France is a major victor in World War I and World War II, so it is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and has veto power over bills. France is also a founding member of the European Union and NATO and a member of the Schengen Convention.
The earliest origin of France is about 10 century, when Charlemagne Empire was divided. According to treaty of verdun in 843, the eastern part formed the present German, the central part was Burgundy, and the western part gradually became the present French. After the war with Britain in 1 16, at the end of 15, France gradually formed a centralized monarchy. Until 1789, when the French Revolution broke out, it overthrew the feudal system and the imperial system, gradually established a republic and promoted democracy. French national motto "freedom, equality and fraternity" (French: Liberté,? Galité, Fraternité) These three words come from the French Revolution. The first Republic of France was founded in1792; It was not until 1804 that Napoleon became the French emperor and established the first French Empire (or Napoleon Empire), ending the short Republic years.
Subsequently, in 1848, France established the Second Republic of France under the background of another revolution in the National Assembly and the overthrow of the monarchy, with Louis Napoléon Bonaparte as president until the restoration of the monarchy in 1852.
1870 After the Franco-Prussian War, France resumed the republic (established the third republic) and once established the first proletarian dictatorship in the world history: 187 1 year from March to May 28th, but it was overthrown immediately. Then, after the withdrawal of the Prussian army, the French people once again restored the Third Republic. After World War I and World War II, the Third Republic was finally destroyed by Nazi Germany (the Third Reich) in 1940. In World War II, General Charles de Gaulle established a government in exile in Britain, called "Free France", to compete with Vichy regime, a vassal of Nazi Germany. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, it was renamed "Tactics".
After the war, General Charles de Gaulle founded the Fourth Republic of France. Although France was the main victorious country in the two world wars, it suffered heavy losses in wealth and manpower. The Fourth Republic lasted until the Algerian War broke out in 1958. General de Gaulle announced the end of the old constitution, the implementation of the new constitution, and the establishment of the Fifth Republic of France, now the French Republic.
It is worth mentioning that when the Fifth Republic was founded, it learned the lessons of the failure of parliamentary democracy in the past, so it began to create and implement semi-presidential and semi-parliamentary democracy (double-headed system), which has been maintained until now in the French political system. In recent years, the close cooperation between France and Germany has become an indispensable driving force for European economic integration, such as the circulation of the euro in 1999. Today, France is at the forefront of European countries seeking closer cooperation in more fields.
See: French War History, French Revolution, Paris Commune, France in World War I, France in World War II.
[Editor] Politics
Main projects: French politics, French political parties, French government and French government cabinet.
The Constitution of the Fifth Republic (now France) was adopted by the French people in a referendum on September 28th, 1958. 1958101the constitution promulgated on October 4th determined the national government mode of the Fifth Republic. Since then, the Constitution has undergone many revisions. It has greatly strengthened the relationship between the administration and parliament.
President of the Republic: the head of state is directly elected by universal suffrage for a term of five years (the five-year presidential term was established after the French referendum on September 24, 2000); The French President appoints the Prime Minister, and according to Article 8 of the French Constitution, the Prime Minister nominates other members of the government. The president presides over cabinet meetings and promulgates laws; The president is also the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces. In addition, according to article 16 of the Constitution, in the face of major crises, the President has the right to take extraordinary measures, such as declaring a state of emergency or launching a national mobilization order. According to Articles 20 and 2 1 of the Constitution, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the government decides and is in charge of national policies; To lead the operation of the government and ensure the implementation of the law; The government is accountable to parliament.
Nicolas Sarkozy is the sixth president of the Fifth Republic of France (now France). On May 6, 2007, he officially took office. Francois fillon was appointed as the current Prime Minister by Nicolas Sarkozy on May 6th, 2007.
The National Assembly (French: assemble nationale) is the highest legislative body in the country, with 577 members, each representing a constituency. Members are directly elected by the people for a term of five years. The French President has the right to dissolve the National Assembly.
The Senate (French: Sénat) has a total of 32 senators1,elected by the electoral institutions for a term of 9 years; And change one-third of senators every three years. After September 2004, the term of office of senators was shortened to six years; And at 20 10, the number of seats increased to 346. The legislative function of the Senate is restricted; When the two parliaments disagree, the National Assembly has the final decision. The government has great influence on the agenda of parliament.
There are 26 regions (one administrative region, 22 in China) in France, which are subdivided into 100 provinces (96 in China) (French: dédepartments；; ; Chinese translation: area, province, county). These areas are mainly numbered alphabetically, and these numbers are used for postal codes or vehicle license plates. The province consists of special zones (French-speaking zones), and each special zone is divided into several towns (canton in French), and each town includes several towns (communes). French); The town is the smallest administrative division unit in France.
[Editor] Overseas regions and colonies
Main projects: French overseas areas and French colonies
Overseas areas are former colonies of France, and these areas enjoy similar treatment in France as European countries. They can be regarded as part of France or the European Union. France's overseas territories include:
Four overseas provinces (overseas departments, DOM): Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and reunion island.
Five Overseas Territories (Overseas Territories): French Polynesia (987). Aise), Voorhees Voltana Islands (986) (Wallis and Futuna), Mayotte Island (976), Saint Pierre and Miquelon Islands (975), French Antarctic Territory (Le Terres Australia et Antarciques Fran? aises).
1 Special administrative unit: New Caledonia.
The geographical area of France is 55 1695 square kilometers, and the terrain of France is complex. The western and northern regions are coastal plains, and France borders the English Channel, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. There are Pyrenees in the south, Alps in the southeast and central plateau in the south-central. The main rivers are Loire, Rhone, Garonne and Seine.
The left bank of the Seine in Paris covers a whole fan-shaped area along the Seine. If you take a boat down the Seine River in downtown Paris, the left side of the bow shows the scenery on the left bank of Paris. The left bank of the Seine River is the witness of the early establishment of Paris, and its hinterland concentrates the historical relics of the early establishment of Paris.
The French economy combines modern capitalist economy with government intervention. The government still has an important influence in the main departments of various industries; In railway, electric power, aviation and telecommunications enterprises, the government also has the main control right. From 65438 to the early 1990s, the French government has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors, and is gradually liberalizing its controlling interests in France Telecom, Air France, insurance, finance and national defense enterprises. In addition, fertile land, advanced technology and government subsidies make France a leading agricultural producer in Western Europe.
1 99965438+1October 1 1 European countries participated in the use of the euro, and began to use euro coins and banknotes in early 2002, completely replacing the previous franc. The exchange rate between the euro and the franc is fixed at 1 998 65438+February 3 1, that is,1euro is converted to 6.55957 francs.
According to the French census statistics of 5438+ 10/in June, 2006, the population of France is about 63,587,700, and if overseas territories and regions (DOM and TOM for short) are excluded, it is 6 1 .044684. In addition, there are about 600,000 Chinese in France, mainly from Wenzhou and Indochina (Indochina/zhina).
The official language of France is French; But recently, the French government began to encourage schools and government agencies to use some local languages, such as Basque, Brittany, Alsace (German), Flemish (Dutch), Corsican, languedoc, Provence and so on. Some schools began to teach local dialects, but French is still the official language of the country. Alsace English is becoming the second language of France. [Source Request] Some rural residents in Brittany use Brittany as their spoken language. Corsicans also use two local dialects in their daily lives: one is similar to Tuscany dialect in Italy, and the other is similar to northern Sardinia dialect.
The main religion in France is Catholicism, followed by Protestantism, Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Christianity
Catholicism: More than 45 million believers. The whole country is divided into 17 teaching provinces and 90 parishes.
Protestantism: The larger factions are Presbyterian and Lutheran.
Orthodox Church: There are about 530,000 believers. About 300,000 of them are in Paris. In addition, there are about 6.5438+0.8 million Armenian Orthodox Christians in France.
Islam: It is the second largest religion in France. There are about 2 million Muslims, 750,000 of whom are concentrated in Paris.
Judaism: 540,000 followers, mainly in Paris.
French culture is rich and diverse, and France has been one of the world's cultural centers since13rd century. French culture strongly blends Gothic and Catholic styles. Modern French culture experienced many setbacks, such as the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France, the centralized dictatorship of the French dynasty, the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, the Franco-Prussian War, and the two world wars. All these have seriously affected and trampled on French culture, but in this process, new cultures have emerged and produced, creating today's French culture; However, this is naturally different from the ancient classical Frankish culture.
From a historical perspective, France has always blended the classical cultural atmosphere of ancient Rome with the cultural characteristics of Franks, Goths and Gauls, who were previously considered "barbarians". This was even more obvious in the 3rd and 4th centuries when the Roman Empire was on the verge of extinction. Barbarians in the Frankish region crossed the border into ancient Rome and invaded the military, political, cultural customs and other fields on the French border today. In addition, Christianity gained the legal status in the Roman Empire (3 1 1 promulgated the Milan decree of the Roman emperor), and even the state religion status (the Roman Catholic Church, or Vatican Church, was established in 392). Various reasons provided objective, favorable and universal conditions for this mixed-color culture to further promote the provinces in the Frankish region of the Roman Empire and produce a brand-new "French culture"; Cultural blending can be seen not only from the life of towns and villages in Frankish province of Roman Empire in the 4th century, but also from the rise of Romanesque architecture and Christian church with emerging barbarian flavor, and the lifestyle of barbarians who entered the Roman system. Even the official military management form of the Roman Empire was objectively "invaded" by Frankish culture-a large number of immigrants from Franks, Slavs and Germans changed the management and training form of Roman legions in military camps. Taken together, various objective historical indications show that the cultural blending between Frank and ancient Rome produced a brand-new medieval culture, and French culture played an indispensable role in the mainstream culture of the Middle Ages, while ancient Roman culture and French culture were equal and complementary: France was glorified by ancient Roman culture and evolved into cultural assimilation or progress, while ancient Rome learned from Frank's massive immigrants the way barbarians trained troops and managed people and even their cultural characteristics, thus consolidating the Roman Empire's rule over the people.
Holiday date 65438+ 10 month 1 new year's day.
-Good Friday? QuestSunday, the exact date has not been fixed.
-Esther Lundy de Poo? On Monday, the exact date has not been determined.
May 1 labor day
May 8 Victory Day 1945 Victoire 1945
-Thursday, the ascension day of Jesus, the exact date is not fixed.
Pentecost. Pentecost? On Sunday, the exact date has not been determined.
July 14 National Day
August 15 Our Lady ascensiontide
1 65438+1October1Holy Spirit Day Dusan
165438+1October1World War I armistice1918 "1918 cease-fire day"
65438+February 25th Christmas? l