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France is one of the world's most developed countries[18] and possesses the world's fifth largest economy by nominal GDP[19] and Europe's second largest economy. France enjoys a high standard of living as well as a high public education level, and has also one of the world's highest life expectancies[20]. France has been listed as the world's "best overall health care" provider by the World Health Organization[21]. It is the most visited country in the world, receiving 82 million foreign tourists annually[22].
France has the world's fourth largest nominal military budget, the third largest military in NATO and EU's largest army. France also possesses the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world[23]-with ~300 active warheads as of 25 May 2010- and the world's second largest diplomatic corps (only second to the one of the United States)[24].
France is a founding member of the United Nations, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, G20, NATO, OECD, WTO, and the Latin Union. It is also a founding and leading member state of the European Union and the largest one by area[25]. In 2007, France was listed 14th on the Human Development Index and 24th on the Corruption Perceptions Index.
The name "France" comes from the Latin Francia, which means "country of the Franks".[26] There are various theories as to the origin of the name of the Franks. One is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca.[27]
Prehistory and Antiquity
Metropolitan French cities with over 100,000 inhabitants
Metropolitan France is situated mostly between latitudes 41° and 51° N (Dunkirk is just north of 51°), and longitudes 6° W and 10° E, on the western edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone
While Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe, France also has a number of territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica.[49] These territories have varying forms of government ranging from overseas department to overseas collectivity. France's overseas departments and collectivities share land borders with Brazil, and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and the Netherlands Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin)
Metropolitan France covers 547,030 square kilometres (211,209 sq mi),[10] having the largest area among European Union members.[25] France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the south-east, the Massif Central in the south-central and Pyrenees in the south-west. At 4,810.45 metres (15,782 ft)[51] above sea level, the highest point in Western Europe, Mont Blanc, is situated in the Alps on the border between France and Italy. Metropolitan France also has extensive river systems such as the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the Rhone, which divides the Massif Central from the Alps and flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the Camargue. Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast.
France's total land area, with its overseas departments and territories (excluding Adélie Land), is 674,843 km2 (260,558 sq mi), 0.45% of the total land area on Earth. However, France possesses the second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world,[52] covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,637 sq mi), approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world, just behind the United States (11,351,000 km2/4,382,646 sq mi) and ahead of Australia (8,232,000 km2/3,178,393 sq mi).[53] The north and northwest have a temperate climate, while a combination of maritime influences, latitude and altitude produce a varied climate in the rest of Metropolitan France.[54] In the south-east a Mediterranean climate prevails. In the west, the climate is predominantly oceanic with a high level of rainfall, mild winters and cool to warm summers. Inland the climate becomes more continental with hot, stormy summers, colder winters and less rain. The climate of the Alps and other mountainous regions is mainly alpine, with the number of days with temperatures below freezing over 150 per year and snow cover lasting for up to six months.
Logo of the French Republic
The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential republic with strong democratic traditions. The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958.[82] It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders: the President of the Republic, currently Nicolas Sarkozy, who is head of state and is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years),[83] and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister, currently François Fillon.
Nicolas Sarkozy has been the President of the French Republic since 2007
The French parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and a Senate.[84] The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 5-year terms.[85] The Assembly has the power to dismiss the cabinet, and thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year terms), and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years starting in September 2008.[86]
The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National Assembly has the final say.[87] The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.
French politics are characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred around the French Socialist Party, and the other right-wing, centred previously around the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) and now its successor the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).The executive branch is currently composed mostly of the UMP.
France is a founding member of the EEC in 1957 and the European Union in 1993.
France is a member of the United Nations and serves as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto rights. It is also a member of the G8, World Trade Organisation (WTO),the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)[93] and the Indian Ocean Commission (COI).It is an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and a leading member of the International Francophone Organisation (OIF) of fifty-one fully or partly French-speaking countries. It hosts the headquarters of the OECD, UNESCO,Interpol,Alliance Base and the International Bureau for Weights and Measures.In 1953, France received a request from the United Nations to pick a coat of arms that would represent it internationally. Thus the French emblem was adopted and is currently used on passports.
French foreign policy has been largely shaped by membership of the European Union, of which it was a founding member. In the 1960s, France sought to exclude the British from the organisation, seeking to build its own standing in continental Europe. Since the 1960s, France has developed close ties with reunified Germany to become the most influential driving force of the EU.
France is a member of the NATO, but under President de Gaulle, it excluded itself from the joint military command to avoid the American domination of its foreign and security policies. However, as a result of Nicolas Sarkozy's (much criticised in France by the leftists and by a part of the right) pro-American politics, France rejoined the NATO joint military command on 4 April 2009. In the early 1990s, the country drew considerable criticism from other nations for its underground nuclear tests in French Polynesia.[108] France vigorously opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq,straining bilateral relations with the US and the UK. France retains strong political and economic influence in its former African colonies (Françafrique) and has supplied economic aid and troops for peace-keeping missions in the Ivory Coast and Chad.
France has the second largest network of diplomatic missions in the world, second only to the USA.
France is a permanent member of the Security Council of the UN, and a recognised nuclear state since 1960, spending the third or fourth largest amount of money in military depending on the methodology and source. The French armed forces are divided into three branches, with the Gendarmerie Nationale being now attached to the Ministry of Interior and no longer part of the Ministry of Defence.
France is a major arms seller, as most of its arsenal's designs are available for the export market with the notable exception of nuclear-powered devices. Some of the French designed equipments are specifically designed for exports like the Franco-Spanish Scorpène class submarines. Some French equipments have been largely modified to fit allied countries' requirements like the Formidable class frigates (based on the La Fayette class) or the Hashmat class submarines (based on the Agosta class submarines).