1.
Marseille
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Marseille, also known as Marseilles in English, is a city in France. Known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Massalia, Marseille was the most important trading centre in the region, Marseille is now Frances largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships. The city was European Capital of Culture, together with Košice, Slovakia and it hosted the European Football Championship in 2016, and will be the European Capital of Sport in 2017. The city is home to campuses of Aix-Marseille University and part of one of the largest metropolitan conurbations in France. Marseille is the second largest city in France after Paris and the centre of the third largest metropolitan area in France after Paris, further east still are the Sainte-Baume, the city of Toulon and the French Riviera. To the north of Marseille, beyond the low Garlaban and Etoile mountain ranges, is the 1,011 m Mont Sainte Victoire. To the west of Marseille is the artists colony of lEstaque, further west are the Côte Bleue, the Gulf of Lion. The airport lies to the north west of the city at Marignane on the Étang de Berre, the citys main thoroughfare stretches eastward from the Old Port to the Réformés quarter. Two large forts flank the entrance to the Old Port—Fort Saint-Nicolas on the south side and Fort Saint-Jean on the north. Further out in the Bay of Marseille is the Frioul archipelago which comprises four islands, one of which, If, is the location of Château dIf, the main commercial centre of the city intersects with the Canebière at rue St Ferréol and the Centre Bourse. To the south east of central Marseille in the 6th arrondissement are the Prefecture and the fountain of Place Castellane. To the south west are the hills of the 7th arrondissement, the railway station—Gare de Marseille Saint-Charles—is north of the Centre Bourse in the 1st arrondissement, it is linked by the Boulevard dAthènes to the Canebière. Marseille has a Mediterranean climate with mild, humid winters and warm to hot, december, January, and February are the coldest months, averaging temperatures of around 12 °C during the day and 4 °C at night. Marseille is officially the sunniest major city in France with over 2,900 hours of sunshine while the average sunshine in France is around 1,950 hours, less frequent is the Sirocco, a hot, sand-bearing wind, coming from the Sahara Desert. Snowfalls are infrequent, over 50% of years do not experience a single snowfall, Massalia, whose name was probably adapted from an existing language related to Ligurian, was the first Greek settlement in France. It was established within modern Marseille around 600 BC by colonists coming from Phocaea on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. The connection between Massalia and the Phoceans is mentioned in Thucydidess Peloponnesian War, he notes that the Phocaean project was opposed by the Carthaginians, the founding of Massalia has also been recorded as a legend. Protis was invited inland to a banquet held by the chief of the local Ligurian tribe for suitors seeking the hand of his daughter Gyptis in marriage, at the end of the banquet, Gyptis presented the ceremonial cup of wine to Protis, indicating her unequivocal choice
2.
Toulon
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Toulon is a city in southern France and a large military harbour on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-dAzur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department, the Commune of Toulon has a population of 165,514 people, making it the fifteenth-largest city in France. It is the centre of an area with 559,421 inhabitants. Toulon is the fourth-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille, Nice, Toulon is an important centre for naval construction, fishing, wine making, and the manufacture of aeronautical equipment, armaments, maps, paper, tobacco, printing, shoes, and electronic equipment. The military port of Toulon is the naval centre on Frances Mediterranean coast, home of the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle. The French Mediterranean Fleet is based in Toulon, archaeological excavations, such as those at the Cosquer Cave near Marseilles, show that the coast of Provence was inhabited since at least the Paleolithic era. The Ligurians settled in the beginning in the 4th century BC. In the 2nd century BC, the residents of Massalia called upon the Romans to help pacify the region. The Romans defeated the Ligurians and began to start their own colonies along the coast, Toulon harbour became a shelter for trading ships, and the name of the town gradually changed from Telo to Tholon, Tolon, and Toulon. Toulon was Christianized in the 5th century, and the first cathedral built, honoratus and Gratianus of Toulon, according to the Gallia Christiana, were the first bishops of Toulon, but Louis Duchesne gives Augustalis as the first historical bishop. He assisted at councils in 441 and 442 and signed in 449 and 450 the letters addressed to Pope Leo I from the province of Arles, a Saint Cyprian, disciple and biographer of St. Cæsarius of Arles, is also mentioned as a Bishop of Toulon. His episcopate, begun in 524, had not come to an end in 541, in 1095, a new cathedral was built in the city by Count Gilbert of Provence. As barbarians invaded the region and Roman power crumbled, the town was attacked by pirates. In 1486 Provence became part of France and his Italian campaign failed, and 1497, the rulers of Genoa, who controlled commerce on that part of the Mediterranean, blockaded the new port. However, a few months later the commander of the new fort sold it to the commander of an Army of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1543, Francis I found a surprising new ally in his battle against the Holy Roman Empire. He invited the fleet of Ottoman Admiral Barbarossa to Toulon as part of the Franco-Ottoman alliance, the residents were forced to leave, and the Ottoman sailors occupied the town for the winter. This fleet carried aboard an army of 8,000 infantry and 800 cavalry and its baggage under Thomas of Savoy, king Louis XIV was determined to make France a major sea power. In 1660, his Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert ordered Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban to build a new arsenal and to fortify the town
3.
French people
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The French are an ethnic group and nation who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be legal, historical, or cultural, modern French society can be considered a melting pot. To be French, according to the first article of the French Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of origin, race. The debate concerning the integration of this view with the underlying the European Community remains open. A large number of foreigners have traditionally been permitted to live in France, indeed, the country has long valued its openness, tolerance and the quality of services available. Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renunciation of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries, the European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in the state sector. Seeing itself as a nation with universal values, France has always valued. However, the success of such assimilation has recently called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves, the 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration, the name France etymologically derives from the word Francia, the territory of the Franks. The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire, in the pre-Roman era, all of Gaul was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes. Gaul was militarily conquered in 58-51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar, the area then became part of the Roman Empire. Over the next five centuries the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture, the Gaulish vernacular language disappeared step by step to be replaced everywhere by Vulgar Latin, which would later develop under Frankish influence into the French language in the North of France. With the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture, the Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti, already during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands, at the beginning, they served in the Roman army and reached high commands. Their language is spoken as a kind of Dutch in northern France. Another Germanic people immigrated massively to Alsace, the Alamans, which explains the Alemannic German spoken there and they were competitors of the Franks, thats why it became at the Renaissance time the word for German in French, Allemand. By the early 6th century the Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France, the Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process
4.
Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
5.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
6.
Knights Hospitaller
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It was headquartered variously in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, until it became known by its current name. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thoms order and it regained strength during the early 19th century as it redirected itself toward religious and humanitarian causes. In 1834, the order, by this time known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, acquired new headquarters in Rome, in 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital, in 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Ali az-Zahir of Egypt to rebuild the hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist and it was served by the Order of Saint Benedict. Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem, under his successor, Raymond du Puy de Provence, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort. Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its charitable character. Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as Master of the Hospital in 1118, organised a militia from the orders members, in 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms, a silver cross in a field of red. The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land, frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185. The statutes of Roger de Moulins deal only with the service of the sick, the order numbered three distinct classes of membership, the military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service. In 1248 Pope Innocent IV approved a military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour, they wore a red surcoat with a cross emblazoned on it. Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in the Holy Land were built by the Templars, at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch, were the Krak des Chevaliers, the property of the Order was divided into priories, subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies. As early as the late 12th century the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England, as a result, buildings such as St Johns Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. An Irish house was established at Kilmainham, near Dublin, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. His successor, Foulques de Villaret, executed the plan, and on 15 August 1310, after four years of campaigning
7.
Cardinal Richelieu
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Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac, commonly referred to as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman, nobleman, and statesman. He was consecrated as a bishop in 1607 and was appointed Foreign Secretary in 1616, Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIIIs chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642, he was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the kings Chief Minister or First Minister. He sought to consolidate power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong and his chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and to ensure French dominance in the Thirty Years War that engulfed Europe. Although he was a cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers in attempting to achieve his goals. While a powerful figure, events like the Day of the Dupes show that in fact he very much depended on the kings confidence to keep this power. As alumnus of the University of Paris and headmaster of the Collège de Sorbonne, Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts, most notably, he founded the Académie Française, the learned society responsible for matters pertaining to the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet lÉminence rouge, from the red shade of a cardinals clerical dress and this in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of Francophone culture in North America. He is also a character in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Born in Paris, Armand du Plessis was the fourth of five children, at the age of nine, young Richelieu was sent to the College of Navarre in Paris to study philosophy. Thereafter, he began to train for a military career and his private life seems to have been typical of a young officer of the era, in 1605, aged twenty, he was treated by Théodore de Mayerne for gonorrhea. King Henry III had rewarded Richelieus father for his participation in the Wars of Religion by granting his family the bishopric of Luçon. The family appropriated most of the revenues of the bishopric for private use, they were, however, challenged by clergymen, to protect the important source of revenue, Richelieus mother proposed to make her second son, Alphonse, the bishop of Luçon. Alphonse, who had no desire to become a bishop, became instead a Carthusian monk, thus, it became necessary that the younger Richelieu join the clergy. He had strong interests, and threw himself into studying for his new post. In 1606 King Henry IV nominated Richelieu to become Bishop of Luçon, as Richelieu had not yet reached the canonical minimum age, it was necessary that he journey to Rome for a special dispensation from the Pope. This secured, Richelieu was consecrated bishop in April 1607, soon after he returned to his diocese in 1608, Richelieu was heralded as a reformer
8.
French Navy
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The French Navy, informally La Royale, is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces. As of June 2014, the French Navy employed a total of 36,776 personnel, the reserve element of the French Navy consisted of 4,827 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The French naval fleet includes more than a hundred vessels and nuclear type submarines, the history of the French Navy dates back to the History of the French Navy of Antiquity to the Renaissance, part of the History of the French Navy. The French Royal Navy was quasi inexistent prior 1624, the Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, which was both a religious and military order, had its own respective international war fleet which assured the policing of the seas in the Mediterranean. The members which had satisfied obligations for periods in service at sea fulfilling their service, were granted the rank of Knights Hospitaller, however, many considered the naval service formation to integrate later, while being well formed, their respective navy. The Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem was one of the ancestors of the French naval schools and in principal, the Order accordingly formed most of the ships Captains, Officers of the French Royal Navy and Admirals of the Marine française de guerre de la Méditerranée. During the Revolution, the French Navy succeeded to the French Royal Navy, under the First French Empire and the Second French Empire, the navy was designated as the Imperial French Navy. The French Navy is still designated today familiarly as La Royale and this expression was used by commercial sailors due to their military service at the corps of the navy by the institution of maritime inscription. The implementation then of the Ministère de la Marine later the de la Marine de guerre française at rue Royale. The symbol of the French Navy, which was since origin a golden anchor » and this symbol featured on all naval vessels, the arms, uniforms, the couriers, equipment, and general arms of the navy. This symbol was replaced in 1990 by a logo featuring a bow section of a warship with two ascending red and blue spray foams, and the inscription Marine nationale. The Chief of Staff of the French Navy was Admiral Bernard Louzeau, the navy became a consistent instrument of national power around the seventeenth century with Richelieus efforts under Louis XIII, and Colberts under Louis XIV. Under the tutelage of the Sun King, the French Navy was well-financed and -equipped, managing to score several victories in the Nine Years War against the Royal Navy. Financial troubles, however, forced the navy back to port and allowed the English, before the Nine Years War, in the Franco-Dutch War, it managed to score a decisive victory over a combined Spanish-Dutch fleet at the Battle of Palermo. The French Navy scored various successes, as in the campaigns led in the Atlantic by Picquet de la Motte, in 1766, Bougainville led the first French circumnavigation. During the American Revolutionary War the French Navy played a role in supporting the Americans. French warships participated in the battle by bombarding British ground forces, in India, Suffren waged campaigns against the British, successfully contending for supremacy against Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes. In the Mediterranean, the French Navy waged a campaign during a 1798 French invasion of Egypt
9.
Battle of Getaria
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In June 1638 a large French army crossed the Pyrenees to besiege Fuenterrabía. The French army was accompanied by a fleet between 27 and 44 French warships under Henri de Sourdis, who had to stop any help reaching Fuenterrabia over the sea. De Hoces was ordered to attack the French fleet, but had only 12 galleons, the Spanish fleet sailed into the harbor of Getaria on August 17 and took up defensive positions close to the shore. De Sourdis decided to first batter the Spanish fleet with his fire power, then send in his fireships. But first the wind had to blow towards the shore, which happened on August 22, the French plan works extremely well. De Hoces had made no precautions against fireships, because this weapon was not used by the French. The entire Spanish fleet caught fire, except the Santiago, only 1,000 Spanish survivors reached the shores alive, including Lope de Hoces. Chevalier Paul distinguished himself during this action, the battle was a first important victory for the new French navy built under Cardinal Richelieu, who was very excited and thankful towards the French commanders. The victory gave the French temporary naval control of the Bay of Biscay, the destruction of the Spanish fleet by fireships had made a deep impression on Abraham Duquesne, who successfully used the same tactics at the Battle of Palermo in 1676
