The French Republic or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe , and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents.
France is a democracy organised as a unitary semi-presidential republic . It is a developed nation whose modern economy is the fifth-largest in the world in 2003 . Its main values are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen .
France is a founding member of the European Union , and its largest member state with respect to land area. France is also a founding member of NATO and the UN , and a permanent member of the UN Security Council . It is one of only seven acknowledged nuclear powers in existence.
Geography
While the main territory of France ( la métropole ) is located in Western Europe, France is also constituted from territories in North America , the Caribbean , South America , the western and southern Indian Ocean , the northern and southern Pacific Ocean , and Antarctica (sovereignty claims in Antarctica are not recognised by most countries, see Antarctic Treaty ).
Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the North Sea , and from the Rhine River to the Atlantic Ocean ; it is bordered by the United Kingdom , Belgium , Luxembourg , Germany , Switzerland , Italy , Monaco , Andorra , and Spain . The French Republic also shares land borders overseas with Brazil , Suriname , and the Netherlands .
France possesses a large variety of landscapes, ranging from coastal plains in the north and west, where France borders the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean , to the mountain ranges in the south (the Pyrenees ) and the southeast (the Alps ), of which the latter contains the highest point of Europe, the Mont Blanc at 4810 m.
In between are found other elevated regions such as the Massif Central or the Vosges mountains and extensive river basins such as those of the Loire River , the Rhone River , the Garonne and Seine .
Maritime territory (EEZ)
Due to its numerous overseas departments and territories scattered on all oceans of the planet, France possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq. miles), just behind the EEZ of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq. miles), but ahead of the EEZ of Australia (8,232,000 km² / 3,178,000 sq. miles). According to a different calculation cited by the Pew Research Center, the EEZ of France would be 10,084,201 km² (3,893,532 sq. miles), behind the United States (12,174,629 km² / 4,700,651 sq. miles), but ahead of Australia (8,980,568 km² / 3,467,416 sq. miles) and Russia (7,566,673 km² / 2,921,508 sq. miles).
The EEZ of France covers approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world, whereas the land area of the French Republic is only 0.45% of the total land area of the Earth.
Economy
France's economy combines extensive private enterprise with substantial (though declining) government intervention . The government retains considerable influence over key segments of infrastructure sectors, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunication firms. It has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s . The government is slowly selling off holdings in France Telecom , Air France , as well as the insurance, banking, and defence industries.
A member of the G8 group of leading industrialized countries, it ranked as the fifth-largest economy in the world in 2003, behind the United States , Japan , Germany , and the United Kingdom . France joined 10 other EU members to launch the Euro on January 1 , 1999 , with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc in early 2002 .
According to the WTO , in 2003 France was the world's fifth-largest exporter, behind the United States , Germany , Japan , and China , but ahead of the United Kingdom ). It was also the fourth-largest importer (behind the United States , Germany , and China , but ahead of the United Kingdom and Japan ). According to the OECD , in 2003 France received the largest percentage of foreign international investment, ahead of the United States and Belgium .
With over 77 million tourists a year, France is ranked as the major tourist destination in the world, ahead of Spain (51.7 million) and United States (41.9 million). It features cities of high cultural interest (Paris being the foremost), beaches and seaside resorts, ski centres and rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquility.
France has an important aerospace industry (lead by Airbus Industrie) and is the only European power to have its own national space centre. France is also the most energy independent Western country due to heavy investment in nuclear power, which also makes France the smallest producer of carbon dioxide among the seven most industrialised countries in the world. Large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and EU subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer in Western Europe.
Since the end of WWII the government made efforts to integrate more and more with Germany , both economically and politically. Today the two countries form what is often referred to as the "core" countries in favour of greater integration of the European Union.
Foreign relations
France's founding membership in the European Union largely defines France's current foreign policy. The French Republic is furthermore a member of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and of the Indian Ocean Commission (COI), and an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). France is also a leading member or the International Organization of Francophonie (OIF) which gathers 51 fully or partly French-speaking countries.
France hosts the headquarters of the OECD and UNESCO , as well as those of the International Bureau for Weights and Measures in charge of the international metric system , and interpol .
Demographics
The official language is French. Several regional languages (including Basque , Breton , Catalan , Corsican , Dutch ( Flemish ), Alsatian , Occitan and Oïl languages ) are also occasionally understood and spoken, mostly by elderly people, but the French government and public school system discouraged the use of any of them until recently. The regional languages are now taught at some schools, though French remains the only official language in use by the government, local or national.
Starting with the 19th century , the historical evolution of the population in France has been extremely atypical in the Western World . Unlike the rest of Europe, France did not experience a strong population growth in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Conversely, it experienced a much stronger growth in the second half of the 20th century than the rest of Europe or indeed its own growth in the previous centuries.