a reactionary coup on November 9, 1799. The Executive Directory, as the main state organ of revolutionary power, turned out to be inert and ineffective. In addition, she was split by her most influential member, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, who actually brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power. The French army loved and respected the determined and determined Corsican for the gift of unsurpassed tactics.
A further series of changes in the French state system is a succession of republics and empires.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I usurped power, proclaiming himself emperor on May 18, 1804. His reliable support was people raised from the ranks of the soldiers by the criteria of military talent and elevated to marshals - Bessières, Jourdan, Lannes, Lefebvre, Massena, Murat, Ney, Sult, Suchet. However, in the same row with them were marshals from aristocrats: Pears, Davout, MacDonald, Marmont, Serryurye. A series of high-profile victories of Napoleon in the Prussian, Polish, Austrian, Egyptian campaigns put an end to Russia. The Club of the People’s War, as L.N. Tolstoy wrote about the Patriotic War of 1812, crushed with crushing force the previously invincible French army that conquered all of Europe. The Kutuzov – Napoleon confrontation was resolved in favor of Mikhail Illarionovich. It was a confrontation between a brilliant tactician and a brilliant strategist. After the collapse of Napoleon's empire and the battle of Waterloo in 1814, the monarchy was restored in France.
Second republic
04/06/1814, the French Senate, under pressure from the victorious countries, decided to restore the Bourbon dynasty in the person of Louis XVIII. After his death in 1824, power passed to Charles X. The French discontent with the emphasized royalist ministry of Polignac and the leveling of their freedoms gained by the revolution, when the king signed four decrees on July 25, 1830, resulted in the July Revolution and the transfer of power from the Bourbon dynasty to her Orleans branch represented by Louis Philippe of Orleans. This was the first liberal revolution in Europe, the head of the country was called the "bourgeois king." The reign of Louis Philippe turned out to be a long-awaited thaw for the bourgeoisie; it had to rapidly enrich this layer of society and the industrial revolution. However, his government was a hotbed of corruption. They hated the king; a number of assassination attempts were made on him. In fact, the government heated the situation in the country, which caused the next revolution of 1848 - the February one.
Democratic values were again raised to the shield. The country was ruled by the president (the first president of France). They elected Napoleon's nephew - Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
However, the president’s policy was veiled. In words, he promised citizens freedom and his service to them, in fact, he confidently advanced towards the restoration of the empire. 12/02/1851, on the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz, with the support of the troops, he dissolved the Legislative Assembly, proclaiming himself Emperor Napoleon III. However, the talented schemer turned out to be a “mediocre statesman”, according to Otto Bismarck, who captured him near Sedan in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war.
Third republic
France emerged from the war by signing a peace treaty with Prussia and transferring its last two eastern provinces of the Rhine Valley: the forest reserve Alsace and the strategically important Lorraine, the "gate between Germany and France."
The recent history of France, and this is a period of time from the First World War to the present day, at its early stage is associated with such a type of government as the Third Republic. It lasted until 1940, significantly strengthening the republican system and the multiparty system in France.
The third republic was born in a bloody confrontation. Having been blocked, the socialists and anarchists on March 26, 1871, after the uprising in Paris of a people dissatisfied with the monarchy of Napoleon III, established people's self-government, and, in fact, the first form of dictatorship of the proletariat in history, the Paris Commune.
The flag of France appeared on the barricades of the Paris Commune. This is a tricolor with vertical stripes: blue, white, red. Before him, the symbol of the country was a white flag with royal lilies. Closer to the flagpole - the blue color, this was the cloak of St. Martin, the patron saint of France. White color symbolizes the divine principle, red was peculiar to oriflamms in honor of St. Dionysius, revered in the country.
The uprising was suppressed by force of arms by the monarchists. Prussia hastened to free prisoners of war for this. Mostly of them, McMahon recruited his punitive 130,000th army.
However, the monarchists this time were not in power. Under the leadership of the government of President Adolf Thierry, the Republican executive branch — the National Assembly — worked effectively. France managed to restore its industrial potential after the Prussian war. However, the monarchists seized the initiative, replacing the government of Thierry with the right coalition that determined the presidency of Patrice MacMahon. Again the course was taken on the monarchy, the Constitution was adopted. But the plans of the monarchists did not come true. In 1875, the conservative Senate, choosing a form of government for the country with a margin of 1 vote, still elected a republic.
The first president of France in recent history (from 1913 to 1920) was Raymond Poincare. In his reign, the positions of Russia and France as allies coincided as much as possible in the international arena. However, the French bourgeois governments, asymmetrically developing the economy in order to enrich themselves, could not fully prepare a country with the potential adequate to Hitler Germany for a war with the conquerors. In 1940, due to the surrender of France in World War II, the Third Republic fell.
Fourth Republic
In 1946, the Constituent Assembly of France adopted the constitution of the Fourth Republic, which determined the further development of the country. The highest legislative body, the National Assembly, consisted of the lower house - the National Assembly, and the upper - the Council of the Republic. It was a presidential-parliamentary republic with a strong executive branch. The development priority was the post-war restoration of the country's potential. For its effective implementation through nationalization, a powerful public sector of the economy was created, which included the aviation, automobile, gas and coal industries. The top five French banks have also become state owned. Economic development was planned by a special General Secretariat, led by Jean Monet. As a result, capital began to be invested more in the French economy, its export from the country decreased. For the first time, it was in the Fourth Republic that the social policy of France turned into a priority area for the development of society. Low-cost housing began to be erected in large numbers for workers and employees, and education and medical services became really widely available.
The formation of democracy of the Fifth Republic
The period of the Fifth Republic, which began in 1958 with the Constitution of de Gaulle and lasts until now, is called the Fifth Republic. This is the time of the maturity of the political system of the country, to which France independently came in its own unique historical way. Parliament was limited in rights.
It was not he, but the whole French people who elected the new president of the country. In addition, the presidential form of power, stipulated in it, allowed the head of state in times of crisis to take on unlimited powers of authority. In a referendum, 79% of the population supported the Constitution, and after 3 months, de Gaulle was elected president of the country. His policy was called "gallism." It was characterized by France's emphasized independent foreign policy. The economic role of the public sector is increasing. High technology industries attract foreign investment. The development of the regions is planned. The effectiveness of such a policy was confirmed by exceeding the pace of economic development of France by the Central European.
The mechanism of democracy of the Fifth Republic
The exact description given to her by former Prime Minister Villepin: the president is in charge, the government is in charge, and parliament is in charge of legislation. Its main principles are a strong presidential power, which oversees foreign policy issues and the military-industrial complex.
The government is responsible for economic and social policies. Its compliance with the Constitution is monitored by the Constitutional Council.
At the same time, the scope of presidential powers is determined by the presence of a pro-government majority in parliament. He signs laws and has the right to appeal to the nation by declaring a referendum.
The French government has a legislative initiative, a priority in the development of laws. Parliament (consisting of the upper house - the Senate, and the lower - the National Assembly) is considering draft laws proposed by the government. The Constitution prohibits the National Assembly from introducing amendments leading to an increase in budget expenditures.
However, the parliament has the right to express a majority vote of no confidence in the government and remove it.
Output
France of the XXI century as a world-class power confidently demonstrates an effective economic and social strategy. At the same time, she has a concern for the preservation of national values.
France is a bastion of democracy and a world center of culture. Citizens of the country see their future in the new Europe, and their prospects - in the formation and functioning of trans-European structures.