<!–^~^302|center|Map of France^~^–> Area: total: 547,030 sq km land: 545,630 sq km water: 1,400 sq km note: includes only metropolitan France, but excludes the overseas administrative divisions Area – comparative: slightly less than twice the size of Colorado Land boundaries: total: 2,889 km border countries: Andorra 56.6 km, Belgium 620 km, Germany 451 km, […]
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La Marseillaise
History La Marseillaise is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle on April 24, 1792. Its original name is Chant de marche de l’ArmÈe du Rhin (Marching song of the Rhine Army). It became the rallying call of the French Revolution and was so-called because it was first sung on the […]
History of France
GaulSettled mainly by the Gauls and related Celtic peoples (apart from a shrinking area of Basque population in the south-west), the area of modern France comprised the bulk of the region of Gaul (Latin Gallia) under Roman rule from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD. FranksIn 486, Clovis I, leader of the […]
Louis XVI
[img]737|left|Louis XVI|[/img]Louis XVI of France (August 23, 1754 – January 21, 1793) succeeded his grandfather (Louis XV of France) as King of France on May 10, 1774; he was crowned on June 11, 1775. His father, the dauphin, had died in 1765. On May 16, 1770 he married Marie Antoinette, daughter of Francis I of […]
Celts
The Celts are an indigenous people of central Europe with large numbers in the United Kingdom, in France, and in Ireland where they are in the majority. The first literary reference to the Celtic people as keltoi or hidden people, is by the Greek Hecataeus in 517 BC. “Celt” is pronounced /kelt/, and “celtic” as […]
Lascaux
The caves of Lascaux, in France, contain some of the earliest known representational art, dating to between 17,000 and 15,000 years before the present. These Paleolithic cave paintings consist mostly of realistic images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. The other […]
Basque
<!–^~^236|left|Ciboure, Pays Basque^~^–>The Basques are an indigenous people who inhabit parts of both Spain and France. They are found predominantly in four provinces in Spain and three in France. This area is to be found around the western edge of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. Besides Spanish or French, a […]
Wars of Religion
The religious wars began with overt hostilities in 1562 and lasted until the Edict of Nantes in 1598. It was warfare that devastated a generation, although conducted in rather desultory, inconclusive way. Although religion was certainly the basis for the conflict, it was much more than a confessional dispute. “Une foi, un loi, un roi” […]
Vercingetorix
Vercingetorix (died 46 BC), chieftain of the Arverni, led the great Gallic revolt against the Romans in 53 and 52 BC. His name in Gaulish means “over-king” (ver-rix) of warriors (cingetos). As described in Julius Caesar’s Gallic_Wars, Rome had secured domination over the Celtic tribes beyond the Provincia Narbonensis (modern day Provence) through a careful […]
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) was part of the Roman Catholic Church’s efforts to crush the Cathars. The Cathars were especially numerous in southern France, in the region of Languedoc. They were termed Albigensians because of the movements presence in and around the city of Albi. Political control in Languedoc was split amongst many local lords […]