1.
Regions of France
–
France is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, the term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986. In 2016, the number of regions was reduced from 27 to 18 through amalgamation, in 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 with effect from 1 January 2016. However, the region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called Normandy. Permanent names were to be proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016, the legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to Centre-Val de Loire with effect from January 2015. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names, between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four regions, in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth. Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law and they levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a council made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections. A regions primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools, in March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the costs. In addition, regions have considerable power over infrastructural spending, e. g. education, public transit, universities and research. This has meant that the heads of regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions. Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986, Overseas region is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Radio France Internationale in English Overseas regions Ministère de lOutre-Mer some explanations about the past and current developments of DOMs and TOMs
Regions of France
2.
Flag of Aquitaine
–
The coat of arms of the Angevin dynasty has varied over time, but always included a lion. The first historical coat of arms is that of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, depicted as azure, in 1340, Edward III of England adopted gules, three lions passants guardants or as the Royal Arms of England. These attributed arms are not to be confused with the coat of arms borne by the Capetian House of Anjou created by Louis IX of France for his brother for Charles I of Naples in 1247. The two lions were retrospectively to Henry II, and they were described as the flag of Normandy by Meurgey, in 2010, Monnaie de Paris issued a 10 Euro coin with this design as representing the region of Aquitaine. Angevin kings of England Armorial of Plantagenet Counts and dukes of Anjou
Flag of Aquitaine
–
Coat of arms of Aquitaine
3.
Coat of arms of Aquitaine
–
The coat of arms of the Angevin dynasty has varied over time, but always included a lion. The first historical coat of arms is that of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, depicted as azure, in 1340, Edward III of England adopted gules, three lions passants guardants or as the Royal Arms of England. These attributed arms are not to be confused with the coat of arms borne by the Capetian House of Anjou created by Louis IX of France for his brother for Charles I of Naples in 1247. The two lions were retrospectively to Henry II, and they were described as the flag of Normandy by Meurgey, in 2010, Monnaie de Paris issued a 10 Euro coin with this design as representing the region of Aquitaine. Angevin kings of England Armorial of Plantagenet Counts and dukes of Anjou
Coat of arms of Aquitaine
–
Coat of arms of Aquitaine
4.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
5.
Prefectures in France
–
There are 101 prefectures in France, one for each department. The official in charge is the prefect, the prefect represents the national government at the local level and as such exercises the powers that are constitutionally attributed to the national government. The prefect issues ordinances written for the application of law, to close a building that does not conform to safety codes. In the past, the prefect was head of the department, but since 1982, there is an exception in Paris and its three surrounding departments. These departments are administered by a prefecture for law enforcement and security purposes, called the Prefecture of Police. The power of law enforcement is usually invested in the mayor in other French communes, the departments are divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons. The chef-lieu darrondissement is the subprefecture, the official in charge is the subprefect (French, sous-préfet. Cantons have relatively few competences, the most important one being the local organisation of elections, administrative divisions of France French National Police
Prefectures in France
–
Petite Couronne
6.
Bordeaux
–
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France. The municipality of Bordeaux proper has a population of 243,626, together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Bordeaux is the centre of the Bordeaux Métropole. With 749,595 inhabitants and 1,178,335 in the area, it is the fifth largest in France, after Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department and its inhabitants are called Bordelais or Bordelaises. The term Bordelais may also refer to the city and its surrounding region, Bordeaux is the worlds major wine industry capital. It is home to the main wine fair, Vinexpo. Bordeaux wine has been produced in the region since the 8th century, the historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble of the 18th century. After Paris, Bordeaux has the highest number of preserved buildings of any city in France. In historical times, around 300 BC it was the settlement of a Celtic tribe, the Bituriges Vivisci, the name Bourde is still the name of a river south of the city. In 107 BC, the Battle of Burdigala was fought by the Romans who were defending the Allobroges, a Gallic tribe allied to Rome, the Romans were defeated and their commander, the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus, was killed in the action. The city fell under Roman rule around 60 BC, its importance lying in the commerce of tin, later it became capital of Roman Aquitaine, flourishing especially during the Severan dynasty. In 276 it was sacked by the Vandals, further ravage was brought by the same Vandals in 409, the Visigoths in 414 and the Franks in 498, beginning a period of obscurity for the city. In the late 6th century, the city re-emerged as the seat of a county and an archdiocese within the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks, the city started to play a regional role as a major urban center on the fringes of the newly founded Frankish Duchy of Vasconia. Around 585, a certain Gallactorius is cited as count of Bordeaux, the city was plundered by the troops of Abd er Rahman in 732 after storming the fortified city and overwhelming the Aquitanian garrison. After Duke Eudess defeat, the Aquitanian duke could still save part of its troops, the following year, the Frankish commander descended again over Aquitaine, but clashed in battle with the Aquitanians and left to take on hostile Burgundian authorities and magnates. In 745, Aquitaine faced yet another expedition by Charles sons Pepin and Carloman against Hunald, Hunald was defeated, and his son Waifer replaced him, who in turn confirmed Bordeaux as the capital city. During the last stage of the war against Aquitaine, it was one of Waifers last important strongholds to fall to King Pepin the Shorts troops. Next to Bordeaux, Charlemagne built the fortress of Fronsac on a hill across the border with the Basques, in 778, Seguin was appointed count of Bordeaux, probably undermining the power of the Duke Lupo, and possibly leading to the Battle of Roncevaux Pass that very year
Bordeaux
–
Clockwise from top:
Place de la Bourse by the
Garonne, Allees du Tourny and Maison de Vin,
Pierre Bridge on the Garonne, Meriadeck Commercial Centre, front of Palais Rohan Hotel, and
Saint-Andre Cathedral with
Bordeaux Tramway
Bordeaux
Bordeaux
–
Coins of the
Bituriges Vivisci, 5th–1st century BC, derived from the coin designs of
Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul.
Cabinet des Médailles.
Bordeaux
–
Merovingian tremisses minted in Bordeaux by the Church of Saint-Étienne, late 6th century.
British Museum.
7.
Departments of France
–
In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to April 2015, they were called general councils, the departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity, the title department is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after geographical features rather than after historical or cultural territories which could have their own loyalties. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson and they have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. Most French departments are assigned a number, the Official Geographical Code. Some overseas departments have a three-digit number, the number is used, for example, in the postal code, and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. For example, inhabitants of Loiret might refer to their department as the 45 and this reform project has since been abandoned. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René dArgenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées infrastructure administration, before the French Revolution, France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the close of the Ancien Régime, it was organised into provinces, during the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Their boundaries served two purposes, Boundaries were chosen to break up Frances historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences, Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a days ride of the capital of the department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the national territory under close control. This measure was directly inspired by the Great Terror, during which the government had lost control of rural areas far from any centre of government. The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments, most were named after an areas principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine, the number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire. Following Napoleons defeats in 1814-1815, the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size, in 1860, France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice, the 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe, Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
Departments of France
–
Geometrical proposition rejected
Departments of France
–
The 101 departments of France
Departments of France
–
The three Algerian departments in 1848
8.
Dordogne
–
Dordogne is a department in southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. The department is located in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, and is named after the great Dordogne river that runs through it and it roughly corresponds with the ancient county of Périgord. The county of Périgord dates back to when the area was inhabited by the Gauls and it was originally home to four tribes, the name for four tribes in the Gaulish language was Petrocore. The area eventually known as the county of Le Périgord. The Petrocores took part in the resistance against Rome, the earliest cluzeaux, artificial caves either above or below ground, can be found throughout the Dordogne. These subterranean refuges and lookout huts were large enough to shelter entire local populations, according to Julius Caesar the Gauls took refuge in these caves during the resistance. After Guienne province was transferred to the English Crown under the Plantagenets following the remarriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, the county had been torn apart and, as a consequence, that modeled its physiognomy. During the calmer periods of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the finest Gothic and Renaissance residences were built in Périgueux, Bergerac and Sarlat. In the countryside, the nobility had the majority of the more than 1200 chateaux, manors, at the time, Bergerac was one of the most powerful Huguenot strongholds, along with La Rochelle. and even Josephine Baker. A number of ruins have retained the memory of the tragedies took place within their walls. Several of the castles and châteaux are open to visitors and some of such as Bourdeilles and Mareuil. Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, Connezac, Saint-Jean-de-Côle, La Roque-Gageac and many others are real jewels of architecture, as for the old quarters of Périgueux or Bergerac, restored and developed into pedestrian areas, they have regained their former charm. A number of towns, such as Brantôme, Issigeac, Eymet. A special mention should be made in respect to Sarlat. Dordogne is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790 during the French Revolution and it was included from the former province of Périgord, the county of Périgord. Its borders would continue to change over the subsequent decades, in 1793 the communes of Boisseuilh, Coubjours, Génis, Payzac, Saint-Cyr-les-Champagnes, Saint-Mesmin, Salagnac, Savignac, Saint-Trié and Teillots were transferred from Corrèze to Dordogne. In 1794 Dordogne ceded Cavarc to Lot-et-Garonne, later in 1794 Dordogne gained Parcoul from Charente-Inférieure. Following the restoration, in 1819, the commune of Bonrepos was suppressed and merged with the adjacent commune of Souillac in Lot, but at some stage the victim died, and following a trial four individuals identified as culpable were in turn condemned to die by guillotine
Dordogne
–
Prefecture building of the Dordogne department, in
Périgueux
Dordogne
–
Dordogne River near
Castelnaud-la-Chapelle
Dordogne
–
Périgueux
Dordogne
–
Château de Beynac
9.
Gironde
–
Gironde is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwest France. It is named for the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, the Bordeaux wine region is in the Gironde. Gironde is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 and it was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascony. From 1793 to 1795, the name was changed to Bec-dAmbès to avoid the association with the revolutionary party. Gironde is part of the current region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and is surrounded by the departments of Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne and Charente-Maritime, with an area of 10,000 km², Gironde is the largest department in metropolitan France. If overseas departments are included, however, Girondes land area is dwarfed by the 83,846 km² of Guyane, Gironde is well known for the Côte dArgent beach which is Europes longest, attracting many surfers to Lacanau each year. It is also the birthplace of Jacques-Yves Cousteau who studied the sea, the Great Dune of Pyla in Arcachon Bay near Bordeaux is the tallest sand dune in Europe. The President of the General Council is Jean-Luc Gleyze of the Socialist Party
Gironde
–
Prefecture building of the Gironde department, in Bordeaux
Gironde
–
Bordeaux
Gironde
–
Bordeaux wine
Gironde
–
The Great Dune of Pyla
10.
Landes (department)
–
Landes is a department in southwestern France. Landes is one of the original 83 departments that were created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 and it was created from parts of the provinces of Guyenne and Gascony. During the first part of the century large parts of the department were covered with poorly drained heathland which is the origin of its name. The vegetation covered rich soil and was burned off, leaving excellent pasturage for sheep. The sheep were managed by shepherds who moved around on stilts, most of the sheep departed during the second half of the nineteenth century when systematic development of large pine plantations transformed the landscape and the local economy. The Nobel Prize–winning novelist François Mauriac set his novels in the Landes, Landes is part of the current region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and is surrounded by the departments of Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Gers, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques, as well as the Atlantic Ocean on the west. With an area stretching over more than 9000 km², Landes is, after Gironde and it is well known for the Côte dArgent beach which is Europes longest, and attracts many surfers to Mimizan and Hossegor each year. The President of the General Council is Henri Emmanuelli of the Socialist Party, in terms of agriculture, Landes is known for its large pine forests which are the raw material for a timber and resin industries in the region. The forests were planted in the nineteenth century to prevent erosion of the regions sandy soil by the sea. Cantons of the Landes department Communes of the Landes department Arrondissements of the Landes department Prefecture website Conseil Général website Landes at DMOZ
Landes (department)
–
Prefecture building of the Landes department, in Mont-de-Marsan
Landes (department)
–
Mont-de-Marsan
Landes (department)
–
Surfer in
Hossegor
Landes (department)
–
Beach near
Messanges
11.
Lot-et-Garonne
–
Lot-et-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Lot and Garonne rivers. Lot-et-Garonne is one of the original departments created on March 4,1790. It was created from part of the province of Guyenne and Gascony, several of the original southeastern cantons in the arrondissements of Agen and Villeneuve-sur-Lot were separated from it in 1808 to become a part of the newly created department of Tarn-et-Garonne. Lot-et-Garonne is part of the current region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and is surrounded by the departments of Lot, Tarn-et-Garonne, Gers, Landes, Gironde, the north of the department is composed by limestone hills. Between Lot and Garonne, there is a plateau carved by many valleys, in the west of the department, the Landes forest is planted in the sand. Between the forest and Agen, there is the Albret, a very hilly. Food-processing, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals are all major industries of the department, the inhabitants of the department are called Lot-et-Garonnais
Lot-et-Garonne
–
Prefecture building of the Lot-et-Garonne department, in Agen
Lot-et-Garonne
–
Agen
Lot-et-Garonne
–
Marmande
Lot-et-Garonne
–
Villeneuve-sur-Lot
12.
Socialist Party (France)
–
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France, and the largest party of the French centre-left. The PS is one of the two major political parties in France, along with the Republicans. The Socialist Party replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers International in 1969, the PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance. The PS first won power in 1981, when its candidate François Mitterrand was elected President of France in the 1981 presidential election, under Mitterrand, the party achieved a governing majority in the National Assembly from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993. In 2007, the candidate for the presidential election, Ségolène Royal, was defeated by conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. Then, the Socialist party won most of regional and local elections, in 2016, the party had 42,300 members. In 2014, the party had 60,000 members, in 2012 the party had 173,486 members. The defeat of the Paris commune greatly reduced the power and influence of socialist movements in France and its leaders were killed or exiled. Frances first socialist party, the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France, was founded in 1879 and it was characterised as possibilist because it promoted gradual reforms. Two parties split off from it, in 1882, the French Workers Party of Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, at the same time, the heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui, a symbol of the French revolutionary tradition, created the Central Revolutionary Committee led by Édouard Vaillant. There were also some declared socialist deputies such as Alexandre Millerand, in 1899, the participation of Millerand in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseaus cabinet caused a debate about socialist participation in a bourgeois government. In 1905, during the Globe Congress, the two merged in the French Section of the Workers International. Leader of the group and director of the party paper LHumanité. The party was hemmed in between the liberals of the Radical Party and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade unions. Together with the Radicals, who wished to install laicism, the SFIO was a component of the Left Block without to sit in the government, in 1906, the General Confederation of Labour trade union claimed its independence from all political parties. The French socialists were strongly anti-war, but following the assassination of Jaurès in 1914 they were unable to resist the wave of militarism which followed the outbreak of World War I and they suffered a severe split over participation in the wartime government of national unity. In 1919 the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections, the right wing, led by Léon Blum, kept the old house and remained in the SFIO. In 1924 and in 1932, the Socialists joined with the Radicals in the Coalition of the Left, the question of the possibility of a government participation with Radicals caused the split of neosocialists at the beginning of the 1930s
Socialist Party (France)
–
From left to right:
Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
Bertrand Delanoë and
Ségolène Royal sitting in the front row at a meeting held on 6 Feb 2007 by the French Socialist Party at the Carpentier Hall in Paris.
Socialist Party (France)
–
Socialist Party Parti socialiste
13.
Daylight saving time
–
Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
Daylight saving time
–
Ancient
water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
–
G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
–
Retailers generally favor DST.
United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
–
William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
14.
Central European Summer Time
–
It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
Central European Summer Time
–
light blue
15.
Gross domestic product
–
Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
Gross domestic product
–
Selection of GDP PPP data (top 10 countries and blocks) in no particular order
16.
First level NUTS of the European Union
–
The Classification of Territorial Units for Statistics, is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard was developed by the European Union, there are three levels of NUTS defined, with two levels of local administrative units below. Not all countries have every level of division, depending on their size, one of the most extreme cases is Luxembourg, which has only LAUs, the three NUTS divisions each correspond to the entire country itself. Below are the first level NUTS regions of the European Union
First level NUTS of the European Union
–
AT1
17.
Occitan language
–
Occitan, also known as lenga dòc by its native speakers, is a Romance language. It is spoken in southern France, Italys Occitan Valleys, Monaco, and Spains Val dAran, collectively, Occitan is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese. However, there is controversy about the unity of the language, others include Catalan in this family, as the distance between this language and some Occitan dialects is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects. In fact, Catalan was considered an Occitan dialect until the end of the 19th century, today, Occitan is an official language in Catalonia, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken in the Val dAran. Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the preferred language for use in the Val dAran. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish, there is no written standard language called Occitan. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility, the long-term survival of Occitan is in grave doubt. According to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, four of the six dialects of Occitan are considered severely endangered. The name Occitan comes from lenga dòc, òc being the Occitan word for yes and this was not, of course, the only defining characteristic of each group. The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc, while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud, Old Catalan, and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc. Other Romance languages derive their word for yes from the Latin sic, thus, etc. such as Spanish sí, Eastern Lombard sé, Sicilian and Italian sì, or Portuguese sim. French uses si to answer yes in response to questions that are asked in the negative sense, the name Occitan is sometimes considered a neologism, however, it was attested around 1300 as occitanus, a crossing of oc and aquitanus. For many centuries, the Occitan dialects were referred to as Limousin or Provençal, after Frédéric Mistrals Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. The term first came into fashion in Italy, currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitania, keeping the name Occitan for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal, NO·L LI TOLRÀ NO·L LI DEVEDARÀ NI NO LEN DECEBRÀ. Nec societatem non AURÀ, si per castellum recuperare NON O FA, et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo LO TORNARÀ, carolingian litanies, both written and sung in Latin, were answered to in Old Occitan by the audience. Occitan was the vehicle for the poetry of the medieval troubadours and trobairises, At that time
Occitan language
–
Main cities of Occitania, written in the Occitan language
Occitan language
–
Occitan
Occitan language
–
"Speak French, Be Clean" written across the wall of a Southern French school
Occitan language
–
This bilingual street sign in
Toulouse, like many such signs found in historical parts of the city, is maintained primarily for its antique charm; it is typical of what little remains of the lenga d'òc in southern French cities.
18.
Basque language
–
Basque is the language spoken by the Basques. Linguistically, Basque is unrelated to the languages of Europe and indeed, as a language isolate. The Basques are indigenous to, and primarily inhabit, the Basque Country, the Basque language is spoken by 27% of Basques in all territories. Of these, 93% are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country, native speakers live in a contiguous area that includes parts of four Spanish territories and the three ancient provinces in France. However, in those Basque-speaking regions that supported the uprising the Basque language was more than merely tolerated, overall, in the 1960s and later, the trend reversed and education and publishing in Basque began to flourish. As a part of process, a standardized form of the Basque language. Besides its standardised version, the five historic Basque dialects are Biscayan, Gipuzkoan, and Upper Navarrese in Spain and they take their names from the historic Basque provinces, but the dialect boundaries are not congruent with province boundaries. Euskara Batua was created so that Basque language could be easily understood by all Basque speakers—in formal situations. In both Spain and France, the use of Basque for education varies from region to region, a language isolate, Basque is believed to be one of the few surviving pre-Indo-European languages in Europe, and the only one in Western Europe. Basque has adopted a good deal of its vocabulary from the Romance languages, the Basque alphabet uses the Latin script. In Basque, the name of the language is officially Euskara, three etymological theories of the name Euskara are taken seriously by linguists and Vasconists. In French, the language is normally called basque, though in recent times euskara has become common, Spanish has a greater variety of names for the language. Today, it is most commonly referred to as el vasco, la lengua vasca, both terms, vasco and basque, are inherited from Latin ethnonym Vascones, which in turn goes back to the Greek term οὐασκώνους, an ethnonym used by Strabo in his Geographica. The Spanish term Vascuence, derived from Latin vasconĭce, has acquired negative connotations over the centuries and is not well-liked amongst Basque speakers generally, Basque is geographically surrounded by Romance languages but is a language isolate unrelated to them. It is the last remaining descendant of one of the languages of Western Europe. Consequently, its prehistory may not be reconstructible by means of the comparative method except by applying it to differences between dialects within the language. Little is known of its origins, but a form of the Basque language likely was present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages to the area. Others find this unlikely, see the aizkora controversy, Latin inscriptions in Gallia Aquitania preserve a number of words with cognates in the reconstructed proto-Basque language, for instance, the personal names Nescato and Cison
Basque language
–
Family transmission of Basque language (Basque as initial language)
Basque language
–
Schematic dialect areas of Basque. Light-colored dialects are extinct. See dialects below for details.
Basque language
–
An example of Basque lettering in a funerary stela.
Basque language
–
An example of the number system employed by millers.
19.
Metropolitan France
–
Metropolitan France, also known as European France, is the part of France in Europe. It comprises mainland France and nearby islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, Overseas France is the collective name for the part of France outside Europe, French overseas regions, territories, collectivities, and the sui generis collectivity of New Caledonia. Metropolitan France and Overseas France together form the French Republic, Metropolitan France accounts for 82. 2% of the land territory,3. 3% of the exclusive economic zone, and 95. 9% of the population of the French Republic. The five overseas regions—Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion, French Guiana, in overseas France, a person from metropolitan France is often called a métro, short for métropolitain. Similar terms existed to describe other European colonial powers and this usage of the words metropolis and metropolitan itself came from Ancient Greek metropolis, which was the name for a city-state from which originated colonies across the Mediterranean. By extension metropolis and metropolitan came to mean motherland, a nation or country as opposed to its colonies overseas, today there are some people in overseas France who object to the use of the term la France métropolitaine due to its colonial origins. They prefer to call it the European territory of France, as the Treaties of the European Union do, likewise, they oppose treating overseas France and metropolitan France as separate entities. As a result, since the end of the 1990s INSEE has included the five departments in its figures for France. Other branches of the French administration may have different definitions of what la France entière is, the World Bank refers to this as France only, and not the whole of France as INSEE does. According to the French government,64,860,000 people lived in metropolitan France as of January 2017, Metropolitan France covers a land area of 551,695 km². At sea, the economic zone of metropolitan France covers 334,604 km², while the EEZ of overseas France covers 9,821,231 km². In the second round of the 2007 French presidential election,37,342,004 French people cast a ballot. 35,907,015 of these cast their ballots in metropolitan France,1,088,679 cast their ballots in overseas France, and 346,310 cast their ballots in foreign countries. The French National Assembly is made up of 577 deputies,539 of whom are elected in metropolitan France,27 in overseas France, and 11 by French citizens living in foreign countries. Mainland France, or just the mainland, does not include the French islands in the Atlantic Ocean, English Channel or Mediterranean Sea, in Corsica, people from the mainland part of Metropolitan France are referred to as les continentaux. A casual synonym for the part of Metropolitan France is lHexagone, for its approximate shape. French colonial empire Mainland Wildlife of Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France
–
Metropolitan France
20.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of
Portugal
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean, not including
Arctic and
Antarctic regions
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Atlantic Ocean
–
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.
21.
Pyrenees
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The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain. For the most part, the main crest forms a divide between France and Spain, with the microstate of Andorra sandwiched in between. The Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre have historically extended on both sides of the range, with smaller northern portions now in France and larger southern parts now in Spain. The demonym for the noun Pyrenees in English is Pyrenean, in Greek mythology, Pyrene is a princess who gave her name to the Pyrenees. The Greek historian Herodotus says Pyrene is the name of a town in Celtic Europe, Hercules, characteristically drunk and lustful, violates the sacred code of hospitality and rapes his hosts daughter. Pyrene gives birth to a serpent and runs away to the woods, alone, she pours out her story to the trees, attracting the attention of wild beasts who tear her to pieces. After his victory over Geryon, Hercules passes through the kingdom of Bebryx again, and all the rock-cliffs and wild-beast haunts echo back Pyrene. … The mountains hold on to the name through the ages. Pliny the Elder connects the story of Hercules and Pyrene to Lusitania, the Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces, from east to west, Girona, Barcelona, Lleida, Huesca, Navarra and Gipuzkoa. The French Pyrenees are part of the following départements, from east to west, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, the independent principality of Andorra is sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees. Physiographically, the Pyrenees may be divided into three sections, the Atlantic, the Central, and the Eastern Pyrenees, together, they form a distinct physiographic province of the larger Alpine System division. In the Western Pyrenees, from the Basque mountains near the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean, at the eastern end on the southern side lies a distinct area known as the Sub-Pyrenees. On the French side the slopes of the range descend abruptly. The Pyrenees are older than the Alps, their sediments were first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, the intense pressure and uplifting of the Earths crust first affected the eastern part and moved progressively to the entire chain, culminating in the Eocene Epoch. The eastern part of the Pyrenees consists largely of granite and gneissose rocks, the massive and unworn character of the chain comes from its abundance of granite, which is particularly resistant to erosion, as well as weak glacial development. Low passes are lacking, and the roads and the railroads between France and Spain run only in the lowlands at the western and eastern ends of the Pyrenees. A notable visual feature of mountain range is La Brèche de Roland, a gap in the ridge line. Coal deposits capable of being profitably worked are situated chiefly on the Spanish slopes, the open pit of Trimoun close to the commune of Luzenac is one of the greatest sources of talc in Europe
Pyrenees
–
Central Pyrenees
Pyrenees
–
Composite satellite image of the Pyrenees (
NASA)
Pyrenees
–
Pico del Aneto, the highest mountain of the Pyrenees.
Pyrenees
–
Pic de Bugatet in the
Néouvielle massif
22.
Spain
–
By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
Spain
–
Lady of Elche
Spain
–
Flag
Spain
–
Altamira Cave paintings, in
Cantabria.
Spain
–
Celtic castro in
A Guarda,
Galicia.
23.
Middle Ages
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
Middle Ages
–
The
Cross of Mathilde, a
crux gemmata made for
Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the
enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in
Cologne or
Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques:
cast figurative sculpture,
filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical
cameos and
engraved gems.
Middle Ages
–
A late Roman statue
depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in
Venice
Middle Ages
–
Coin of
Theodoric
Middle Ages
–
Mosaic showing
Justinian with
the bishop of
Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers
24.
Gallia Aquitania
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Gallia Aquitania, also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France, where it gives its name to the region of Aquitaine. It was bordered by the provinces of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gallia Narbonensis, fourteen Celtic tribes and twenty Aquitanian tribes occupied the northern parts of the Pyrenees and, from the country of the Cemmenus to the ocean, bounded by two rivers, the Garumna and the Liger. The major tribes are listed at the end of this section, most of the Atlantic coast of the Aquitani was sandy and thin-soiled, it grew millet, but was unproductive with respect to other products. Along this coast was also the gulf held by the Tarbelli, in their land, large quantities of gold could be mined with a minimum of refinement. The interior and mountainous country in this region had better soil, the Petrocorii and the Bituriges Cubi had fine ironworks, the Cadurci had linen factories, the Ruteni and the Gabales had silver mines. According to Strabo, the Aquitani were a wealthy people, the Romans called the tribal groups pagi. These were organized into larger groups that the Romans called civitates. These administrative groupings were later taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, Gaul as a nation was not a natural unit. In order to protect the route to Spain, Rome helped Massalia against bordering tribes, following this intervention, the Romans conquered what they called Provincia, or the ‘Province’ in 121 BC. Provincia extended from the Mediterranean to Lake Geneva, and was known as Narbonensis with its capital at Narbo. Some of the falls into modern Provence, still recalling the Roman name. The main struggle against the Romans came against Julius Caesar under Vercingetorix at Battle of Gergovia, the Gaulish commander was captured at the siege of Alesia and the war ended. Caesar seized the remainder of Gaul, justifying his conquest by playing on Roman memories of savage attacks over the Alps by Celts, italy was now to be defended from the Rhine. Caesar named Aquitania the triangle shaped territory between the Ocean, the Pyrenees and the Garonne river and he fought and almost completely subdued them in 56 BC after Publius Crassuss military exploits assisted by Celtic allies. New rebellions ensued anyway up to 27-28 BC, with Agrippa gaining a victory over the Gauls of Aquitania in 38 BC. It was the smallest region of all three mentioned above, following that a land stretching to the Loire River was added by Augustus. This reorganization took place after the census conducted in 27 BC, based on Agrippas observations of language, race, at this point, Aquitania along with Narbonensis, Lugdunensis and Belgica now made up Gallia and became an imperial province
Gallia Aquitania
–
Sestertius of
Hadrian found in the
Garonne near
Burdigala, from a shipwreck of 155/56 AD
Gallia Aquitania
–
The province of Gallia Aquitania within the Roman Empire, c. 117 AD
25.
Duchy of Aquitaine
–
It originated in the 7th century as a duchy of Francia, ultimately a recreation of the Roman provinces of Aquitania Prima and Secunda. It reappeared as a duchy, and in the High Middle Ages and their claims in France triggered the Hundred Years War, in which the kingdom of France emerged victorious in the 1450s, with many incorporated areas coming to be ruled directly by the French kings. Gallia Aquitania fell under Visigothic rule in the 5th century and it was conquered by the Franks under Clovis I in 507, as a result of the Battle of Vouillé. During the 6th and early 7th century, it was direct rule of Frankish kings. Under Chlothar II, Aquitaine was again part of Francia. This subkingdom, consisting of Gascony and the fringe of Aquitaine proper, is conventionally known as Aquitaine. Charibert campaigned successfully against the Basques, but after his death in 632, the duchy of Aquitaine as a quasi-independent realm within the Frankish empire established itself during the second half of the 7th century, certainly by 700 under Odo the Great. The first duke is on record under the name of Felix, as his successor Lupus, he probably owed allegiance to the Frankish kings. Odo succeeded Lupus in 700 and signed a treaty with Charles Martel. He inflicted on the Moors a crushing defeat at the Battle of Toulouse in 721, however, Charles Martel coveted the southern realm, crossed the Loire in 731 and looted much of Aquitaine. Odo engaged the Franks in battle, but lost and came out weakened, soon after this battle, in 732, the Moors raided Vasconia and Aquitaine as far north as Poitiers and defeated Odo twice near Bordeaux. Odo saw no option but to invoke the aid of Charles Martel, Odo was succeeded by his son Hunald, who reverted to former independence, so defying the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Charles Martels authority. The Carolingian leader attacked Hunald twice in 735 and 736, but was unable to subdue the duke. Eventually, Hunald retired to a monastery, leaving both the kingdom and the conflict to Waifer, or Guaifer. For some years Waifer strenuously carried on a struggle with the Franks. As a consequence, male-preference primogeniture was the succession law for the nobility. The autonomous and troublesome duchy of Aquitaine was conquered by the Franks in 769, in order to avoid a new demonstration of Aquitain particularism, Charlemagne decided to organize the land within his kingdom. In 781, he made his son, Louis then 3 years of age
Duchy of Aquitaine
–
Aquitaine after the Battle of Poitiers (734-743)
Duchy of Aquitaine
–
Flag
26.
Duchy of Gascony
–
The Duchy of Gascony or Duchy of Vasconia, was a duchy in present southwestern France and northeastern Spain, part corresponding to the modern region of Gascony after 824. The Duchy of Gascony, then known as Wasconia, was originally a Frankish march formed to sway over the Basques. In the Hundred Years War, Charles V of France conquered most of Gascony by 1380, the corresponding portion within Spain became part of the Basque Kingdom of Navarre. Gascony was the territory of Roman Gallia Aquitania. This province, by the 2nd century, was extended to much of western Roman Gaul. Thus, the name of the Aquitani came to be transferred to the territory of central-western France later known as the Duchy of Aquitaine, in 293, Diocletian re-created the original province of Caesars Aquitania under the name of Novempopulania or Aquitania Tertia. Around 580, both the Visigothic kingdom and the kingdom of the Franks launched major campaigns against the Basques, in 587 Basques are cited as raiding the plains of Aquitaine, maybe to the west of Toulouse. Chilperic I sent his duke Bladastes stationed in Toulouse, but was defeated and this military push from a stronger centralized authority in Toledo placed more pressure on the Basques to get off the Ebro rich farmland than those already stretching all the way to the Garonne. In this period, the count of Bordeaux Galactorius is cited as fighting the Basques, who are portrayed as hiding out in the mountains, in 602, the Merovingians created a frontier duchy to their southwest during the tripartite wars between Franks, Visigoths, and Basques. A certain Genial was then appointed dux wasconum as a way of handling their relations with the Basques. At the same time, the Visigoths created the Duchy of Cantabria as a buffer against the Basques inhabiting west of current Navarre, about this period duke Francio is reported to vow allegiance to the Franks in Cantabria, an area inhabited by the Basques, but c. 612, the Gothic king Sisebut seems to have conquered the territory, in the years 610 and 612 respectively, the Gothic kings Gundemar and Sisebut launched attacks against the Basques. After a Basque attack in the Ebro valley in the year 621, Swinthila defeated them, however, the Basques relish was short-lived since they were brought to heel by Dagobert. By 626, it is certain that the extended up to the Pyrenees. In 643, there was another rebellion to the north of the Pyrenees and in 642 and 654 they battled against the Visigoths to the south, in Saragossa. From 589 to 684, the Bishop of Pamplona was absent from the Visigothic Councils of Toledo, under Felix and his successors, Frankish overlordship over these lands became merely nominal, and Vasconia became a prominent regional power. Independent dukes Lupus, Odo, Hunald and Waifer succeeded him respectively and their ethnicity is not certain, since records and their names are not conclusive. But the Umayyad invasion of 711 effected a shift in trends
Duchy of Gascony
–
Duchy of Vasconia after the Battle of Poitiers (734-743)
Duchy of Gascony
–
The duchy of Gascony (green) in 1150
Duchy of Gascony
–
Duchy of Vasconia and both sides of the Pyrenees (760)
27.
Aquitani
–
They were an ancient non-Indo-European population that lived in the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. They spoke the Aquitanian language, related to Old Basque, Classical authors such as Julius Caesar and Strabo clearly distinguish them from the other peoples of Gaul and Hispania. With the process of Romanization, in the centuries of Roman Empire, they adopted the Latin Language and their old language, the Aquitanian language, was the substrate for the Gascon language spoken in Gascony. All these differ from other in language, customs and laws. uchicago. edu/Thayer/E/Roman/home. html -51 complete works of authors from Classical Antiquity. Http, //penelope. uchicago. edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Caesar/Gallic_War/home. html - Julius Caesar text of De Bello Gallico, http, //penelope. uchicago. edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/home. html - Pliny the Elder text of Naturalis Historia - books 3-6. Http, //penelope. uchicago. edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/home. html - Strabos text of De Geographica, Aquitanian language Novempopulania Gallia Aquitania Duchy of Vasconia Vascones Iberians Gascony Late Basquisation Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
Aquitani
–
The tribes confederated as the Aquitani and other
pre-Indo-European tribes are in black
28.
Celts
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The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe. Thus this area is called the Celtic homeland. The earliest undisputed examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names, Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although it was clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century, coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, survive in 12th century recensions. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a cohesive cultural entity. They had a linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use, Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels and the Celtic Britons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival. The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί – to refer to a group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC. In the fifth century BC Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube, the etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European *kʲel ‘to hide’, IE *kʲel ‘to heat’ or *kel ‘to impel’, several authors have supposed it to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the group. Yet he reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and also uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani, pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. Latin Gallus might stem from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name originally and its root may be the Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning “power, strength”, hence Old Irish gal “boldness, ferocity” and Welsh gallu “to be able, power”. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Γαλάται most probably have the same origin, the suffix -atai might be an Ancient Greek inflection. Proto-Germanic *walha is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae and this means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region
Celts
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Celtic
stele from
Galicia, 2nd century AD: “APANA·AMBO / LLI· F(ilia)·CELTICA /
SUPERTAM(arica) · / (j) MIOBRI· / AN(norum)· XXV·H(ic)·S(ita)·E(st)· / APANUS·FR(ater)· F(aciendum)·C(uravit)”
Celts
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Core
Hallstatt territory, by the 6th century BC
Celts
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Reconstruction of a late La Tène period settlement in Altburg near
Bundenbach (1st century BC).
Celts
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Reconstruction of a late La Tène period settlement in
Havranok, Slovakia (2nd–1st century BC).
France
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