Education, Secondary education and schools
Country France: description. The history of France is brief. Culture of France
The West European country of France has a great history, culture, significant scientific and industrial potential. The description in the media, literature, the art of its bright past, the dynamic present invariably attracts international attention to it.
Statistics show: this country is the most visited by foreign tourists! One attracts really impressive cultural heritage of the Fifth Republic, others - a resort holiday. If you are a travel lover, you probably noticed: France always has a special place among the proposals of travel agencies. Photo of the Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular images on the websites of tour operators. Is this accidental? In 2013, France was visited by more than 85 million foreign nationals. Of these, 1 million Russian tourists.
Industry, transport
France is recognized in the world as a dynamically developing industrial-agrarian country. Its GDP is $ 2.6 trillion. From the creation of the European Union, the state has won, the country's advantage is its geographical location in the center of Europe and the main European trade routes passing through its territory. France in the world economy firmly holds the 6th position in terms of its industrial potential.
In the French industry, machinery, non-ferrous and ferrous metals, petrochemical and chemical industries, light industry, and perfumes occupy the largest share. Three quarters of the electricity is received by the industry of the country from the nuclear power plant, it is complemented by the HPP system. Traditionally, the country imports oil and gas because of the lack of deposits. France exports agricultural products. Its farmers are real workers, they produce a quarter of the output of the entire EU.
The transport network of the country, which is serviced by innovative high-speed rail transport, is respected. Trains TVG, flying at a speed of 320 km / h proud of France. A photo of this express can be seen below.
The length of the country's roads is 29 370 km with the area of its continental part 535,3 thousand km 2 . This provides ample opportunities for the development of logistics
Among the countries of the Western world, France has traditionally been distinguished by foreign policy, which presupposes a dialogue with Russia, although we note that the relations between the two countries have always been difficult.
Historically, the closest rapprochement between the two states, marked by the creation of a military-political union, was noted at the end of the XIX century. The Trinity Bridge erected on the Eiffel project in St. Petersburg and the bridge bearing the name of Alexander III, respectively, in Paris, became the monuments of that thaw of interstate relations.
The policy of France
France takes an active part 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 the IMF. Since May 2007, France has returned to NATO (the withdrawal from the North Atlantic bloc was initiated in due time by President de Gaulle). In general, France's policy, 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 armaments. At the same time, the country does not participate in the arms race. The army of France is undoubtedly powerful, but limited in accordance with the principle of conscious sufficiency. It has 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 and France? The description of differences can take more than one page.
Let us single out the main thing: the problem of almost all the countries of the European Union is the aging of nations. However, the latter does not apply to the Fifth Republic. According to the current data obtained from the countrymeters website. Info, the number of residents of this country at 16:00 on 05/07/2014 is 64,075,783 people. At the same time, 394,563 babies were born in the country since the beginning of this year, and 281,236 people died for various reasons.
Also, the growth of the population in the country studied by us is facilitated by a factor such as net migration. Its indicator for the current year is 46 874 people at 16:00 on 05/07/2014.
Thus, the increase in the population of the country since 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? Look at the map and you will see what shape France has. The description of its borders, which unite the 22 continental metropolises (we do not consider now 5 overseas departments), says that on the map, France really looks like a five-pointed star. Country-star ... Romantic! It occupies almost 20% of the territory of the European Union.
Its sea borders have a length of 5500 km. The coast of France is washed in the south by the Mediterranean, in the west by the Atlantic, and from the north by the English Channel.
To a greater extent, two-thirds of its territory, France is a country of the plains. However, its relief is not uniform. 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 Rhône, draining the Parisian basin of the Seine, flowing through the birthplace of d'Artagnan Garonne. The system of these four rivers, flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and united by canals, is irrigated by the country of France. Description of the peculiarities of its climate is of interest. In the south of France it is subtropical, in the west - atlantic, in the south - Mediterranean, in the central part - continental. More than a quarter of the country is covered with forests.
History of Culture
One of the reasons why the Fifth Republic attracts tourists so much is its architecture. Its tourists call a man-made miracle. In France, still preserved Romanesque buildings: for example, an amphitheater in the city of Nimes, a Romanesque basilica dedicated to the Toulouse martyr, Saint Saturninus. However, even more famous are the French Gothic churches, built in the XII-XV centuries.
Tourists are attracted to richly decorated facades with stone figures frozen on them, tall, pointed towers, pointed arches, artistic stained-glass windows. Among the Gothic buildings, the Reims Cathedral is popular, in which the coronations of the French monarchs, Notre Dame de Paris, were held, where the Emperor Napoleon I. was crowned.
The 16th century introduced the architecture of the Renaissance. The history of French culture of that time is characterized by the erection of castles, or chateau, as the French call them. Among the most famous - the castle Amboise, built by the Valois dynasty, on the territory of which the genius Leonardo da Vinci is buried, the castle of If, which served as the birthplace of the legend of the prisoner - Iron Mask, the story of which Alexander Dumas told us, Chambord Castle is the chic residence of kings.
The 17th century brought to architecture a sophisticated Baroque style, expressed in magnificent palace ensembles. An example of them can serve as Versailles - the main royal residence. The culture of France of the 19th century was marked by another style - classicism, 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 realized. In the middle of the same 19th century, French painting became the leading 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: the Merovingian dynasty
Of particular interest is the evolution of the social system of this state. In its ancient territory, there was a civilization: in the era of Rome it was part of this huge empire as the province of Gaul.
The German tribe of the Franks, led by King Clovis, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, conquered it in the 5th century AD. E., Tearing out of Roman rule. The further history of France can be briefly presented for many centuries as a change in the ruling feudal royal dynasties.
The power of the Merovingians was weakened, and the former vassals, mayorddoms, enjoyed growing influence. One of them, Pepin the Short (the father of Charlemagne), in the 7th century, took the throne of the gaining state of the Franks, having founded the Carolingian dynasty.
The Carolingian Dynasty
The famous son of 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 the vast state, united by the amazing charisma of Charlemagne, were finally lost after the death of his son, Ludwig the Pious. The empire was divided between the three descendants of the Carolingians.
In the West Frankish state, located on the territory of France, the youngest son of Ludwig I, Karl Lysy, began to rule. In the tenth century, France (it was already so called) was a feudal-fragmented, weakly managed country. This took advantage of the Vikings led by King Rollon, having won its northern province and called it Normandy (Norman land). The aim of the Norwegian viking-outcast was to conquer a kingdom, which, strictly speaking, he did.
The Capetian Dynasty
In 987, instead of the last of the Carolingians, the childless Louis V, by the will of the royal vassals, the throne was placed by Count Hugo Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty, the third in the history of the country. In this era, France's foreign policy was reduced to crusades, and internal - to religious wars in the country itself. At this harsh time, when the clans ruled, the history of France is summarized as a replacement of the ruling dynasties by their side branches. This is how the Vallet dynasty came to replace the Capetians in 1328, the reign of which included the Hundred Years War, the feat of Joan of Arc, the defeat of Brittany, the unification of the country, the wars between 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 Capetians - the Bourbon dynasty.
The French Revolution
The history of the kings of France is interrupted by Louis XVI, an incompetent ruler, mired in feasts and detached from public affairs. With it there was a decline in the industrial development of France, the precedents of hunger, the opposition of the powers that be and the people. Views of the decaying monarchy of the progressive part of French society (which included the bourgeoisie, the clergy and the nobility) was expressed very clearly by the philosopher Montesquieu. He called the royal power a brake on the progress of society and the usurpation of the inalienable rights of various strata of the population. This antagonism grew into the Great French Revolution, which marked the establishment of the First Republic.
For the first time in world history the people chose freedom, equality, brotherhood in exchange for kneeling. People are tired of being niello, they are willing to become citizens. It happened in France!
The beginning of the revolution was the storming of the Bastille on 17.07.1789. Louis, the King of France, was executed, accused of trial as a citizen, Louis Capet, for usurping power and betraying his homeland. The end of the revolution was the reactionary coup of 09.11.1799. The executive directory as the main state organ of revolutionary power turned out to be inert and inefficient. In addition, she was split by her most influential member, Emmanuel-Joseph Siyes, who in fact brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power. The army of France loved and respected the determined and purposeful Corsican for the gift of an unsurpassed tactician.
A further sequence of changes in the French state arrangement is the succession of republics and empires.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I usurped the power, proclaiming himself on May 18, 1804 the emperor. His reliable support was the people raised by him from the soldiers' bottoms by the criterion of military talent and erected in the marshals - Bessier, Jourdan, Lannes, Lefevre, Massena, Murat, Ney, Sult, Suchet. However, in the same row with them were marshals from aristocrats: Grushi, Davout, MacDonald, Marmont, Serryurye. The succession of high-profile victories of Napoleon in the Prussian, Polish, Austrian, Egyptian campaigns ended Russia. "The club of the people's war," as L.N. Tolstoy wrote about the Patriotic War of 1812, crushed the unbeaten French army that conquered all Europe with a crushing force. The confrontation of Kutuzov-Napoleon 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, a monarchy was restored in France.
Second Republic
On April 6, 1814, the French Senate, under the pressure of the victorious countries, decided to restore the Bourbon dynasty in the person of Louis XVIII. After his death in 1824, the power passed to Charles X. The French dissatisfaction with the explicitly royalist ministry of Polignac and the leveling of their freedoms obtained 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 The Orleans branch, represented by Louis-Philippe of Orleans. This was the first liberal revolution in Europe, the head of the country was called the "king-bourgeois". The rule of Louis-Philippe was a long-awaited thaw for the bourgeoisie, he was stormy enrichment of this stratum of society and the industrial revolution. However, his government was a hotbed of corruption. The king was hated, a number of attempts were made against him. In fact, the government heated the situation in the country, which triggered the next revolution of 1848 - the February Revolution.
Democratic values were again raised on the shield. The country was ruled by the president (the first president of France). They chose 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 - confidently advanced to the restoration of the empire. On 02.12.1851, on the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz, he with the support of the troops dissolved the Legislative Assembly, having proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III. However, the talented intriguer turned out to be an "incompetent statesman," according to Otto Bismarck, who captivated him under Sedan in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war.
Third Republic
France withdrew from the war by signing a peace treaty with Prussia and transferring its last two eastern provinces of the Rhine valley: the Alsace reserve forest and the strategically important Lorraine, the "gate between Germany and France."
The newest history of France, and this period of time from the First World War to our days, at an early stage is associated with this type of state structure, as the Third Republic. It existed until 1940, greatly strengthening the republican system and the multi-party system in France.
The third republic was born in a bloody confrontation. Having blocked themselves, socialists and anarchists on March 26, 1987, after the uprising in Paris of a people dissatisfied with the monarchy of Napoleon III, established a people's government, and in fact - the first form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Paris Commune in history.
The flag of the country France appeared precisely on the barricades of the Paris Commune. This tricolor with vertical stripes: blue, white, red. Before him, the symbol of the country was a white flag with royal lilies. Closer to the shaft - a blue color, just this was the cloak of St. Martin, the patron of France. White color symbolizes the divine origin, red was characteristic of oriflamms in honor of St. Dionysius, revered in the country.
The popular uprising was suppressed by force of arms by monarchists. Prussia hastened to free the prisoners of war. Most of them, McMahon recruited his punitive 130,000-strong army.
However, this time the monarchists were not in power. Under the leadership of the government of President Adolf Thierry, the republican executive authority - the National Assembly - effectively worked. France managed to restore its industrial potential after the Prussian War. However, the monarchists seized the initiative, replacing Thierry's government with a right-wing coalition that determined the presidency of Patrice MacMahon. Again the course was taken on the monarchy, the Constitution was adopted. But the plans of monarchists did not come true. In 1875, the conservative senate, choosing the form of government for the country with a margin of 1 vote, still elected the republic.
The first French president of modern history (from 1913 to 1920) was Raymond Poincaré. In his reign, the positions of Russia and France as allies coincided as closely as possible in the international arena. However, the French bourgeois governments, asymmetrically developing the economy in order to enrich themselves, could not fully prepare the country, which has the potential adequate to Hitler's Germany, to a war with the conquerors. In 1940, due to the surrender of France in the Second World War, 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 supreme legislative body, the National Assembly, consisted of the lower chamber - the National Assembly, and the upper one - the Council of the Republic. It was a presidential-parliamentary republic with a strong executive power. The priority of development was the post-war reconstruction 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. Five leading French banks also became public. Economic development was planned by a special General Secretariat, which was headed by Jean Monet. As a result, capital began to invest more in the economy of France, its export from the country decreased. For the first time, it was in the Fourth Republic that France's social policy became the priority direction of the development of society. For workers, employees, mass housing began to be built inexpensively, it became really widely available education, medical care.
Formation of democracy of the Fifth Republic
The period of existence of the fifth republic, which began in 1958 with the Constitution de Gaulle and lasts until the present time, is called the Fifth Republic. This is the time of maturity of the country's political system, to which France has independently come its own unique historical path. Parliament was limited in rights.
The mechanism of democracy of the Fifth Republic
The exact characteristics given to her by former Prime Minister Villepin: the president exercises leadership, the government controls, and the parliament deals with 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. For its compliance with the Constitution follows the Constitutional Council.
At the same time, the scope of presidential powers is determined by the existence 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 drafting 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 making amendments leading to an increase in budget expenditures.
However, the parliament has the right to express by its majority a vote of no confidence in the government and to displace it.
Conclusion
France of the 21st century as a world-class power confidently demonstrates an effective economic and social strategy. At the same time, it is intrinsic for the preservation of national values.
France is a bulwark of democracy and a world cultural center. Their future citizens see the country in a new Europe, and their prospects - in the formation and functioning of the trans-European structures.
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