1.
Ardennes (department)
–
Ardennes is a department in the Grand Est region of northeastern France named after the Ardennes area. Its prefecture is the town Charleville-Mézières, the inhabitants of the department are known as Ardennais or Ardennaises. The department is surrounded by the French departments of Aisne to the west, Marne to the south, Meuse to the east and by the Belgian province of Namur to the north. It is traversed in its part by the winding valley of the Meuse and it is in this part of the department that the majority of people. Charleville-Mézières and Sedan are the urban centres. The department is part of the Academy of Reims and under the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Reims, the INSEE and Post Code is 08. With an area of 5,229 square kilometres, the Ardennes was the smallest of the four departments that made up the region Champagne-Ardenne and it nevertheless presents a degree of geographical diversity. The highest point of the department is 504m and is situated on the slopes of the Croix Scaille. It is in part of the Ardennes mountains that the Meuse winds through a picturesque valley. Flowing into the part of the Ardennes department it waters both upstream and downstream the main cities of Sedan, Charleville-Mézières, and Nouzonville. It has numerous tributaries – the main ones in the department being the Semois, the Ardennes department does not have a uniform climate throughout its territory especially not during the winter period. All this stems from the location of the department, which is midway between the English Channel, the North Sea and the interior of Europe and this difference can be easily observed in practice. This nuance of climate is also evident by the difference with the adjoining regions. Despite a high rate, the department continues to lose population,300,000 in 2000 due to high unemployment. The two world wars have each time resulted in a loss of population, there were 330,000 people at the end of the 19th century. The communes, however, are gaining inhabitants and this highly contemporary concept favours commuting between Home and Work. This is the phenomenon of suburbanization which has become common in the whole of France from which Ardennes does not escape, on 1 January 2006, the Ardennes population stood at 295,653 inhabitants. The population is declining in urban areas but five times less than in rural areas, the limited decline in the urban space where two thirds of the Ardennes people live is the result of two opposite dynamics
Ardennes (department)
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Prefecture building of the Ardennes department, in Charleville-Mézières
Ardennes (department)
–
A typical landscape of Champagne chalk in the south of the department.
Ardennes (department)
–
View of the Meuse valley in the north of the department at
Givet.
Ardennes (department)
–
The Picturesque farm of Porcien in the south-west of the department.
2.
Ardennes (horse)
–
The Ardennes or Ardennais is one of the oldest breeds of draft horse, and originates from the Ardennes area in Belgium, Luxembourg and France. They are heavy-boned with thick legs and are used for draft work, the Ardennes is found in many colors, although black horses are very rare and are not allowed to be registered with the breed registry. Their history reaches back to Ancient Rome, and throughout the blood from several other breeds has been added to the Ardennes. The first Ardennes were imported to the United States in the early 20th century, and they have also been used to influence or create several other horse breeds throughout Europe and Asia. In France, Ardennes stallions stand about 1.62 metres high and they weigh 700 to 1,000 kilograms. Their heads are heavy, with a face and a straight or slightly convex profile. Their conformation is broad and muscular, with a body, short back. Their coats may be bay, roan, chestnut, gray, bay and roan are the two most common colors. Black is very rare and is excluded from registration, white markings are small, usually restricted to a star or blaze. The breed matures early, and they are said to be easy keepers, the Ardennes is a free-moving, long-striding breed, despite their compact body structure. The Ardennes breed could be a descendent of the prehistoric Solutre horse. Caesar described these horses of Belgium as rustic, hard and tireless, the early type was used by many later Roman emperors for military applications. The breeds ancestors are thought to have bred for 2,000 years on the Ardennes plains. In the Roman era, the breed stood only around 14 hands high, later, Napoleon added Arabian blood to increase stamina and endurance and used the breed in his Russian campaign. In 1780, the breed stood only 1.42 to 1.52 metres. Percheron, Boulonnais and Thoroughbred blood were added, although they had little impact. In the 19th century, Belgian draft blood was added to give the breed the heavier conformation it has today, the breed increased in size from an average of 550 kilograms to their current weight, which at the same time had the consequence of reducing their vigor and endurance. Breed registries have been in existence since 1929, today there are three separate studbooks in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, although there is extensive interbreeding between the three
Ardennes (horse)
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Ardennes stallion
Ardennes (horse)
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Grazing Ardennes
Ardennes (horse)
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An Ardennes horse in harness
Ardennes (horse)
–
Equine science and management
3.
Semois River
–
The Semois is a river flowing from the Ardennes uplands of Belgium and France towards the River Meuse, of which it is a right tributary. The source of the Semois is in Arlon, in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, flowing in a roughly westerly direction, it enters France after passing through the Belgian village of Bohan-sur-Semois and joins the Meuse some 10 kilometres further downstream in Monthermé. The total length of the river is 210 kilometres, other places on the banks of the Semois are Chiny, Florenville, Herbeumont, Bouillon, and Vresse-sur-Semois. The earliest documentation of the name, as SESMARA, is dated from the 2nd century AD and that was before that region was influenced by significant Germanic immigration. Medieval forms include Sesomirs, Sesmarus, Sesmoys, and Semoir, the river has given its name to a variety of tobacco grown in the area. Http, //www. geoportail. fr The Semois at the Sandre database
Semois River
–
The Semois in
Bouillon
Semois River
–
Semois
Semois River
–
The Semois near Florenville
4.
Wallonia
–
Wallonia is a region of Belgium. Wallonia is primarily French-speaking, and accounts for 55% of the territory of Belgium, unlike Flanders, the Walloon Region was not merged with the French Community of Belgium which is the political entity that is responsible for matters related mainly to culture and education. The German-speaking minority in the east forms the German-speaking Community of Belgium, during the industrial revolution, Wallonia was second only to the United Kingdom in industrialization, capitalizing on its extensive deposits of coal and iron. This brought the wealth, and, from the beginning of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century. Since World War II the importance of industry has greatly diminished. Wallonia now suffers high unemployment and has a significantly lower GDP per capita than Flanders. The economic inequalities and linguistic divide between the two are major sources of conflict in Belgium and is a major factor in Flemish separatism. The capital of Wallonia is Namur but the city with the greatest population is Charleroi, most of Wallonias major cities and two-thirds of its population lie along the Sambre and Meuse valley, the former industrial backbone of Belgium. To the north lies the Central Belgian Plateau, which, like Flanders, is relatively flat, in the south-east lie the Ardennes, hilly and sparsely populated. Wallonia borders Flanders and the Netherlands in the north, France to the south and west, Wallonia has been a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie since 1980. The term Wallonia can mean different things in different contexts. One of the three regions of Belgium is still constitutionally defined as the Walloon Region, but the regions government has renamed it Wallonia. In practice, the difference between the two terms is small and what is meant is usually clear, based on context, the root of the word Wallonia, like the words Wales, Cornwall and Wallachia, is the Germanic word Walha, meaning the strangers. Wallonia is named after the Walloons, the population of the Burgundian Netherlands speaking Romance languages, in Middle Dutch, the term Walloons also included the French-speaking population of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège or the whole population of the Romanic sprachraum within the medieval Low Countries. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul in 57 BC, the Low Countries became part of the larger Gallia Belgica province which originally stretched from southwestern Germany to Normandy and the southern part of the Netherlands. The population of territory was Celtic with a Germanic influence which was stronger in the north than in the south of the province. The ancestors of the Walloons became Gallo-Romans and were called the Walha by their Germanic neighbours, the Walha abandoned their Celtic dialects and started to speak Vulgar Latin. The Merovingian Franks gradually gained control of the region during the 5th century, the language border began to crystallize between 700 under the reign of the Merovingians and Carolingians and around 1000 after the Ottonian Renaissance
Wallonia
–
The
Sequence of Saint Eulalia, the oldest surviving text written in what would become
Old French, likely originated in or near Wallonia.
Wallonia
–
Flag
Wallonia
–
Baptismal font of
Renier de Huy, an example of
Mosan art and of medieval Walloon brass working expertise.
Wallonia
–
The
Lion's Mound commemorates the
Battle of Waterloo, fought in present-day Wallonia. Belgium was united with the Netherlands following the
Napoleonic Wars.
5.
Belgium
–
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
Belgium
–
Charlemagne and
Charles V
Belgium
–
Flaga
Belgium
Belgium
–
Episode of the
Belgian Revolution of 1830 (1834), by
Egide Charles Gustave Wappers
6.
Luxembourg
–
Luxembourg /ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡ/, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east and its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. It comprises two regions, the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif. With an area of 2,586 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe, Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a monarch, it is headed by a Grand Duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country, with an advanced economy and the worlds highest GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors, in the following centuries, Luxembourgs fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the French. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between Prussia and the Netherlands and this arrangement was revised by the 1839 First Treaty of London, from which date Luxembourgs full independence is reckoned. In 1842 Luxembourg joined the German Customs Union, the King of the Netherlands remained Head of State as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, maintaining a personal union between the two countries until 1890. At the death of William III, the throne of the Netherlands passed to his daughter Wilhelmina and this allowed Germany the military advantage of controlling and expanding the railways there. In August 1914, Imperial Germany violated Luxembourgs neutrality in the war by invading it in the war against France and this allowed Germany to use the railway lines, while at the same time denying them to France. Nevertheless, despite the German occupation, Luxembourg was allowed to maintain much of its independence, in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Luxembourgs neutrality was again violated when the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany entered the country, entirely without justification. A government in exile based in London supported the Allies, sending a group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy invasion. Luxembourg was liberated in September 1944, and became a member of the United Nations in 1945. Luxembourgs neutral status under the constitution formally ended in 1948, in 2005, a referendum on the EU treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held
Luxembourg
–
Historic map (undated) of Luxembourg city's fortifications
Luxembourg
–
Flag
Luxembourg
–
Photograph of the fortress of Luxembourg prior to demolition in 1867
Luxembourg
–
Luxembourg City: The Passerelle, also known as the viaduct or old bridge, over the
Pétrusse river valley, opened 1861
7.
Departments in 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 in France
–
Geometrical proposition rejected
Departments in France
–
The 101 departments of France
Departments in France
–
The three Algerian departments in 1848
8.
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.
9.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
10.
French language
–
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
–
The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
–
Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
–
An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
11.
Dutch language
–
It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
Dutch language
–
The Utrecht baptismal vow Forsachistu diobolae...
Dutch language
–
Distribution of the Dutch language and its dialects in
Western Europe
Dutch language
–
Second edition of this column decorated with a title of
Charles V 's portrait, with archaic Dutch inscriptions
Dutch language
–
Dutch language street sign in the Netherlands
12.
Walloon language
–
It belongs to the langue doïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language. The historical background of its formation was the extension since 980 of the Principality of Liège to the south. Despite its rich literature, beginning anonymously in the 16th century and with well-known authors since 1756 and this period definitively established French as the language of social promotion, far more than it was before. Subsequently, since the middle of the 20th century, generational transmission of the language has decreased, today it is scarcely spoken among younger people. In 1996, the number of people with knowledge of the language was estimated at between 1 and 1.3 million, numerous associations, especially theatre companies, are working to keep the language alive. Formally recognized as a langue régionale endogène of Belgium since 1990, the Feller system regularized transcription of the different accents. Since the 1990s, a common orthography was established, which allowed large-scale publications, in 2004, a Walloon translation of a Tintin comic was released under the name Lèmerôde dal Castafiore, in 2007 an album consisting of Gaston Lagaffe comic strips was published in Walloon. Walloon is more distinct as a language than Belgian French, which differs from the French spoken in France only in minor points of vocabulary. Linguists had long classified Walloon as a dialect of French, which in turn is a langue doïl, like French, it descended from Vulgar Latin. The phonological divisions of regional languages of southern Belgium were studied by the contemporary linguist E. B and he defined the precise geographical repartition of the four chief dialects of Walloon. In addition, he defined them against the dialects of Picard, Lorrain, since then, most linguists, and gradually also Walloon politicians, regard Walloon as a regional language, the first in importance in Wallonia. It is the one to have originated from that part of Belgium. The eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica identified Walloon as the northern-most Romance language, Walloon is spoken in the Wallonia Region in Belgium. Although Walloon was widely spoken until the mid-20th century, today only a proportion of the inhabitants of the region are fluent in the language. Most younger people know more than a few idiomatic expressions. The Walloon language is part of the Walloon heritage, it is one component of Walloon identity. Despite local phonetic differences, there is a movement towards the adoption of a common spelling. This orthography is diasystemic, reflecting different pronunciations for different readers, the written forms attempt to reconcile current phonetic uses with ancient traditions and the languages own phonological logic
Walloon language
–
Hèsta, the Walloon name of the city of
Herstal
Walloon language
–
Walloon
Walloon language
–
An
auberge 's sign in
Crupet
Walloon language
–
Bilingual French-Wallon street sign in
Fosses-la-Ville
13.
Luxembourgish language
–
Luxembourgish, Luxemburgish or Letzeburgesch is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. Worldwide, about 390,000 people speak Luxembourgish, despite the lack of a sharp boundary between Luxembourgish and the neighboring German dialects, this has led several linguists to regard it as a separate, yet closely related language. Luxembourgish belongs to the West Central German group of High German languages and is the example of a Moselle Franconian language. Luxembourgish is the language of Luxembourg and one of three administrative languages, alongside French and German. Luxembourgish is also spoken in the Arelerland region of Belgium and in parts of Lorraine in France. In the German Eifel and Hunsrück regions, and in Lorraine, Moselle Franconian dialects outside the Luxembourg state border tend to have far fewer French loan words, and these mostly remain from the French Revolution. There are several distinct forms of Luxembourgish including Areler, Eechternoacher, Kliärrwer, Miseler, Stater, Veiner, Minetter and Weelzer. Further small vocabulary differences may be even between small villages. There is no distinct boundary between the use of Luxembourgish and the use of other closely related High German dialects, it instead forms a dialect continuum of gradual change. Spoken Luxembourgish is relatively hard to understand for speakers of German who are not familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects. However, they can read the language to some degree. For those Germans familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects, it is easy to understand. However, the number of French loanwords in Luxembourgish may hamper communication about certain topics. There is no intelligibility between Luxembourgish and French or any of the Romance dialects spoken in the adjacent parts of Belgium, erna Hennicot-Schoepges, President of the Christian Social Peoples Party of Luxembourg 1995–2003, was active in promoting the language beyond Luxembourgs borders. A number of proposals for standardising the orthography of Luxembourgish can be documented, there was no officially recognised system, however, until the adoption of the OLO on 5 June 1946. The rules explicitly rejected certain elements of German orthography, similarly, new principles were adopted for the spelling of French loanwords. A more successful standard eventually emerged from the work of the committee of specialists charged with the task of creating the Luxemburger Wörterbuch, published in 5 volumes between 1950 and 1977. The orthographic conventions adopted in this project, set out in Bruch
Luxembourgish language
–
Approx. 2 meters high installation in the
Justus-Lipsius building during the
Luxembourgish EU-Presidency, first half of 2005
Luxembourgish language
–
Area where Luxembourgish (striped) and related
Moselle Franconian is spoken (solid).
14.
Forest
–
A forest is a large area dominated by trees. Hundreds of more precise definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as density, tree height, land use, legal standing. According to the widely used Food and Agriculture Organization definition, forests covered four billion hectares or approximately 30 percent of the land area in 2006. Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth, and are distributed across the globe, Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earths biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earths plant biomass. Forests at different latitudes and elevations form distinctly different ecozones, boreal forests near the poles, tropical forests near the equator, higher elevation areas tend to support forests similar to those at higher latitudes, and amount of precipitation also affects forest composition. Human society and forests influence each other in both positive and negative ways, Forests provide ecosystem services to humans and serve as tourist attractions. Forests can also affect peoples health, human activities, including harvesting forest resources, can negatively affect forest ecosystems. Although forest is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition, there are three broad categories of forest definitions in use, administrative, land use, and land cover. Land use definitions are based upon the purpose that the land serves. For example, a forest may be defined as any land that is used primarily for production of timber, land cover definitions define forests based upon the type and density of vegetation growing on the land. Such definitions typically define a forest as an area growing trees above some threshold and these thresholds are typically the number of trees per area, the area of ground under the tree canopy or the section of land that is occupied by the cross-section of tree trunks. Under such land cover definitions, and area of land only be defined as forest if it is growing trees, areas that fail to meet the land cover definition may be still included under while immature trees are establishing if they are expected to meet the definition at maturity. Under land use definitions, there is variation on where the cutoff points are between a forest, woodland, and savanna. Under some definitions, forests require high levels of tree canopy cover, from 60% to 100%, excluding savannas. Other definitions consider savannas to be a type of forest, the term was not endemic to Romance languages, and cognates in Romance languages, such as Italian foresta, Spanish and Portuguese floresta, etc. are all ultimately borrowings of the French word. The exact origin of Medieval Latin foresta is obscure, uses of the word forest in English to denote any uninhabited area of non-enclosure are now considered archaic. The word was introduced by the Norman rulers of England as a term denoting an uncultivated area legally set aside for hunting by feudal nobility. These hunting forests were not necessarily wooded much, if at all, however, as hunting forests did often include considerable areas of woodland, the word forest eventually came to mean wooded land more generally
Forest
–
A
conifer forest in the
Swiss Alps (
National Park)
Forest
–
The
Adirondack Mountains of
Upstate New York form the southernmost part of the
Eastern forest-boreal transition ecoregion.
Forest
–
Mixed
deciduous forest in
Stara Planina,
Serbia
Forest
–
A gate in a snowy forest
15.
Moselle (river)
–
The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg, and Germany. It is a tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is also drained by the Moselle through the Sauer, the Moselle twists and turns its way between Trier and Koblenz along one of Germanys most beautiful river valleys. It flows through a region that has influenced by mankind since it was first cultivated by the Romans. Today, its hillsides are covered by terraced vineyards where some of the best Rieslings grow, Traben-Trarbach with its art nouveau architecture and Bernkastel-Kues with its traditional market square are two of the many popular tourist attractions on the Moselle river. The name Moselle is derived from the Celtic name form, Moseal, via the Latin Mosella, a form of Mosa, the Latin description of the Meuse. So the Mosella was the Little Meuse, the Moselle is first recorded by Tacitus in Book 13 of his Annals and in Book 4 of his Histories. The Roman poet, Decimius Magnus Ausonius, made it a theme as early as the 4th century. In his poem dated A. D. Ausonius describes flourishing and rich landscapes along the river and in the valley of the Moselle, the river subsequently gave its name to two French republican départements, Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle. The source of the Moselle is at 715 metres above sea level on the Col de Bussang on the slopes of the Ballon dAlsace in the Vosges. After 544 kilometres it discharges into the Rhine at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz at a height of 59 metres above NHN. The length of the river in France is 314 kilometres, for 39 kilometres it forms the border between Germany and Luxembourg, and 208 kilometres are solely within Germany, the Moselle flows through the Lorraine region, west of the Vosges. Further downstream, in Germany, the Moselle valley forms the division between the Eifel and Hunsrück mountain regions. The average flow rate of the Moselle at its mouth is 328 m³/s, making it the second largest tributary of the Rhine by volume after the Aare and bigger than the Main and Neckar. The section of the Moselle from the Franco-German-Luxembourg tripoint to its confluence with the Saar near Konz shortly before Trier is in Germany known as the Upper Moselle. The section from Trier to Pünderich is the Middle Moselle, the section between Pünderich and its mouth in Koblenz as the Lower Moselle or Terraced Moselle. Characteristic of the Middle and Lower Moselle are its wide meanders cut deeply into the highlands of the Rhenish Massif, also typical are its vineyard terraces. From the tripoint the Moselle marks the entire Saarland-Luxembourg, the catchment area of the Moselle is 28,286 km² in area
Moselle (river)
–
Typical landscape of Moselle vineyards near
Schweich
Moselle (river)
–
Moselle river near
Cochem, Germany
Moselle (river)
–
Beilstein on the Moselle
Moselle (river)
–
Fankel barrage
16.
Meuse River
–
The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. It has a length of 925 km. Its lower Belgian portion, part of the sillon industriel, was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe. The Meuse and its crossings were a key objective of the last major German WWII counter-offensive on the Western Front, the Meuse River is represented in the documentary The River People released in 2012 by Xavier Istasse. The name Meuse is derived from the French name of the river, the Dutch name Maas descends from Middle Dutch Mase, which comes from the presumed but unattested Old Dutch form *Masa, from Proto-Germanic *Masō. Only modern Dutch preserves this Germanic form, however, despite the similarity, the Germanic name is not derived from the Latin name, judging from the change from earlier o into a, which is characteristic of the Germanic languages. Therefore, both the Latin and Germanic names were derived from a Proto-Celtic source, which would have been *Mosā. The Meuse rises in Pouilly-en-Bassigny, commune of Le Châtelet-sur-Meuse on the Langres plateau in France from where it flows northwards past Sedan, at Namur it is joined by the River Sambre. Beyond Namur the Meuse winds eastwards, skirting the Ardennes, the river then forms part of the Belgian-Dutch border, except that at Maastricht the border lies further to the west. The river has been divided near Heusden into the Afgedamde Maas on the right, the Bergse Maas continues under the name of Amer, which is part of De Biesbosch. Near Lage Zwaluwe, the Nieuwe Merwede joins the Amer, forming the Hollands Diep, between Maastricht and Maasbracht, an unnavigable section of the Meuse is bypassed by the 36 km Juliana Canal. South of Namur, further upstream, the river can carry more modest vessels. From Givet, the river is canalized over a distance of 272 kilometres, the canalized Meuse used to be called the Canal de lEst — Branche Nord but was recently rebaptized into Canal de la Meuse. The waterway can be used by the smallest barges that are still in use commercially, just upstream of the town of Commercy, the Canal de la Meuse connects with the Marne–Rhine Canal by means of a short diversion canal. The Cretaceous sea reptile Mosasaur is named after the river Meuse, the first fossils of it were discovered outside Maastricht 1780. An international agreement was signed in 2002 in Ghent, Belgium about the management of the river amongst France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, also participating in the agreement were the Belgian regional governments of Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels. Most of the area is in Wallonia, followed by France. An International Commission on the Meuse has the responsibility of the implementation of the treaty, the map of the basin area of Meuse was joined to the text of the treaty
Meuse River
–
The Meuse at
Dinant
Meuse River
–
Meuse river seen from
SPOT satellite. The village in the lower right of the photo is
Bogny-sur-Meuse; the village in the upper left is
Revin
Meuse River
–
A view of the Meuse in the French Ardennes at
Laifour.
Meuse River
–
The Meuse and the Rochers de Freÿr, in front of the
Castle of Freÿr south of Dinant
17.
Eifel
–
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, the Eifel is part of the Rhenish Massif, within its northern portions lies the Eifel National Park. The Eifel lies between the cities of Aachen to the north, Trier to the south and Koblenz to the east and it descends in the northeast along a line from Aachen via Düren to Bonn into the Lower Rhine Bay. In the east and south it is bounded by the valleys of the Rhine, to the west it transitions in Belgium and Luxembourg into the geologically related Ardennes and the Luxembourg Ösling. In the north it is limited by the Jülich-Zülpicher Börde, within Germany it lies within the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, in BeNeLux the area of Eupen, St. Vith and Luxembourg. Its highest point is the cone of the Hohe Acht. Originally the Carolingian Eifelgau only covered the region roughly around the sources of the rivers Ahr, Kyll. Its name was recently transferred to the entire region. Individual mountain chains, up to 700 m, such as the Schneifel and High Fens, run through the western part of the plateau. The rivers draining into the Moselle, Rhine and Meuse, such as the Our, Kyll, Ahr, Brohl and Rur, have cut deep into the edge of the Eifel and formed larger valleys. The Eifel covers an area of 5,300 km² and is divided into the North and South Eifel. It is further divided into several natural regional landscapes, some with further subdivisions, there are several distinct chains within the Eifel. The northernmost parts are called North Eifel including Rur Eifel the origin of the river Rur, High Fens, the northeastern part is called Ahr Hills and rise north of the Ahr river in the district of Ahrweiler. South of the Ahr is the High Eifel, with the Hohe Acht being the highest mountain of the Eifel, in the west, on the Belgian border, the hills are known as Schneifel, rising up to 698 m. Also in the west, by the Belgian and Luxembourg border, the southern half of the Eifel is lower. It is cut by rivers running north-south towards the Moselle. The largest of these is the Kyll, and the hills on either side of river are called the Kyllwald. In the south the Eifel is concluded by the Voreifel above the Moselle, since 2004 about 110 km² of the Eifel within the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have been protected as the Eifel National Park nature reserve
Eifel
Eifel
–
Eifel scenery
Eifel
–
View of the
Laacher See, one of the lakes in the Volcanic Eifel
Eifel
–
Lissingen Castle
18.
Devonian
–
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60 million years from the end of the Silurian,419.2 million years ago, to the beginning of the Carboniferous,358.9 Mya. It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied, the first significant adaptive radiation of life on dry land occurred during the Devonian. Free-sporing vascular plants began to spread across dry land, forming extensive forests which covered the continents, by the middle of the Devonian, several groups of plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants appeared. Various terrestrial arthropods also became well-established, Fish reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fish. The first ray-finned and lobe-finned bony fish appeared, while the placodermi began dominating almost every aquatic environment. The ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates began adapting to walking on land, as their strong pectoral, in the oceans, primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and Late Ordovician. The first ammonites, species of molluscs, appeared, trilobites, the mollusk-like brachiopods and the great coral reefs, were still common. The Late Devonian extinction which started about 375 million years ago severely affected marine life, killing off all placodermi, and all trilobites, save for a few species of the order Proetida. The palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent of Gondwana to the south, the continent of Siberia to the north, while the rock beds that define the start and end of the Devonian period are well identified, the exact dates are uncertain. According to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the Devonian extends from the end of the Silurian 419.2 Mya, another common term is Age of the Fishes, referring to the evolution of several major groups of fish that took place during the period. Older literature on the Anglo-Welsh basin divides it into the Downtonian, Dittonian, Breconian and Farlovian stages, in the Late Devonian, by contrast, arid conditions were less prevalent across the world and temperate climates were more common. The Devonian Period is formally broken into Early, Middle and Late subdivisions, the rocks corresponding to those epochs are referred to as belonging to the Lower, Middle and Upper parts of the Devonian System. Early Devonian The Early Devonian lasted from 419.2 ±2.8 to 393.3 ±2.5 and began with the Lochkovian stage, which lasted until the Pragian. It spanned from 410.8 ±2.8 to 407.6 ±2.5, and was followed by the Emsian, which lasted until the Middle Devonian began,393. 3±2.7 million years ago. Middle Devonian The Middle Devonian comprised two subdivisions, first the Eifelian, which gave way to the Givetian 387. 7±2.7 million years ago. Late Devonian Finally, the Late Devonian started with the Frasnian,382.7 ±2.8 to 372.2 ±2.5, during which the first forests took shape on land. The first tetrapods appeared in the record in the ensuing Famennian subdivision. This lasted until the end of the Devonian,358. 9±2.5 million years ago, the Devonian was a relatively warm period, and probably lacked any glaciers
Devonian
–
The rocks of Lummaton Quarry in
Torquay in Devon played an early role in defining the Devonian period.
Devonian
–
Dunkleosteus, one of the largest armoured fish to ever roam the planet, lived during the late Devonian
Devonian
–
Enrolled phacopid
trilobite from the Devonian of Ohio
Devonian
–
The common tabulate coral
Aulopora from the Middle Devonian of Ohio – view of colony origin encrusting a
brachiopod valve
19.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
–
The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
–
Flag
Germany
–
Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
–
Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
20.
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
21.
Champagne-Ardenne
–
Champagne-Ardenne is a former administrative region of France, located in the northeast of the country, bordering Belgium. Mostly corresponding to the province of Champagne, the region is famous for its sparkling white wine. The administrative region was formed in 1956, consisting of the four departments Aube, Ardennes, Haute-Marne, on 1 January 2016, it merged with the neighboring regions of Alsace and Lorraine to form the new region Grand Est, thereby ceasing to exist as an independent entity. Its rivers, most of which flow west, include the Seine, the Marne, the LGV Est TGV line also connecting Paris and Strasbourg opened in 2007 and serves Reims with a train station in the commune of Bezannes. The regions canals include the Canal latéral à la Marne and Marne-Rhine Canal, the Vatry International Airport, primarily dedicated to air freight, has a runway 3,650 m long. The airport is in a populated area just 150 km from Paris. 282.37 km² of vineyards Champagne sales in 2001,263 million bottles of which 37. 6% were exported, with 1.3 million people and a density of 52/km², it is one of Frances least populated regions. The region is among the oldest in France, has a fertility rate
Champagne-Ardenne
–
Vineyard in Champagne-Ardenne.
Champagne-Ardenne
–
Flag
Champagne-Ardenne
–
City center, Troyes
Champagne-Ardenne
–
Moulin de Valmy dans les champs
22.
List of regions in 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
List of regions in France
23.
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
–
Luxembourg /ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡ/, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east and its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. It comprises two regions, the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif. With an area of 2,586 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe, Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a monarch, it is headed by a Grand Duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country, with an advanced economy and the worlds highest GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors, in the following centuries, Luxembourgs fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the French. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between Prussia and the Netherlands and this arrangement was revised by the 1839 First Treaty of London, from which date Luxembourgs full independence is reckoned. In 1842 Luxembourg joined the German Customs Union, the King of the Netherlands remained Head of State as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, maintaining a personal union between the two countries until 1890. At the death of William III, the throne of the Netherlands passed to his daughter Wilhelmina and this allowed Germany the military advantage of controlling and expanding the railways there. In August 1914, Imperial Germany violated Luxembourgs neutrality in the war by invading it in the war against France and this allowed Germany to use the railway lines, while at the same time denying them to France. Nevertheless, despite the German occupation, Luxembourg was allowed to maintain much of its independence, in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Luxembourgs neutrality was again violated when the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany entered the country, entirely without justification. A government in exile based in London supported the Allies, sending a group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy invasion. Luxembourg was liberated in September 1944, and became a member of the United Nations in 1945. Luxembourgs neutral status under the constitution formally ended in 1948, in 2005, a referendum on the EU treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
–
Historic map (undated) of Luxembourg city's fortifications
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
–
Flag
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
–
Photograph of the fortress of Luxembourg prior to demolition in 1867
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
–
Luxembourg City: The Passerelle, also known as the viaduct or old bridge, over the
Pétrusse river valley, opened 1861
24.
Rhineland-Palatinate
–
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of 19,846 square kilometres and about four million inhabitants, Rhineland-Palatinate is located in western Germany and borders Belgium, Luxembourg and France, and the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Saarland. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate dates from 30 August 1946, as of 201044. 9% of the population of the state adhered to the Roman Catholic Church,30. 6% to the Evangelical Church in Germany. 22. 0% of the population is irreligious or adheres to other religions, muslims made up 2. 5% of the total. The league of ShUM-cities in the later Rhineland-Palatinate comprised the Jewish communities of Mainz, Speyer, the Takkanot Shum, or Enactments of ShUM were a set of decrees formulated and agreed upon over a period of decades by their Jewish community leaders. Rhineland-Palatinate leads all German states with a rate of approximately 50%. Important sectors are the industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry. Distinctive regional industries includes gemstone industry, ceramic and glass industry, small and medium enterprises are considered the backbone of the economy in Rhineland-Palatinate. The principal employer is the chemical and plastics processing industry which is represented by BASF in Ludwigshafen, boehringer, Joh. A. Benckiser, SGE Deutsche Holding, Schott Glassworks concludes the top 5 companies in the state. Rhineland-Palatinate is Germanys leading producer of wine in terms of grape cultivation, of thirteen wine regions producing quality wine in Germany, six are located in Rhineland-Palatinate, with 65% to 70% of the production of wine grapes in Germany having their origin within the state. 13,000 wine producers generate 80% to 90% of the German wine export, traditional grape varieties and a wide range of varieties developed during the last 125 years are characteristic for the region. Classical white varieties are cultivated at 63,683 hectares and these comprise the famous Rieslings 14,446 hectares, Müller-Thurgau, Silvaner and Kerner. The share of red varieties grew constantly during the last decades, dornfelder, a new cultivar, is the leading red grape cultivated on 7,626 hectares, which is more than a third. Blauer Portugieser and Spätburgunder show also appreciable cultivated shares, the state supports the wine industry by providing a comprehensive consultancy and education program in the service supply centers of the land. The Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding is fully financed by the state, many well known new breeds, such as Morio-Muskat, Bacchus, Optima and Regent have been created in these institutes. The worldwide leader in sparkling wine production, producing 245 million bottles in 2006, is the renowned Schloss Wachenheim Group and this company is headquartered in Trier, with operations in several locations in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
–
Mainz
Rhineland-Palatinate
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Flag
Rhineland-Palatinate
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Koblenz
Rhineland-Palatinate
–
Trier
25.
Tree
–
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. Trees are not a group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a woody trunk. In looser senses, the palms, the tree ferns, bananas. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old, the tallest known tree, a coast redwood named Hyperion, stands 115.6 m high. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years and it is estimated that there are just over 3 trillion mature trees in the world. A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk and this trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier, below the ground, the roots branch and spread out widely, they serve to anchor the tree and extract moisture and nutrients from the soil. Above ground, the divide into smaller branches and shoots. The shoots typically bear leaves, which light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the trees growth. Flowers and fruit may also be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones, others, such as tree ferns, trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues, trees and forests provide a habitat for many species of animals and plants. Tropical rainforests are one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world, trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, and fruit for food as well as having many other uses. In parts of the world, forests are shrinking as trees are cleared to increase the amount of available for agriculture. Because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always revered, with sacred groves in various cultures. Although tree is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, either botanically or in common language. In its broadest sense, a tree is any plant with the form of an elongated stem, or trunk. Trees are also defined by height, with smaller plants from 0.5 to 10 m being called shrubs
Tree
–
Common ash (
Fraxinus excelsior), a
deciduous broad-leaved (
angiosperm) tree
Tree
–
European larch (
Larix decidua), a
coniferous tree which is also
deciduous
Tree
–
Lepidodendron, an extinct
lycophyte tree
Tree
–
Diagram of
secondary growth in a
eudicot or
coniferous tree showing idealised vertical and horizontal sections. A new layer of
wood is added in each growing season, thickening the stem, existing branches and roots.
26.
River
–
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
River
–
Melting toe of Athabasca Glacier,
Jasper National Park,
Alberta, Canada
River
–
The River Cam from the Green Dragon Bridge, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
River
–
Nile River delta, as seen from Earth orbit. The Nile is an example of a wave-dominated delta that has the classic Greek letter delta (Δ) shape after which river deltas were named.
River
–
A radar image of a 400-kilometre (250 mi) river of methane and ethane near the north pole of Saturn's moon
Titan
27.
Charcoal
–
Charcoal is a lightweight, black residue, consisting of carbon and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis- the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen, the whole pile is covered with turf or moistened clay. The firing is begun at the bottom of the flue, the success of the operation depends upon the rate of the combustion. The operation is so delicate that it was left to colliers. They often lived alone in small huts in order to tend their wood piles, for example, in the Harz Mountains of Germany, charcoal burners lived in conical huts called Köten which are still much in evidence today. The massive production of charcoal was a cause of deforestation. The increasing scarcity of easily harvested wood was a factor behind the switch to fossil fuel equivalents, mainly coal. Charcoal made at 300 °C is brown, soft and friable, and readily inflames at 380 °C, made at higher temperatures it is hard and brittle, in Finland and Scandinavia, the charcoal was considered the by-product of wood tar production. The best tar came from pine, thus pinewoods were cut down for tar pyrolysis, the residual charcoal was widely used as substitute for metallurgical coke in blast furnaces for smelting. Tar production led to deforestation, it has been estimated all Finnish forests are younger than 300 years. The end of tar production at the end of the 19th century resulted in rapid re-forestation, the charcoal briquette was first invented and patented by Ellsworth B. A. Zwoyer of Pennsylvania in 1897 and was produced by the Zwoyer Fuel Company. The process was popularized by Henry Ford, who used wood. Ford Charcoal went on to become the Kingsford Company, Charcoal has been made by various methods. The traditional method in Britain used a clamp and this is essentially a pile of wooden logs leaning against a chimney. The chimney consists of 4 wooden stakes held up by some rope, the logs are completely covered with soil and straw allowing no air to enter. It must be lit by introducing some burning fuel into the chimney, if the soil covering gets torn by the fire, additional soil is placed on the cracks. Once the burn is complete, the chimney is plugged to prevent air from entering, the true art of this production method is in managing the sufficient generation of heat, and its transfer to wood parts in the process of being carbonised. A strong disadvantage of this method is the huge amount of emissions that are harmful to human health
Charcoal
–
Dry charcoal
Charcoal
–
Charcoal burning
Charcoal
–
Wood pile before covering it with
turf or soil, and firing it (around 1890)
Charcoal
–
An abandoned charcoal kiln near Walker, Arizona, USA.
28.
History of Wallonia
–
Wallonia is the name colloquially given to the Walloon Region. The French word Wallonie comes from the term Wallon, itself coming from Walh, Walh is a very old Germanic word used to refer to a speaker of Celtic or Latin. As of 2014, the largest find of the remains of Iguanodon to date occurred in 1878 in a coal mine at Bernissart. I. bernissartensis, that lived from the Barremian to the early Aptian in Europe, the Grotte de Spy is located near Spy, Belgium, in the Walloon] municipality of Jemeppe-sur-Sambre in the province of Namur. It was discovered in 1886 and has classified as Wallonias Major Heritage. It is one of the most important paleolithic sites in Europe, the excavation was conducted by Marcel de Puydt and Max Lohest of Liège. They proved the existence of the Neanderthal, fraipont published an article about the cave in the American Anthropologist. Spiennes, another famous Walloon village in the municipality of Mons, the Walha started speaking Vulgar Latin instead of their Celtic dialects. At that time, Wallonia was on the border between Germanic-speaking and Latin-speaking territories, historian Léopold Genicot wrote in his review Toudi n°1,1987, p. of an enclave in the area of the germanic languages. According to Hervé Hasquin, Francis Dumont described the Walloon territory as a kind of isthmus connecting old France, félix Rousseau said Wallonia has always been a Romance land since the Gallic Wars and constitutes a Latin avant-garde in Germanic Europe. In his book La Wallonie, Terre Romane he says, For centuries and that is the capital fact of the history of the Walloons that explains their ways of thought, feeling, and belief. Moreover, in the whole Romance world, the land of the Walloons, in fact a border about 300km long separates these extremi Latini from the Flemish to the North and from the Germans to the East. Its origin must be located in a region between Tournai and Liège, and it was written around 880. According to Fernand Braudel, the most important event of Walloon history—and that of Belgian history—is the Barbarian invasions, Braudel wrote that the result of the Germanic invasions—the language border—is a contemporary and living circumstance and that Belgium divided into two parts along a language border. This frontier has not much changed since the 18th century, Flanders is to the north of the line and Wallonia to the south. According to Kenneth D. McRae, this language border acquired administrative significance for the first time in 1822 with legislation on the use of Dutch in Flemish communes, the Ardennes is an old mountain mass formed during the Hercynian orogeny. At the bottom of old mountains, coal, iron, zinc. This geological region is at the origin of the economy, the history, Wallonia presents a wide range of rocks of various ages
History of Wallonia
–
Section of mines at Spiennes
History of Wallonia
–
Séquence de sainte Eulalie
History of Wallonia
–
Font of Renier de Huy (
Mosan art): The baptism of the catechumens. An example of old Walloon technique in making the brass I (12th century).
History of Wallonia
–
The
splendid house of Curtius in Liège, one of the first capitalists.
29.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
United Kingdom
–
Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
–
Flag
United Kingdom
–
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
–
The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
30.
Metallurgy
–
The production of metals involves the processing of ores to extract the metal they contain, and the mixture of metals, sometimes with other elements, to produce alloys. Metallurgy is distinguished from the craft of metalworking, although metalworking relies on metallurgy, as medicine relies on medical science, Metallurgy is subdivided into ferrous metallurgy and non-ferrous metallurgy or colored metallurgy. Ferrous metallurgy involves processes and alloys based on iron while non-ferrous metallurgy involves processes, the production of ferrous metals accounts for 95 percent of world metal production. The roots of metallurgy derive from Ancient Greek, μεταλλουργός, metallourgós, worker in metal, from μέταλλον, métallon, metal + ἔργον, érgon, in the late 19th century it was extended to the more general scientific study of metals, alloys, and related processes. In English, the pronunciation is the more common one in the UK. The /ˈmetələrdʒi/ pronunciation is the common one in the USA. The earliest recorded metal employed by humans appears to be gold, small amounts of natural gold have been found in Spanish caves used during the late Paleolithic period, c.40,000 BC. Silver, copper, tin and meteoric iron can also be found in native form, egyptian weapons made from meteoric iron in about 3000 BC were highly prized as daggers from heaven. Certain metals, notably tin, lead and copper, can be recovered from their ores by simply heating the rocks in a fire or blast furnace, a process known as smelting. The first evidence of this extractive metallurgy dates from the 5th and 6th millennia BC and was found in the sites of Majdanpek, Yarmovac and Plocnik. To date, the earliest evidence of copper smelting is found at the Belovode site, other signs of early metals are found from the third millennium BC in places like Palmela, Los Millares, and Stonehenge. However, the ultimate beginnings cannot be ascertained and new discoveries are both continuous and ongoing. These first metals were single ones or as found, about 3500 BC, it was discovered that by combining copper and tin, a superior metal could be made, an alloy called bronze, representing a major technological shift known as the Bronze Age. The extraction of iron from its ore into a metal is much more difficult than for copper or tin. The process appears to have been invented by the Hittites in about 1200 BC, the secret of extracting and working iron was a key factor in the success of the Philistines. Historical developments in ferrous metallurgy can be found in a variety of past cultures. A 16th century book by Georg Agricola called De re metallica describes the highly developed and complex processes of mining metal ores, metal extraction, Agricola has been described as the father of metallurgy. Extractive metallurgy is the practice of removing valuable metals from an ore, in order to convert a metal oxide or sulphide to a purer metal, the ore must be reduced physically, chemically, or electrolytically
Metallurgy
–
Georgius Agricola, author of De re metallica, an important early work on metal extraction
Metallurgy
–
Gold headband from Thebes 750–700 BC
Metallurgy
–
Aluminium plant in
Žiar nad Hronom (Central
Slovakia)
Metallurgy
–
Casting bronze
31.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
–
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
32.
Battle of France
–
The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 during the Second World War. Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and attempted an invasion of France, the German plan for the invasion of France consisted of two main operations. After the withdrawal of the BEF, the German forces began Fall Rot on 5 June, the sixty remaining French divisions made a determined resistance but were unable to overcome the German air superiority and armoured mobility. German tanks outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France, German forces occupied Paris unopposed on 14 June after a chaotic period of flight of the French government that led to a collapse of the French army. German commanders met with French officials on 18 June with the goal of forcing the new French government to accept an armistice that amounted to surrender and this led to the end of the French Third Republic. France was not liberated until the summer of 1944, in 1939, Britain and France offered military support to Poland in the likely case of a German invasion. In the dawn of 1 September 1939, the German Invasion of Poland began, France and the United Kingdom declared war on 3 September, after an ultimatum for German forces to immediately withdraw their forces from Poland was met without reply. Following this, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, on 7 September, in accordance with their alliance with Poland, France began the Saar Offensive with an advance from the Maginot Line 5 km into the Saar. France had mobilised 98 divisions and 2,500 tanks against a German force consisting of 43 divisions, the French advanced until they met the then thin and undermanned Siegfried Line. On 17 September, the French supreme commander, Maurice Gamelin gave the order to withdraw French troops to their starting positions, following the Saar Offensive, a period of inaction called the Phoney War set in between the belligerents. Adolf Hitler had hoped that France and Britain would acquiesce in the conquest of Poland, on 6 October, he made a peace offer to both Western powers. On 9 October, Hitler issued a new Führer-Directive Number 6, the plan was based on the seemingly more realistic assumption that German military strength would have to be built up for several years. For the moment only limited objectives could be envisaged and were aimed at improving Germanys ability to survive a long war in the west. Hitler ordered a conquest of the Low Countries to be executed at the shortest possible notice to forestall the French and it would also provide the basis for a long-term air and sea campaign against Britain. On 10 October 1939, Britain refused Hitlers offer of peace and on 12 October, colonel-General Franz Halder, presented the first plan for Fall Gelb on 19 October. This was the codename of plans for a campaign in the Low Countries. Halders plan has been compared to the Schlieffen Plan, the given to the German strategy of 1914 in the First World War. It was similar in both plans entailed an advance through the middle of Belgium
Battle of France
–
Clockwise from top left: German
Panzer IV tanks passing through a town in
France;
German soldiers marching past the
Arc de Triomphe after the surrender of
Paris, 14 June 1940; column of French
Renault R35 tanks at
Sedan,
Ardennes; British and French prisoners at
Veules-les-Roses; French soldiers on review within the
Maginot Line fortifications.
Battle of France
–
Newly arrived British troops move up to the front, May 1940
Battle of France
–
A burnt out German
Junkers Ju 52 transport lying in a Dutch field
Battle of France
–
An abandoned Belgian tank is inspected by German soldiers
33.
Battle of the Bulge
–
The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, the surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war, the battle also severely depleted Germanys armoured forces on the Western Front, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and later, Luftwaffe aircraft, also sustained heavy losses, the Germans officially referred to the offensive as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein, while the Allies designated it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase Battle of the Bulge was coined by contemporary press to describe the bulge in German front lines on wartime news maps, once that was accomplished, the German dictator Adolf Hitler believed he could fully concentrate on the Soviets on the Eastern Front. The offensive was planned by the German forces with utmost secrecy, with minimal radio traffic and movements of troops, intercepted German communications indicating a substantial German offensive preparation were not acted upon by the Allies. The Germans achieved total surprise on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule, improved weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, the Germans initial attack involved 406,000 men,1,214 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns, and 4,224 artillery pieces. These were reinforced a couple of later, bringing the offensives total strength to around 450,000 troops. Between 67,200 and 125,000 of their men were killed, missing, for the Americans, out of 610,000 troops involved in the battle,89,000 were casualties. While some sources report that up to 19,000 were killed, British historian Antony Beevor reports the number killed as 8,407. It was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II, after the breakout from Normandy at the end of July 1944 and the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced toward Germany more quickly than anticipated. The Allies were faced with several military logistics issues, - troops were fatigued by weeks of continuous combat supply lines were stretched extremely thin supplies were dangerously depleted. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his staff chose to hold the Ardennes region which was occupied by the U. S, the Allies chose to defend the Ardennes with as few troops as possible due to the favorable terrain and limited Allied operational objectives in the area. They also had intelligence that the Wehrmacht was using the area across the German border as an area for its troops. The speed of the Allied advance coupled with a lack of deep-water ports presented the Allies with enormous supply problems
Battle of the Bulge
–
American soldiers of the 117th Infantry Regiment, Tennessee National Guard, part of the
30th Infantry Division, move past a destroyed American
M5 "Stuart" tank on their march to recapture the town of
St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945.
Battle of the Bulge
–
Paratroopers of the
U.S. 82nd Airborne Division dropping on Grave, during
Operation Market Garden, September 1944.
Battle of the Bulge
–
Situation on the Western Front as of 15 December 1944
Battle of the Bulge
–
Sepp Dietrich led the Sixth Panzer Army in the northernmost attack route.
34.
Hautes Fagnes
–
The High Fens are the largest nature reserve or park in Belgium, with an area of 4,501.2 hectares, it lies within the German-Belgian natural park Hohes Venn-Eifel, in the Ardennes. Its highest point, at 694 metres above sea level, is the Signal de Botrange near Eupen, a tower 6 metres high was built here that reaches 700 metres above sea level. In 1966, the European Council awarded the Diploma of Conservation to the High Fens, for their ecological value. The High Fens, established as a reserve in 1957, with their relief and unique location, consist mainly of raised bogs. The provincial capital of Liège is to its west, the German border is to the east, the park stretches between Eupen in the north, Monschau in the east, Spa in the west and Malmedy in the south. It stretches north of Malmedy as far as Eupen and marks the end of the Ardennes proper and it is contiguous with the Eifel hills, which stretch east from the German border to form the large Deutsch–Belgischer Naturpark. Large urban centres in the vicinity of the reserve are Eupen, Verviers, Spa, part of the High Fens reserve remains closed during the spring breeding season of the endangered black grouse. During the summer there is a risk of fire in the forest area, boardwalks cross the bogs, permitting access across these areas. Paths lead to areas of the park, and there are signposts to guide visitors through the park. The nature reserve of the High Fens is coordinated under the Nature Division, the reserve is one of the wettest and coldest parts of Belgium. It is frequently shrouded in mist and low cloud and it has a subalpine climate with strong winds and fierce winters, which are occasionally subarctic. The Fagnes plateau intercepts clouds brought by the prevailing Atlantic winds, however, beneath the fragile composition of the overlying soils are rocky beds and clay that prevent infiltration of water and thus create the conditions for wetlands, marshes and bogs. The highest and lowest annual rainfall recorded are 2,024 millimetres and 762 millimetres respectively, the maximum snowfall recorded at Signal de Botrange was 115 centimetres in 1953. The maximum number of frost days in a year is reported to be 158 days, the lowest temperature recorded was −23.6 °C in 1942, but it was −25.2 °C in 1952 at Baraque-Michel. Several rivers have their sources in the High Fens, the Vesdre, Hoëgne, Warche, Gileppe, Eau Rouge, Amblève, Our, Kyll, in winter all the water sources freeze into snow making the High Fens one of the best ski resorts in Belgium. During winter the swamps appear as if wrapped in white fluffy snow shawl, the region has been zoned under a regulation of 1992 into specific zones, keeping in view the access areas provided for visitors and tourists. The areas are allocated to three zones, B, C, and D, zone C can be visited only accompanied by a guide authorised by the park administration. However no access to this zone is allowed from mid-March to late June, when an endangered species, zone D is a totally protected reserve area, with no access to the public
Hautes Fagnes
–
The Fens landscape near the German border
Hautes Fagnes
–
The bridge on the
Amblève River.
Hautes Fagnes
–
Panorama of the High Fens
Hautes Fagnes
–
An illustration of the
black grouse (
Tetrao tetrix), male and female from an early 20th-century natural history
35.
Meuse (river)
–
The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. It has a length of 925 km. Its lower Belgian portion, part of the sillon industriel, was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe. The Meuse and its crossings were a key objective of the last major German WWII counter-offensive on the Western Front, the Meuse River is represented in the documentary The River People released in 2012 by Xavier Istasse. The name Meuse is derived from the French name of the river, the Dutch name Maas descends from Middle Dutch Mase, which comes from the presumed but unattested Old Dutch form *Masa, from Proto-Germanic *Masō. Only modern Dutch preserves this Germanic form, however, despite the similarity, the Germanic name is not derived from the Latin name, judging from the change from earlier o into a, which is characteristic of the Germanic languages. Therefore, both the Latin and Germanic names were derived from a Proto-Celtic source, which would have been *Mosā. The Meuse rises in Pouilly-en-Bassigny, commune of Le Châtelet-sur-Meuse on the Langres plateau in France from where it flows northwards past Sedan, at Namur it is joined by the River Sambre. Beyond Namur the Meuse winds eastwards, skirting the Ardennes, the river then forms part of the Belgian-Dutch border, except that at Maastricht the border lies further to the west. The river has been divided near Heusden into the Afgedamde Maas on the right, the Bergse Maas continues under the name of Amer, which is part of De Biesbosch. Near Lage Zwaluwe, the Nieuwe Merwede joins the Amer, forming the Hollands Diep, between Maastricht and Maasbracht, an unnavigable section of the Meuse is bypassed by the 36 km Juliana Canal. South of Namur, further upstream, the river can carry more modest vessels. From Givet, the river is canalized over a distance of 272 kilometres, the canalized Meuse used to be called the Canal de lEst — Branche Nord but was recently rebaptized into Canal de la Meuse. The waterway can be used by the smallest barges that are still in use commercially, just upstream of the town of Commercy, the Canal de la Meuse connects with the Marne–Rhine Canal by means of a short diversion canal. The Cretaceous sea reptile Mosasaur is named after the river Meuse, the first fossils of it were discovered outside Maastricht 1780. An international agreement was signed in 2002 in Ghent, Belgium about the management of the river amongst France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, also participating in the agreement were the Belgian regional governments of Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels. Most of the area is in Wallonia, followed by France. An International Commission on the Meuse has the responsibility of the implementation of the treaty, the map of the basin area of Meuse was joined to the text of the treaty
Meuse (river)
–
The Meuse at
Dinant
Meuse (river)
–
Meuse river seen from
SPOT satellite. The village in the lower right of the photo is
Bogny-sur-Meuse; the village in the upper left is
Revin
Meuse (river)
–
A view of the Meuse in the French Ardennes at
Laifour.
Meuse (river)
–
The Meuse and the Rochers de Freÿr, in front of the
Castle of Freÿr south of Dinant
36.
Verviers
–
Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, Water has played an important role in the towns economy, notably in the development first of its textile and later tourist industries. As a result, many fountains have been built in Verviers, the seats of the two Walloon public institutions for water distribution and water treatment are located in the town. Various flint and bone fragments, as well as Roman coins, were found in this area, in the 4th century, the Romans had to deal with a constant push of Germanic tribes coming from the east. Successful at first at containing them, they finally had to concede defeat, the Verviers area was covered with forests and became a hunting ground for the Merovingian kings, who maintained a vicus in neighbouring Theux. It was also slowly Christianized by the monks of the nearby Abbey of Stavelot, in the 10th century, Charles the Simple ceded the Marquisate of Franchimont to the prince-bishop of Liège, just before the creation of the Prince-Bishopric. Liège took direct control of the marquisate in 1014, an act which was confirmed by emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the first mention of a textile industry in this area dates from the 15th century. One century later, the industry took the place of the older metallurgical works, thanks in part to the Eighty Years War raging in the neighbouring Netherlands. The size of the town, however, remained relatively modest and it was only in 1651 that the expansion of the fulleries led to Verviers being recognized as one of the prince-bishoprics bonnes villes. The end of the 18th century was troubled by the French Revolution, the annexation of Liège to France in 1795 caused a steep economic decline and unprecedented poverty. The citys fortunes rose again after the Battle of Waterloo, Verviers was at the eastern end of the sillon industriel, the industrial backbone of Wallonia. Industrialist William Cockerill used British know-how to start a new era in Verviers textile industry, roads were paved, gas lighting was installed, and the city doubled in size thanks to the Industrial Revolution. After World War I, Verviers could share with Bradford the title of Wool Capital of the World, Verviers was home to a thriving wool and textile industry that was renowned for its quality and contributed greatly to the growth of the town. However, as of the 1950s, the factories could not face international competition. The economy has been recovering since the mid-1990s but remains fragile. Several commercial complexes have opened in recent years in an attempt to revitalize the most affected areas, Verviers counts several museums, including the Wool and Fashion Tourist Centre, housed in a former factory with a Neoclassical-style façade. The Grand Theatre, also known as La Bonbonnière, was built in the style at the end of the 19th century. The city has a number of interesting fountains and thematic strolling paths
Verviers
–
The Palais de Justice, the Law Courts of Verviers
Verviers
–
Center of Verviers
Verviers
–
City Hall
Verviers
–
Church
37.
Eupen
–
Eupen is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège,15 kilometres from the German border, from the Dutch border and from the High Fens nature reserve. The town is also the capital of the Euroregion Meuse-Rhine, in 1919, after the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles transferred Eupen and the nearby municipality of Malmedy from Germany to Belgium. German remains the language in Eupen, and the city serves as the capital for Belgiums German-speaking Community. The city has a university, the Autonome Hochschule in der deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, offering bachelors degrees in Education. In 2010, Eupens association football team, K. A. S, Eupen, became the first club from the German-speaking Community to play in the Belgian Pro League. On 1 January 2006 Eupen had a population of 18,248. The total area is 103.74 km2 which gives a density of 175.90 inhabitants per km2. Eupen is considered in Belgium to be a Roman Catholic region with strongly conservative views, Eupen and the St. Nikolaus Chapel were first mentioned in 1213 as part of the Duchy of Limburg. In 1288, after the Battle of Worringen, the Duchy of Limburg was annexed by John I of Brabant, Brabant and Limburg were conquered by Burgundy in 1387, and Eupen was burnt to the ground during the war against the Guelders. Burgundy was dissolved in 1477 by the Austrian Habsburgs who then inherited Eupen after gaining both Limburg and Brabant, habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles V granted Eupen the privilege to conduct two markets per year in 1544. In 1555, both Brabant and Limburg were passed to the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, ten years later, Protestantism was mentioned for the first time in the town. In 1582, during the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs, rebels burnt Eupen, bubonic plague reached Eupen in 1635, with devastataing consequences. Eupen obtained its own court of law in 1648, and in 1674 received city rights, giving it greater recognition, six years later, textile manufacture was introduced to the city. In 1713, with the Treaty of Utrecht, Brabant and Limburg were returned to the Austrian Habsburgs, revolutionary France took the city in 1794, incorporating it into the Département Ourthe, préfecture Liège and sous-préfecture Malmedy. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Eupen became part of the Prussian Rhine Province, all Prussian possessions became part of the German Empire in 1870, while Eupen itself enjoyed its popularity as a spa town. Records show that a weaver named Schunck was established as early as 1776 and his eldest son, Nikolaus Severin Schunck, had six sons, of whom the third oldest, Arnold, would later found the firm in Heerlen. The youngest son, Joseph, remained at the weaving mill, the company became the famous Schunck. After the First World War, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles transferred Eupen, the effect led to the formation of extreme right-wing Nazi-like groups in Eupen
Eupen
–
Eupen
Eupen
–
Map of Belgium in 1843: Eupen and the East Cantons were then German.
Eupen
–
St Nikolaus Church, Eupen
38.
Bastogne
–
Bastogne is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes. The municipality of Bastogne includes the old communes of Longvilly, Noville, Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, the town is situated on a ridge in the Ardennes at an elevation of 510 metres. At the time of the Roman conquest the region of Bastogne was inhabited by the Treveri, a form of the name Bastogne was first mentioned only much later, in 634, when the local lord ceded these territories to the St Maximins Abbey, near Trier. A century later, the Bastogne area went to the nearby Prüm Abbey, the town of Bastogne and its marketplace are again mentioned in an 887 document. By the 13th century, Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1332, John the Blind, his son, granted the city its charter and had it encircled by defensive walls, part of which, the current Porte de Trèves, still exists. The city’s walls were quite effective at protecting it during the times that followed. The city’s economy actually flourished thanks to the renown of its agricultural, the walls repelled a Dutch attack successfully in 1602. In 1688, they were dismantled by order of King Louis XIV when the town was occupied by French forces during the Nine Years War, the 19th century and Belgiums independence were favourable to Bastogne, as its forest products and cattle fairs became better known abroad. Several railway lines were built to link it to the neighbouring towns and this all came to an end with the German occupation during World War I. Liberated by the Allies in September 1944, Bastogne was attacked by German forces a few months later. Hitlers idea was to control of the Ardennes, splitting British from American forces, then advance to and reoccupy the strategic port of Antwerp. On December 16, taking advantage of cold and fog, German artillery initiated the Battle of the Bulge attacking the American divisions deployed sparsely around Bastogne. On December 22, German emissaries asked for the American surrender, to which the General answered tersely, “Nuts. ”The next day the skies cleared, allowing Allied air forces to retaliate and to much needed food, medicine. On December 26, the Third U. S. Army under the command of General Patton arrived, the official end of the Battle of Bastogne occurred three weeks later, when all fighting in the area ceased. Bastogne is the terminus of the Liberty Road, the way that marks the path of liberating Allied forces. The municipality of Bastogne comprises five sections which were separate municipalities before a merger in 1977, each contains a number of villages. The 101st Airborne Museum includes dioramas and more about the experiences of soldiers, the Bastogne Barracks museum is free and operated by the Belgian Army. It is located in the used as the headquarters of the U. S
Bastogne
–
Bastogne Bastenaken (Dutch) Bastenach (German)
Bastogne
–
St. Pierre Church
39.
Signal de Botrange
–
Signal de Botrange is the highest point in Belgium, located in the High Fens, at 694 metres. It is the top of a plateau and a road crosses the summit. In 1923, the 6 m Baltia tower was built on the summit to allow visitors to reach an altitude of 700 m, a stone tower built in 1934 reaches 718 m. For several decades a meteorological station was installed at signal Botrange, since 1999, it was replaced by an automatic station of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium installed on Mount Rigi, which is between the signal and the house Botrange Michel. Signal de Botrange experiences stronger winds than the centre of Belgium, in winter, for three months, on average, the average temperature remains below 0 °C. Rainfall is much greater than most of the rest of the country, rainfall is also much more common, there are over 200 days of precipitation per year. Maximum temperatures in summer rarely exceed 30 °C, the number of days of frost is over 130 days per year and the number of days of snowfall exceeds 35 days. The maximum thickness of snow was measured on 9 February 1953, frost and early snowfall can occur in late September, but that is exceptional. Late snow may sometimes occur until mid-May, at the height of winter the site is used as the start of a number of cross-country skiing routes
Signal de Botrange
–
The 6 m high tower at the Signal de Botrange
Signal de Botrange
–
Communication tower on the Signal de Botrange
40.
High Fens
–
The High Fens are the largest nature reserve or park in Belgium, with an area of 4,501.2 hectares, it lies within the German-Belgian natural park Hohes Venn-Eifel, in the Ardennes. Its highest point, at 694 metres above sea level, is the Signal de Botrange near Eupen, a tower 6 metres high was built here that reaches 700 metres above sea level. In 1966, the European Council awarded the Diploma of Conservation to the High Fens, for their ecological value. The High Fens, established as a reserve in 1957, with their relief and unique location, consist mainly of raised bogs. The provincial capital of Liège is to its west, the German border is to the east, the park stretches between Eupen in the north, Monschau in the east, Spa in the west and Malmedy in the south. It stretches north of Malmedy as far as Eupen and marks the end of the Ardennes proper and it is contiguous with the Eifel hills, which stretch east from the German border to form the large Deutsch–Belgischer Naturpark. Large urban centres in the vicinity of the reserve are Eupen, Verviers, Spa, part of the High Fens reserve remains closed during the spring breeding season of the endangered black grouse. During the summer there is a risk of fire in the forest area, boardwalks cross the bogs, permitting access across these areas. Paths lead to areas of the park, and there are signposts to guide visitors through the park. The nature reserve of the High Fens is coordinated under the Nature Division, the reserve is one of the wettest and coldest parts of Belgium. It is frequently shrouded in mist and low cloud and it has a subalpine climate with strong winds and fierce winters, which are occasionally subarctic. The Fagnes plateau intercepts clouds brought by the prevailing Atlantic winds, however, beneath the fragile composition of the overlying soils are rocky beds and clay that prevent infiltration of water and thus create the conditions for wetlands, marshes and bogs. The highest and lowest annual rainfall recorded are 2,024 millimetres and 762 millimetres respectively, the maximum snowfall recorded at Signal de Botrange was 115 centimetres in 1953. The maximum number of frost days in a year is reported to be 158 days, the lowest temperature recorded was −23.6 °C in 1942, but it was −25.2 °C in 1952 at Baraque-Michel. Several rivers have their sources in the High Fens, the Vesdre, Hoëgne, Warche, Gileppe, Eau Rouge, Amblève, Our, Kyll, in winter all the water sources freeze into snow making the High Fens one of the best ski resorts in Belgium. During winter the swamps appear as if wrapped in white fluffy snow shawl, the region has been zoned under a regulation of 1992 into specific zones, keeping in view the access areas provided for visitors and tourists. The areas are allocated to three zones, B, C, and D, zone C can be visited only accompanied by a guide authorised by the park administration. However no access to this zone is allowed from mid-March to late June, when an endangered species, zone D is a totally protected reserve area, with no access to the public
High Fens
–
The Fens landscape near the German border
High Fens
–
The bridge on the
Amblève River.
High Fens
–
Panorama of the High Fens
High Fens
–
An illustration of the
black grouse (
Tetrao tetrix), male and female from an early 20th-century natural history
41.
Baraque Michel
–
The Baraque Michel is a locality in the municipality Jalhay, in the High Fens, eastern Belgium. Before the annexation of the Eastern Cantons by Belgium in 1919, now it is the third highest point at 674 metres, after the nearby Signal de Botrange and the Weißer Stein. The Baraque itself is an inn and the point of many excursions. The establishment was used as relay for the mail coaches. The direct connection was partly through Belgian territory, along the current N68 road, several rivers of Belgium, part of the basin of Vesdre, take their source in the vicinity. The principal ones are Gileppe, Hoëgne and Helle, media related to Baraque Michel at Wikimedia Commons
Baraque Michel
–
Baraque Michel in summer
42.
Baraque de Fraiture
–
The Baraque de Fraiture is the highest point in the Province of Luxembourg, Belgium. Situated in the Municipality of Vielsalm, it is 652 metres high and it has a ski area comprising 3 pistes, which open for less than 20 days a year. However, it has been open for up to 60 days per year recently, la Baraque de Fraiture is on the ridge separating the Basin of the River Ourthe from that of the Amblève on the summit of the Plateau des Tailles consisting of grassland, countryside and forest. The Baraque de Fraiture may be reached via the Autoroute de Soleil, exiting at junction 50 and turning onto the N30, in December 2005, Dutch playwright, Ivan Vrambout, put on a play entitled Baraque Frituur which featured the mutual prejudices of Flemish and Walloons. These friteries were usually mobile kiosks where traditional Belgian chips were sold in Belgium
Baraque de Fraiture
–
The ski slope
43.
Province of Luxembourg
–
Luxembourg is the southernmost province of Wallonia and of Belgium. It borders on the country of Luxembourg, France, and the Belgian provinces of Namur and its capital is Arlon, in the south-east of the province. It has an area of 4,443 km², making it the largest Belgian province, at around a quarter of a million residents, it is also the least populated province, making it a relatively sparsely populated province in an otherwise very densely populated country. It is significantly larger and much less populous than the neighbouring Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, about eighty percent of the province is part of the densely wooded Ardennes region. The southernmost region of the province is called Gaume or Belgian Lorraine, Luxembourg province is divided into five administrative districts containing a total of 44 municipalities
Province of Luxembourg
–
Flag
44.
Buurgplaatz
–
Buurgplaatz is a hill in the commune of Troisvierges, in northern Luxembourg. The 559 metre high summit lies within the Oesling region at 50. 1615°N6. 0281°E /50.1615,6.0281 and it is often erroneously considered the highest point in Luxembourg. Actually, it is the second highest, after Kneiff
Buurgplaatz
–
Tower at the Buurgplaatz
Buurgplaatz
–
Stone and base of the tower
45.
Province of Namur
–
Namur is a province of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Walloon provinces of Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Liège and Luxembourg in Belgium and its capital is the city of Namur. It has an area of 3,664 square kilometres and is divided into three administrative districts containing a total of 38 municipalities, list of rulers of Namur Province de Namurs official website Namur, one of the nine provinces of Belgium
Province of Namur
–
Flag
46.
Hercynian orogeny
–
The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny is a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Euramerica and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangaea. Hercynian, on the hand, derives from the Hercynian Forest. Both words were descriptive terms of strike directions observed by geologists in the field, variscan for southwest to northeast, the variscan direction reflected the direction of ancient fold belts cropping out throughout Germany and adjacent countries and the meaning shifted from direction to the fold belt proper. One of the pioneers in research on the Variscan fold belt was the German geologist Franz Kossmat, the other direction, Hercynian, for the direction of the Harz Mountains in Germany, saw a similar shift in meaning. Today Hercynian is often used as a synonym for Variscan, but is less used than the latter. In the USA it is used for European orogenies, the contemporaneous. The regional term Variscan underwent a further meaning shift since the 1960s, geologists generally began to use it to characterize late Paleozoic fold-belts and orogenic phases having an age of approximately 380 to 280 Ma. The North American and European Variscan Belt includes the mountains of Portugal and Spain, southwestern Ireland, Cornwall, Devon, Pembrokeshire, the Gower Peninsula and the Vale of Glamorgan. Its effects are present in France from Brittany, below the Paris Basin to the Ardennes, the Massif Central, the Variscan Belt reappears in Sardinia in Italy and in Germany where the Rhine Massif, the Black Forest and Harz Mountains remain as testimony. In the Czech Republic and Eastern Poland the Bohemian Massif is the end of the unmodified Variscan belt of crustal deformation in Europe. Further Variscan developments to the southeast are partly hidden and overprinted by the alpine orogeny, in the Alps a Variscan core is built by Mercantour, Pelvoux, Belledonne, Montblanc and Aar Massif. Dinaric, Greek and Turkish mountain chains are the termination of the Variscan proper. The Variscan was contemporaneous with the Acadian and Alleghenian orogeny in the United States and Canada, responsible for forming the Ouachita, North American areas with Variscan foldbelts include New England, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Variscan mountains in a chronological sense include the Urals, the Pamir. The Variscan orogeny involved a complicated assembly of different microplates and heterochronous collisions. Plate convergence that caused the Caledonian orogeny in the Silurian continued to form the Variscan orogeny in the succeeding Devonian, both orogenies resulted in the assembly of a super-continent, Pangaea, which was essentially complete by the end of the Carboniferous. In the Ordovician Period, a mass, which has been named Gondwana. Off to the west were three other masses, Laurentia, Siberia and Baltica, located as if on the vertices of a triangle, to the south of them was a large archipelago, the terrane Avalonia, rifted off the north Gondwana margin in early Ordovician
Hercynian orogeny
–
Location of the Hercynian-
Alleghenian mountain belts in the middle of the
Carboniferous period. Present day coastlines are indicated in grey for reference.
47.
Armorican Massif
–
The Armorican Massif is a geologic massif that covers a large area in the northwest of France, including Brittany, the western part of Normandy and the Pays de la Loire. It is important because it is connected to Dover on the British side of the English Channel and there has been tilting back and its name comes from the old Armorica, a Gaul area between the Loire and the Seine rivers. The massif is composed of metamorphic and magmatic rocks that were metamorphosed and/or deformed during the Hercynian or Variscan orogeny, the region was uplifted when the Bay of Biscay opened during the Cretaceous period. The Cantabrian Mountains and the Armorican Massif were then rift shoulders of the Bay of Biscay, the competent old rocks of the Armorican Massif have been eroded to a plateaulike peneplain. The highest summit, the Mont des Avaloirs, is just 417 meters above sea level, the western part of the Armorican Massif are the Monts dArrée. During the Neoproterozoic, older parts of the Armorican Massif formed the northern margin of the paleocontinent Gondwana, during the Paleozoic era, the Armorican Massif was part of the microcontinent Armorica, which probably also included terranes found in the Vosges, Black Forest and Bohemian Massif further east. Armorica rifted off the margin of Gondwana somewhere during the Ordovician or Silurian periods to move northward. The oldest rocks of the massif are Neoproterozoic sediments of the Brioverian Supergroup which were deformed and metamorphosed during the Cadomian orogeny and these are overlain by lower Paleozoic sediments. The whole sequence was deformed, metamorphosed and intruded by felsic magmas during the Hercynian orogeny, the massif is cut in three by two major late Hercynian southeast-northwest striking shear zones. The divisions are called the North, Center and South Armorican Zones. Generally the north was less deformed during the Hercynian orogeny than the south, the South Armorican Zone is considered part of the core of the Hercynian orogeny, comparable to the Moldanubian Zone of southern Germany and central Europe. Late Hercynian granitoid bodies were intruded along the South Armorican Shear Zone, the northern parts of the Armorican Massif have less intrusive rocks, although a small zone in the northwest of Brittany forms an exception
Armorican Massif
–
The site of the " Roche d'Oëtre ".
Armorican Massif
–
Location of the Armorican Massif on a structural map of the north of France. Hercynian
massifs are olive coloured.
48.
Massif Central
–
The Massif Central is an elevated region in the middle of southern France, consisting of mountains and plateaus. It covers approximately 15 percent of the country, the region was a barrier to transport within France until the opening of the A75 motorway, which not only made north-south travel easier, but also opened up the Massif Central itself. The Massif Central is an old massif, formed during the Variscan orogeny and it was powerfully raised and made to look geologically younger in the eastern section by the uplift of the Alps during the Paleogene period and in the southern section by the uplift of the Pyrenees. These tectonic movements created faults and are maybe at the origin of the volcanism in the Massif Central, in fact, above the crystalline foundation, we can observe many volcanoes of many different types and ages, volcanic plateaus, stratovolcanoes, and small, very recent monogenic volcanoes. The entire region contains a concentration of approximately 450 extinct volcanoes. The strip of Chaîne des Puys, running north to south and less than 60 square miles long, the Auvergne Volcanoes National Park is in the massif. In the south, one region, made up of features called causses in French. The most famous of these is the canyon of Tarn, the following régions are part of the Massif Central, Auvergne, Limousin. Part of the following régions are in the Massif Central, Languedoc-Roussillon, the largest cities are Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Étienne
Massif Central
–
Puy de Dôme is the highest volcano in the chain of volcanoes
Chaine des Puys
Massif Central
Massif Central
–
Puy de Sancy (1886 m)
Massif Central
–
The Cévennes range
49.
Vosges Mountains
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The Vosges, also called the Vosges Mountains, are a range of low mountains in eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and it runs in a north-northeast direction from the Burgundian Gate to the Börrstadt Basin, and forms the western boundary of the Upper Rhine Plain. The Grand Ballon is the highest peak at 1424 m, followed by the Storkenkopf, and the Hohneck. The elongated massif is divided south to north into three sections, The Higher Vosges or High Vosges, extending in the part of the range from Belfort to the river valley of the Bruche. The rounded summits of the Hautes Vosges are called ballons in French, in addition, the term Central Vosges is used to designate the various lines of summits, especially those above 1000 metres in elevation. The French department of Vosges is named after the range, erosive glacial action was the primary catalyst for development of the representative highland massif feature. Geographically, the Vosges Mountains are wholly in France, far above the Col de Saverne separating them from the Palatinate Forest in Germany, the latter area logically continues the same Vosges geologic structure but traditionally receives this different name for historical and political reasons. From 1871 to 1918 the Vosges marked the border between Germany and France, due to the Franco-Prussian War, the Vosges in their southern and central parts are called the Hautes Vosges. These consist of a large Carboniferous mountain eroded just before the Permian Period with gneiss, granites, in the north, south and west, there are places less eroded by glaciers, and here Vosges Triassic and Permian red sandstone remains are found in large beds. The grès vosgien, are embedded sometimes up to more than 500 metres in thickness, the Lower Vosges in the north are dislocated plates of various sandstones, ranging from 300 to 600 metres high. The Col de Saales, between the Higher and Central Vosges, reaches nearly 579 m, both lower and narrower than the Higher Vosges, with Mont Donon being the highest point of this Nordic section. Both areas exhibit steeper slopes towards the Rhine River and a gradual descent on the other side. This occurs because both the Vosges and the Black Forest were formed by uplift, in a response to the opening of the Rhine Graben. The Rhine Graben is an extensional basin. When such basins form, the thinning of the crust causes uplift immediately adjacent to the basin, the temperature is much lower in the west front of the mountains than in the low plains behind the massif, especially in summer. On the eastern slope economic vineyards reach to a height of 400 metres, on the hand, in the mountains, it is a land of pasture. The Moselle, Meurthe and Sarre rivers and their numerous affluents all rise on the Lorraine side, in the High Moselle and Meurthe basins, moraines, boulders and polished rocks testify to the former existence of glaciers which once covered the top of the Vosges. Over the centuries, settlement increased gradually, as was typical for a forested region, forests were cleared for, inter alia, agriculture, livestock and early industrial factories and the water mills used water power
Vosges Mountains
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Typical landscape of the Vosges (Chajoux valley,
La Bresse, France)
Vosges Mountains
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Location of the Vosges
Vosges Mountains
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Waterfall in the eastern Vosges
Vosges Mountains
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Lac de Schiessrothried, a
glacial lake in the Vosges
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