1.
Regions of France
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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
2.
France
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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
3.
Prefectures in France
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There are 101 prefectures in France, one for each department. The official in charge is the prefect, the prefect represents the national government at the local level and as such exercises the powers that are constitutionally attributed to the national government. The prefect issues ordinances written for the application of law, to close a building that does not conform to safety codes. In the past, the prefect was head of the department, but since 1982, there is an exception in Paris and its three surrounding departments. These departments are administered by a prefecture for law enforcement and security purposes, called the Prefecture of Police. The power of law enforcement is usually invested in the mayor in other French communes, the departments are divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons. The chef-lieu darrondissement is the subprefecture, the official in charge is the subprefect (French, sous-préfet. Cantons have relatively few competences, the most important one being the local organisation of elections, administrative divisions of France French National Police
4.
Strasbourg
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Strasbourg is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany in the region of Alsace. In 2014, the city proper had 276,170 inhabitants, Strasbourgs metropolitan area had a population of 773,347 in 2013, making it the ninth largest metro area in France and home to 13% of the Grand Est regions inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 915,000 inhabitants in 2014, Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is also the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, Strasbourgs historic city centre, the Grande Île, was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. The largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque, was inaugurated by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls on 27 September 2012. Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, the port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany. Before the 5th century, the city was known as Argantorati, a Celtic Gaulish name Latinized first as Argentorate, after the 5h century, the city became known by a completely different name Gallicized as Strasbourg. That name is of Germanic origin and means Town of roads, Strasbourg is situated on the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the River Rhine, which forms the eastern border of the modern city. The historic core of Strasbourg however lies on the Grande Île in the River Ill, which flows parallel to, and roughly 4 kilometres from. The natural courses of the two eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city. This section of the Rhine valley is an axis of north-south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself. The city is some 400 kilometres east of Paris, in spite of its position far inland, Strasbourgs climate is classified as Oceanic, with warm, relatively sunny summers and cold, overcast winters. Precipitation is elevated from mid-spring to the end of summer, but remains largely constant throughout the year, on average, snow falls 30 days per year. The highest temperature recorded was 38.5 °C in August 2003. The lowest temperature recorded was −23.4 °C in December 1938. Nonetheless, the disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city have reduced air pollution
5.
Departments of France
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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
6.
Ardennes (department)
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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
7.
Aube
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Aube is a French department in the Grand Est region of north-eastern France. As with sixty departments in France, this department is named after a river, with 305,606 inhabitants, Aube is 76th department in terms of population. The inhabitants of the department are known as Aubois or Auboises The department was constituted as it is today by a decree of the National Assembly of 15 January 1790, the Aube department is located in the south-west side of the Grand Est region. It borders the departments of Marne in the north, Haute-Marne to the east, Côte-dOr in the south-east, Yonne in the south-west, major cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants) are, Troyes, Romilly-sur-Seine, La Chapelle-Saint-Luc, Saint-André-les-Vergers and Sainte-Savine. They are mostly located in the centre of the department, four of those five cities are part of the Agglomeration of Troyes. There are 23 rivers throughout the department, the four main rivers being the Seine, the Aube, the Armance, the department has 140,000 hectares of forests. Located in the Community of communes of Forests, lakes, and lands in Champagne, in the same place, there is the Orient Lake and the Amance and Temple lakes where fishing, recreational water sports, and bathing are available. Each lake specialises in one or more of these activities, the climate is moderate without intense cold or excessive heat which represents a climate similar to continental and oceanic. Between 1950 and 1985 the average temperature recorded in the department was 10.1 °C which is equivalent to the Paris basin. The average sunshine hours per year is 1771, average annual rainfall is quite high. In general there is rain in autumn than in winter. In contrast summer is the season when rainfall is lowest, there is, however, more rain in the south-east than the north-west. Prevailing wind is from the west, the department has 150 km of autoroutes,33 km of national roads,4,517 km of departmental roads and 2,116 km of local roads. In the Agglomeration of Troyes TCAT provides a network between communes. Unlike many networks that are provided by operators, the agglomeration community of the city is the owner of the company. The network currently serves eleven communes including two outside the Troyes agglomeration, other cities, including Romilly-sur-Seine, have no transport network. Aube also has intercity transport networks,21 regular bus routes are operated between the major cities of the department. The use of lines is entrusted to private coaches, Transdev - The Carriers of Aube has 15 routes, Keolis Sud Lorraine has 4 routes, Procars Champagne has 2 routes
8.
Bas-Rhin
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Bas-Rhin is a department in the Grand Est region of France. The name means Lower Rhine, however, geographically speaking it belongs to the Upper Rhine region and it is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the traditional Alsace region, with 1,112,815 inhabitants in 2014. The prefecture and the General Council are based in Strasbourg, the INSEE and Post Code is 67. The area is home to some of the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. To the north of Bas-Rhin lies the Palatinate forest in the German State of Rhineland-Palatinate, to the south lies the department of Haut-Rhin, the town of Colmar and southern Alsace, and to the west the department of Moselle. On its southwestern corner, Bas-Rhin also joins the department of Vosges, the Bas-Rhin has a continental-type climate, characterised by cold, dry winters and hot, stormy summers, due to the western protection provided by the Vosges. However, the Alsatian climate is less continental than that of Burgundy, the average annual temperature is 10.4 °C in the lowlands and 7 °C on high ground. The annual maximum temperature is high, the average rainfall is 700 mm per year. Established according to data from the Infoclimat station at Strasbourg-Entzheim, over the period from 1961 to 1990 and this is the last French department to have kept the term Bas meaning Lower in its name. The same phenomenon was observed for the inférieur departments such as Charente-Inférieure, Seine-Inférieure, Bas-Rhin is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790, during the French Revolution. Strasbourg, the lieu of Bas-Rhin is the official seat of the European Parliament as well as of the Council of Europe. The demography of Bas-Rhin is characterized by density and high population growth since the 1950s. In January 2014 Bas-Rhin officially had 1,112,815 inhabitants and was 18th by population at the national level, in fifteen years, from 1999 to 2014, its population grew by more than 86,000 people, or about 5,800 people per year. But this variation is differentiated among the 527 communes that make up the department, the population density of Bas-Rhin is 234 inhabitants per square kilometre in 2014 which is more than twice the average in France, which was 112 in 2009. The first census was conducted in 1801 and this count, renewed every five years from 1821, with 540,213 inhabitants in 1831, the department represented 1. 66% of the total French population, which was then 32,569,000 inhabitants. From 1831 to 1866, the department gained 48,757 people, demographic change between the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the First World War was higher than the national average. Over this period, the population increased by 100,532 inhabitants, the population increased by 9. 23% between the two world wars from 1921 to 1936 compared to a national growth of 6. 9%. Like other French departments, Bas-Rhin experienced a boom after the Second World War
9.
Marne
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Marne is a department in north-eastern France named after the river Marne which flows through the department. The prefecture of Marne is Châlons-en-Champagne, the subprefectures are Épernay, Reims, Sainte-Menehould, and Vitry-le-François. The Champagne vineyards producing the world-famous sparkling wine are located within Marne, Marne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790. It was created from the province of Champagne, Marne has a long association with the French Army. The smaller Camp de Moronvilliers lies to the east of Reims and these are all on the chalk of the Champagne plateau, a feature comparable in geology but not size, with the British military training ground on Salisbury Plain. Marne is part of the region of Grand Est and is surrounded by the departments of Ardennes, Meuse, Haute-Marne, Aube, Seine-et-Marne, and Aisne. Geologically, it divides into two parts, the Upper Cretaceous chalk plain in the east and the more wooded. Rivers draining the department include the Marne, Vesle, Ardre, numerous other rivers, such as the Grande and the Petite Morin rise in the department but flow mainly in others. Conversely, the Aube joins the Seine in the department of Marne, the inhabitants of the department are called Marnais. Reims, with its famous cathedral in which the kings of France were traditionally crowned, is a major attraction, other branches of tourism are provided by the bird reserve on the Lake Der-Chantecoq and the fishing lakes nearby. The Parc Naturel Régional de la Montagne de Reims is an area of country recreation. In the west of the département there are scenic routes to be explored as also are the several wine cellars of Épernay
10.
Haute-Marne
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Haute-Marne is a department in the northeast of France named after the Marne River. Haute-Marne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 and it was created from parts of the former provinces of Champagne, Burgundy, Lorraine and Franche-Comté. In March 1814 the departmental prefecture, Chaumont, was the witness to the end of the First Empire. On 1 March, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom and Austria signed an accord forbidding any individual peace deal with Napoleon I, during World War II, Haute-Marne was partitioned under German occupation. The canal which runs from the Marne to the Saône served as a border, the east was a reserved zone, intended for the creation of a new German state, whereas to the west would be the traditional occupied zone. Haute-Marne was finally liberated by the Allies, in the form of the division of General Leclerc, Haute-Marne is part of the region of Grand Est and is surrounded by the departments of Meuse, Vosges, Haute-Saône, Côte-dOr, Aube, and Marne. The nearest big cities are Paris, Nancy, Strasbourg, Basel, the highest mountain is Haut-du-Sac, in the Langres Plateau, in the southwest of the department, which rises to a height of 516 m. The lowest points at 117m are found on the plains of Perthois, the department is named after the Marne River, whose source is near Langres. This river covers 120 kilometres within the department, the department is to the east of the Parisian basin, and is characterised by a concentric sequence of cliff faces of varying geological origin, oriented northeast/southwest. The Haute-Marne department is not a department but this peaceful territory has numerous interesting places to present. Indeed, the department was one of the most powerful in French history thanks to metallurgy economy and was a land of confrontations along history, thus, among other examples, the French Wars of Religion began with the Massacre of Vassy in the north of the Haute-Marne department. Following this event, open military conflicts across France Kingdom began, the Edict of Nantes is the consequence of this period
11.
Haut-Rhin
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Haut-Rhin is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the Rhine river. The remaining French part formed the Territoire de Belfort in 1922,1919, it was reverted to France,1940, it was annexed de facto by Nazi Germany. 1944, it was recovered by France, in the centre of the département lies a fertile plain. Haut-Rhin is one of the richest French départements, mulhouse is the home of a Peugeot automobile factory, manufacturing the 106 and 206 models. The lowest unemployment rate in France can be found in the Southern Sundgau region, the countryside is marked by hills. Many Haut-Rhinois work in Switzerland, especially in the industries of Basel. Alsace and the adjacent Moselle department have a system slightly different from the rest of France. The statutes in question date from the period 1871 -1919 when the area was part of the German Empire, alsatian language Cantons of the Haut-Rhin department Communes of the Haut-Rhin department Arrondissements of the Haut-Rhin department General Council website Prefecture website Haut-Rhin at DMOZ
12.
Meurthe-et-Moselle
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Meurthe-et-Moselle is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the Meurthe and Moselle rivers. Meurthe-et-Moselle was created in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War from the parts of the departments of Moselle. The current boundary between Meurthe-et-Moselle and Moselle was the border between France and Germany from 1871 to 1919 and again between 1940 and 1944, parts of Meurthe-et-Moselle belong to the Lorraine Regional Natural Park. The department extends for 130 km from north to south and is between 7 and 103 km wide and its chief rivers are, the Moselle the Meurthe the Chiers the Vezouze The economy was highly dependent on mining until the 1960s. There are iron, salt, and lime extraction sites, the urban area around Nancy has a very dynamic economy based largely on services, research, and higher education. The inhabitants of the department are known as Meurthe-et-Mosellans, the area around Nancy has become highly urbanized, whereas the Saintois in the south is quite rural
13.
Meuse (department)
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Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse. Parts of Meuse belong to Parc naturel régional de Lorraine, front lines in trench warfare during World War I ran varying courses through the department and it hosted an important battle/offensive in 1916 in and around Verdun. Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, the new departments were to be uniformly administered and approximately equal to one another in size and population. The department was created from the provinces of Barrois and Three Bishoprics. From about 500 AD, the Franks controlled this part of northeastern France, the Carolingian territories were divided into three sections in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun, and the area that is now the department of Meuse, became part of Middle Francia. Lothair II died without heirs and Lotharingia was divided into an east and west part. The Battle of Sedan was fought in the part of the department during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. It resulted in the capture of the Emperor Napoleon III and large numbers of his troops and effectively decided the war in favour of Prussia, the area was again a battleground in World War I when the Battle of Verdun was fought in 1916. In the Second World War it again saw action in battle when the Germans sought to establish a base from which to capture the Meuse bridges. Meuse is a department in northeastern France and is part of the region of Grand Est, the capital and largest town in the department is Bar-le-Duc, and other large towns are Commercy and Verdun. The main rivers flowing through the department are the River Meuse, the Aire, a ridge running from south to north separates the watersheds of the Seine and the Rhine. These hills are called the Argonne and are clothed in oak forests, the area of the department is 2,408 sq mi. The principal crops grown are wheat, barley and oats, potatoes, oilseed rape, vegetables, livestock is raised and timber is extracted from the forests. The main industries are brewing and the manufacture of glass and tiles, lace-making is a traditional craft in the department. Part of the department is in the Lorraine Regional Natural Park, the park has many natural habitats including calcareous grassland, forested valleys, wet meadows, ponds and streams. There are many Natura 2000 protected areas and it is an important resting area for migratory birds, among the different habitats it includes a stretch of coast, the plain of Woëvre, the Lac de Madine, the Meuse valley and the Hague plateau. The total area of the park is 205,000 hectares, since the mid-nineteenth century, the exodus of the countryside inhabitants to the cities has caused the population of rural France to fall. Meuse has no big cities to receive population and the population of the department has thus decreased
14.
Moselle (department)
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Moselle is the most populous department in Lorraine, in the east of France, and is named after the river Moselle, a tributary of the Rhine, which flows through the western part of the department. Inhabitants of the department are known as Mosellans, Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790. It was created from the province of Lorraine. One of its first prefects was the comte de Vaublanc, from 1805 to 1814, by the Treaty of Paris of 1814 following the first defeat and abdication of Napoleon, France had to surrender almost all the territory it had conquered since 1792. In northeastern France, the Treaty did not restore the 1792 borders, however, as a result, France ceded the exclave of Tholey as well as a few communes near Sierck-les-Bains to Austria. France thus became a net beneficiary of the Treaty of Paris, all the new territories ceded to her being far larger, all these new territories were incorporated into the Moselle department, and so Moselle had now a larger territory than ever since 1790. However, with the return of Napoleon and his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Tholey and the communes around Sierck-les-Bains were still to be ceded as agreed in 1814, at the end of 1815 Austria transferred all these territories to Prussia, making for the first time a shared border for those two states. Thus, by the end of 1815, the Moselle department had finally the limits that it would keep until 1871, between 1815 and 1871, the department had an area of 5,387 km². It had four arrondissements, Metz, Briey, Sarreguemines, France merged the remaining area of Briey with the truncated Meurthe department to create the new Meurthe-et-Moselle department with its préfecture at Nancy. In 1919, following the French victory in the First World War, however, it was decided not to recreate the old separate departments of Meurthe and Moselle by reverting to the old department borders of before 1871. Instead, Meurthe-et-Moselle was left untouched, and the part of Lorraine was reconstituted as the new department of Moselle. Thus, the Moselle department was reborn, but with different borders from those before 1871. The new Moselle department now reached its current area of 6,216 km², larger than the old Moselle because the areas of Château-Salins and Sarrebourg were far larger than the area of Briey and Longwy. At the declaration of World War II on September 3,1939 around 30% of Moselles territory lay between the Maginot Line and the German front,302,732 people, around 45% of the departments population, were evacuated to departments in central and western France during September 1939. Of those evacuated, around 200,000 returned after the war, in spite of the June 22,1940 armistice, Moselle was again annexed by Germany in July of that year, it became part of the Gau Westmark. Adolf Hitler considered Moselle and Alsace parts of Germany, and as a result the inhabitants were drafted into the German Wehrmacht, several organized groups were formed in resistance to the German occupation, notably the Groupe Mario, led by Jean Burger, and the Groupe Derhan. During these years more than 10,000 Mosellans were deported to camps, many to the Sudetenland, the United States Army liberated Moselle from the Third Reich in the Battle of Metz in September 1944, although combat continued in the northeastern part of the department until March 1945
15.
Vosges (department)
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Vosges is an eastern department of France named after the Vosges. It consists of 17 cantons and 515 communes, of which 242 are rural, including the commune of Domrémy-la-Pucelle, where Joan of Arc was born. Joan of Arc was born in the village of Domrémy, then in the French part of the duchy of Bar, or Barrois mouvant, the part of the duchy lying east of the Meuse was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The duchy of Bar later became part of the province of Lorraine, the village of Domrémy was renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle in honour of Joan. The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France and it was made of territories that had been part of the province of Lorraine. In German it is referred to as Vogesen, in 1793 the independent principality of Salm-Salm, enclosed inside the Vosges department, was annexed to France and incorporated into Vosges. In 1795 the area of Schirmeck was detached from the Bas-Rhin department, the Vosges department had now an area of 6,127 km² which it kept until 1871. In 1794 the Vosges was the site of a battle between the forces of Revolutionary France and the Allied Coalition. The Place des Vosges in Paris was so renamed in 1799 when the department became the first to pay the new Revolutionary taxes, the area annexed on May 18,1871 corresponded to the canton of Schirmeck and the northern half of the canton of Saales. Schirmeck and Saales had been part of Alsace. These territories, along with the rest of Alsace and the territories of Lorraine. The area of the Vosges department was reduced to its current 5,874 km². In 1919, with the victory in the World War I. However, Schirmeck and Saales were not returned to the Vosges department, an ill-fated Special Air Service mission called Operation Loyton took place in the Vosges forests in 1944. Various military cemeteries are located in the department the largest of which is the Le Quéquement American Cemetery in Dinozé and it was built by the American 45th Infantry Division in September 1944 and completed in 1959. 5,255 soldiers killed in action during fighting in France, the Vosges, the largest cities/towns are Épinal, Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, Gérardmer and Remiremont. A total population of 378,830 inhabitants was recorded in the 2011 census, the population is split with 70% in urban areas and 30% living in rural districts. Roughly 47% of the department is covered by woodlands and forests, the remaining 13% is commercial, industrial and residential
16.
The Republicans (France)
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The Republicans is a centre-right political party in France. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 by renaming the Union for a Popular Movement party, the party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The Republicans are a member of the European Peoples Party, Centrist Democrat International, with the name already chosen, vice-president of the UMP Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet presented Sarkozy and the partys political bureau the proposed new statutes. The new name was adopted by the party bureau on 5 May 2015, the new party statutes were adopted by 96. 3% of voters and the composition of the new political bureau by 94. 8%. The change to the name The Republicans was confirmed at the founding congress on 30 May 2015 at the Paris Event Centre in Paris. Angela Merkel, chairwoman of the conservative CDU, sent a message to the congress. The Republicans thus became the successor of the UMP and the leading centre-right party in France. The organisation has been declared in the préfecture de Saône-et-Loire on 9 April 2015 and this party foundation was published in the Journal officiel de la République française on 25 April 2015. On 3 July 2016, Sarkozy announced that he would resign as leader that year in order to compete to be the candidate in the 2017 presidential election. On 27 November 2016, Francois Fillon, the former Prime Minister of France, politics of France List of political parties in France Official web site of Les Républicains
17.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
18.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
19.
Gross domestic product
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
20.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
21.
Alsatian dialect
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Alsatian is a Low Alemannic German dialect spoken in most of Alsace, a region in eastern France which has passed between French and German control five times since 1681. A dialect of Alsatian German is spoken in the United States by so-called Swiss Amish, the approximately 7,000 speakers are mainly located in Allen County, Indiana but also in daughter settlements elsewhere. Alsatian is closely related to other nearby Alemannic dialects, such as Swiss German, Swabian and it is often confused with Lorraine Franconian, a more distantly related Franconian dialect spoken in the northwest corner of Alsace and in neighbouring Lorraine. Like other dialects and languages, Alsatian has also influenced by outside sources. Words of Yiddish origin can be found in Alsatian, and modern conversational Alsatian includes adaptations of French words and English words, many speakers of Alsatian could, if necessary, write in reasonable standard German. For most this would be rare and confined to those who have learned German at school or through work, as with other dialects, various factors determine when, where, and with whom one might converse in Alsatian. Some dialect speakers are unwilling to speak standard German, at times, to certain outsiders, some street names in Alsace may use Alsatian spellings. C, Q, and X are only used in loanwords, Y is also used in native words such as Dytschi, but is more common in loanwords. Alsatian, like some German dialects, has lenited all obstruents and its lenes are, however, voiceless as in all Southern German varieties. Therefore, they are here transcribed /b̥/, /d̥/, /ɡ̊/, the phoneme /ç/ has a velar allophone after back vowels, and palatal elsewhere. In southern dialects, there is a tendency to pronounce it /x/ in all positions, short vowels, /ʊ/, /o/, /ɒ/, /a/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /i/, /y/. Long vowels, /ʊː/, /oː/, /ɒː/, /aː/, /ɛː/, /eː/, /iː/, /yː/ Since 1992, however, Alsatian, along with other regional languages, is recognized by the French government in the official list of languages of France. France is a signatory to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages but has never ratified the law and has not given regional languages the support that would be required by the charter. The policies of the Paris government have had the effect of greatly weakening the prevalence of native languages in France that are not French. As a result, the Alsatian dialect of German has gone from being the prevalent language of the region to one in decline, a 1999 INSEE survey counted 548,000 adult speakers of Alsatian in France, making it the second most-spoken regional language in the country. Like all regional languages in France, however, the transmission of Alsatian is on the decline, while 43% of the adult population of Alsace speaks Alsatian, its use has been largely declining amongst the youngest generations. La dynamique des langues en France au fil du XXe siècle, lalsacien, deuxième langue régionale de France Insee, Chiffres pour lAlsace no. Le dialecte à la portée de tous La Nuée Bleue,1999, ISBN 2-7165-0464-4 Matzen, Raymond, and Léon Daul
22.
Lorraine Franconian
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The term Lorraine Franconian has multiple denotations. Some scholars use it to refer to the group of West Central German dialects spoken in the French Lorraine region. In 1806 there were 218,662 speakers of Lorraine Franconian in Moselle and 41,795 speakers in Meurthe. In part from the ambiguity of the term, estimates of the number of speakers of Lorraine Franconian in France vary widely, ranging from 30,000 to 400,000. The most reliable data comes from the Enquête famille carried out by INSEE as part of the 1999 census, approximately 78,000 people were reported to speak Lorraine Franconian, but fewer than 50,000 passed basic knowledge of the language on to their children. Another statistic illustrating the point is that of all adult men who used Franconian regularly when they were 5. Langues régionales et relations transfrontalières dans l’espace Saar-Lor-Lux, la dynamique des langues en France au fil du XXe siècle. Bilingualism in North-East France with specific reference to Rhenish Franconian spoken by Moselle Cross-border workers, in Preisler, Bent, et al. eds. The Consequences of Mobility, Linguistic and Sociocultural Contact Zones, Roskilde, Denmark, Roskilde Universitetscenter, Institut for Sprog og Kultur. — Historical, literary, and linguistic information Gau un Griis — Association for the defense and promotion of Lorraine Franconian Plattweb
23.
Alsace
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Alsace is a cultural and historical region in eastern France now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Alsace is located on Frances eastern border and on the west bank of the upper Rhine adjacent to Germany, from 1982 until January 2016, Alsace was the smallest of 22 administrative regions in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French legislature in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. The predominant historical language of Alsace is Alsatian, a Germanic dialect also spoken across the Rhine, but today most Alsatians primarily speak French, the political status of Alsace has been heavily influenced by historical decisions, wars, and strategic politics. The economic and cultural capital as well as largest city of Alsace is Strasbourg, the city is the seat of several international organizations and bodies. The name Alsace can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, an alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning seated on the Ill, a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, by 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. It should be noted that Alsace is a surrounded by the Vosges mountains. It creates Foehn winds which, along with irrigation, contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture, to protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior, with the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine, Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized, Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, which was ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts, the part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothars son. The rest was shared between Lothars brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German, the Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the duchy of Swabia. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants
24.
Champagne-Ardenne
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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
25.
Lorraine
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Lorraine is a cultural and historical region in north-eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Lorraines name stems from the kingdom of Lotharingia, which in turn was named for either Emperor Lothair I or King Lothair II. It became later the Duchy of Lorraine before it was annexed to France in 1766, from 1982 until January 2016, Lorraine was an administrative region of France, when it became part of the new region Grand Est. As a region in modern France, Lorraine consisted of the four departments Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle and Vosges, the regional prefecture was Metz, although the largest metropolitan area of Lorraine is Nancy. Lorraine borders Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg and its inhabitants are called Lorrains in French and number about 2,356,000. Lorraines borders have changed often in its long history, in 840, Charlemagnes son Louis the Pious died, and the Carolingian Empire was divided among Louis three sons by the Treaty of Verdun of 843. On the death of Lothair I, Middle Francia was divided in three by the Treaty of Prüm in 855, with the northern third called Lotharingia and going to Lothair II and this allowed it to be a duchy in name but an independent kingdom in reality. In 870, it allied itself with East Francia while remaining an autonomous duchy, along with the rest of Europe, this prosperity was terminated in Lorraine in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death. During the Renaissance, a flourishing prosperity returned to Lotharingia until the Thirty Years War, France annexed Lorraine by force in 1766, a condition that remains today. However, the population was mixed, with the north largely Germanic, speaking Lorraine Franconian, in 1871, the German Empire regained a part of Lorraine Bezirk Lothringen, corresponding to the current department of Moselle). The department formed part of the new Imperial German State of Alsace-Lorraine, however, after 1877 higher education, including state-run colleges, universities and teacher seminaries, was exclusively in German. The prevalence of German and the usage of French, though restricted, were both guaranteed by the 1911 constitution of Alsace-Lorraine. In the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the former German Empire suffered severe territorial losses, with the exception of its de facto annexation by Nazi Germany during World War II, that area has since remained a part of France. During that war, the cross of Lorraine was a symbol of Free France, the administrative region of Lorraine is larger than the 18th century duchy of Lorraine, which gradually came under French sovereignty between 1737 and 1766. The modern region includes provinces and areas that were separate from the duchy of Lorraine proper. These are, Barrois Three Bishoprics, non-contiguous territories around Metz, Verdun, several small principalities which were still part of the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the French Revolution. Some people consider the traditional province of Lorraine as limited to the duchy of Lorraine proper, while other people consider that it includes Barrois, the problem is that this duchy of Lorraine was originally the duchy of upper Lorraine, and did not include the entire area called Lorraine. Thus the duchies of Bar and Lorraine were united in personal union under the same duke, during the French Revolution, four departments were created on the main parts of the territories of Barrois, Three Bishoprics and the Duchy of Lorraine, Meuse, Meurthe, Moselle and Vosges
26.
Administrative law
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Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law, civil law countries often have specialized courts, administrative courts, that review these decisions. In Brazil, unlike most Civil-law jurisdictions, there is no specialized court or section to deal with administrative cases, in 1998, a constitutional reform, led by the government of the President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, introduced regulatory agencies as a part of the executive branch. The President of the Republic exercises the function, in collaboration with several Ministries or other authorities with ministerial rank. Each Ministry has one or more under-secretary that performs through public services the actual satisfaction of public needs, there is not a single specialized court to deal with actions against the Administrative entities, but instead there are several specialized courts and procedures of review. Administrative law in the Peoples Republic of China was virtually non-existent before the reform era initiated by Deng Xiaoping. In 1990, the Administrative Supervision Regulations and the Administrative Reconsideration Regulations were passed, the three regulations have been amended and upgraded into laws. In 1994, the State Compensation Law was passed, followed by the Administrative Penalties Law in 1996, Administrative Compulsory Law was enforced in 2012. Adiministrative Litigation Law was amended in 2014. The General Administrative Procedure Law is under way, the main administrative courts are the tribunaux administratifs and appeal courts are the cours administratives dappel. Special administrative courts include the National Court of Asylum Right as well as military, the French body of administrative law is called droit administratif. It is a part of the law, which deals with the organization, the tasks. Administrative law in Germany follows three basic principles, principle of the legality of the authority, which means that there is no acting against the law and no acting without a law. The general administration law is ruled in the Administrative Procedures Law. Other legal sources are the Rules of the Administrative Courts, the security code. The Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz, which was enacted in 1977, regulates the main administrative procedures of the federal government and it serves the purpose to ensure a treatment in accordance with the rule of law by the public authority. Furthermore, it contains the regulations for mass processes and expands the legal protection against the authorities, the VwVfG basically applies for the entire public administrative activities of federal agencies as well as federal state authorities, in case of making federal law. One of the clause is §35 VwVfG
27.
Hauts-de-France
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Hauts-de-France is a Region of France created by the territorial reform of French Regions in 2014 by the merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. The new region came into existence on 1 January 2016, after the elections in December 2015. Frances Conseil dÉtat approved Hauts-de-France as the new name of the region on 28 September 2016, the region covers an area of more than 31,813 km2, and with a population of 5,973,098. The regions interim name Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie was a placename, created by hyphenating the merged regions names—Nord-Pas-de-Calais. On 14 March 2016, well ahead of the 1 July deadline, the provisional name of the region was retired on 30 September 2016, when the new name of the region, Hauts-de-France, took effect
28.
Centre-Val de Loire
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Centre-Val de Loire, French for Centre-Loire Valley), is one of the 18 administrative regions of France. It straddles the middle Loire Valley in the interior of the country, the administrative capital is Orléans, but the largest city is Tours. Like many contemporary regions of France, the region of Centre was created from parts of three provinces, Touraine, Orléanais, and Berry. Proposed names for the region included Val de Loire after the Loire Valley or Cœur de Loire, on 17 January 2015, as part of the reorganization of French regions, the regions official name was changed to Centre-Val de Loire. A new logo was also created and this ensures a mission of economic promotion, international support to regional companies and enhancement promotion of regional agrofood products via a regional signature, © du Centre
29.
France 3
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France 3 is the second largest French public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5, and France Ô. The channel also broadcasts various national programming and national and international news from Paris, the channel was known as FR3 or France Régions 3 until its official replacement by France 3 in September 1992. Prior to the establishment of Outre-Mer 1ère, it also broadcast to the various French overseas territories, La 3e Chaîne Couleur began broadcasting at 7, 00pm CET on 20 December 1972. Upon launch, Jean-Louis Guillaud and the head of ORTF, Arthur Conte, went on the air, on 7 October 1974, law reforms signalled the breakup of the ORTF into seven separate state-owned companies. FR3 was launched on 6 January 1975 with its PDG, Claude Contaime, choosing to concentrate on film, debate, by 22 March 1975, daily local programming for the regions had commenced. Some national programming, including Les Jeux de 20 Heures, made use of the regional network by linking up to studios around the country for live features. On the programming front, the networks first national news programme was introduced in 1978 in the form of Soir 3,21 October 1981 saw FR3 begin regular live coverage of the ministers questions of the National Assembly. Advertising was introduced to the network in January 1983, by September 1983, the twelve broadcasting centres around the country were airing an average of 3 hours a day of regional output. Popular programming on Saturday night included the first airings of the American soap opera Dynasty, National and regional news at peaktime was integrated into a new nightly programme, 19|20, launched on 6 May 1986. In 1986, the government of Jacques Chirac put forward the proposal of privatising one of the three public television companies. The original suggestion was to turn FR3 into a private body, changes to the schedule included a supplementary Friday night edition of Thalassa- le magazine de la mer whilst an televised opera was aired every Wednesday night. Popular quiz show Questions pour un champion made its broadcasting début in November 1988, La Classe, an entertainment programme which replaced Les Jeux de 20 heures and followed 19|20, was also introduced. In 1990, the State, through the Conseil Supérieure de lAudiovisuel, at the same time, FR3 was already closing down on Saturday afternoons to allow nine hours of airtime to the educational station La Sept. The arrangement continued until 1992 when the launch of the Franco-German network Arte led to the broadcasters demise, on FR3 itself, the network aired current affairs programming on Saturday mornings including Continentales and LEurojournal, both presented by Alex Taylor. On 7 September 1992, FR3 and Antenne 2 formed France Télévisions and rebranded as France 3, in 1998, France 3 partnered with TPS to launch a satellite station called Régions. Between 2000 and 2005, La Cinquième, RFO and France 4 joined France 2, the late night news programme Soir 3 was given a new, fixed timeslot of 11 pm. With the establishment of digital television, France 3 has seen its national audience share down to under 10%. France 3 is an entertainment channel which has missions to deliver domestic
30.
Metropolitan France
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Metropolitan France, also known as European France, is the part of France in Europe. It comprises mainland France and nearby islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, Overseas France is the collective name for the part of France outside Europe, French overseas regions, territories, collectivities, and the sui generis collectivity of New Caledonia. Metropolitan France and Overseas France together form the French Republic, Metropolitan France accounts for 82. 2% of the land territory,3. 3% of the exclusive economic zone, and 95. 9% of the population of the French Republic. The five overseas regions—Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion, French Guiana, in overseas France, a person from metropolitan France is often called a métro, short for métropolitain. Similar terms existed to describe other European colonial powers and this usage of the words metropolis and metropolitan itself came from Ancient Greek metropolis, which was the name for a city-state from which originated colonies across the Mediterranean. By extension metropolis and metropolitan came to mean motherland, a nation or country as opposed to its colonies overseas, today there are some people in overseas France who object to the use of the term la France métropolitaine due to its colonial origins. They prefer to call it the European territory of France, as the Treaties of the European Union do, likewise, they oppose treating overseas France and metropolitan France as separate entities. As a result, since the end of the 1990s INSEE has included the five departments in its figures for France. Other branches of the French administration may have different definitions of what la France entière is, the World Bank refers to this as France only, and not the whole of France as INSEE does. According to the French government,64,860,000 people lived in metropolitan France as of January 2017, Metropolitan France covers a land area of 551,695 km². At sea, the economic zone of metropolitan France covers 334,604 km², while the EEZ of overseas France covers 9,821,231 km². In the second round of the 2007 French presidential election,37,342,004 French people cast a ballot. 35,907,015 of these cast their ballots in metropolitan France,1,088,679 cast their ballots in overseas France, and 346,310 cast their ballots in foreign countries. The French National Assembly is made up of 577 deputies,539 of whom are elected in metropolitan France,27 in overseas France, and 11 by French citizens living in foreign countries. Mainland France, or just the mainland, does not include the French islands in the Atlantic Ocean, English Channel or Mediterranean Sea, in Corsica, people from the mainland part of Metropolitan France are referred to as les continentaux. A casual synonym for the part of Metropolitan France is lHexagone, for its approximate shape. French colonial empire Mainland Wildlife of Metropolitan France
31.
European institutions in Strasbourg
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There are a range of European institutions in Strasbourg, the oldest of which dates back to 1815. In all, there are more than twenty different institutions based in the Alsatian city, due to this concentration Strasbourg is a claimant to the title of capital of Europe. The first specific European building in the area was the Council of Europes House of Europe in 1949, the Arte headquarters, previously disseminated on several buildings across the town, were united in a single spacious building close to the Louise Weiss building in 2003. While the Council of Europe has seen two new buildings being inaugurated in 2006 and 2008, the European Union has constructed no new buildings in Strasbourg since 1999. In all, there are fourteen different buildings in the European Quarter, eight belonging to the Council of Europe, four belonging to the European Union, plus Arte, the first European institution to be based in the city was the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine. Set up in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, it is the oldest international organisation in the world but has only been based in Strasbourg since 1920 and its function is to encourage European prosperity by guaranteeing a high level of security for navigation of the Rhine and environs. However the bulk of the European presence in Strasbourg comes from the post-Second World War establishment of institutions, the move towards European integration pushed for the creation of new bodies. The first of these to be established was the International Commission on Civil Status, founded in 1948, both the Council of Europe and the European Union increasingly work together, notably to enforce the Council of Europes European Convention on Human Rights. Perfect, no one will go there, the Council of Europe has eight buildings in the district, its main building used to be shared with the European Parliament. The first building to be completed was the House of Europe, inaugurated in 1950, the Agora building has been voted best international business center real estate project of 2007 and marked the provisional end of new building by the Council of Europe. Due to persistent budgetary shortages, the Council of Europe is expected to cut down significantly the number of its activities and this will notably affect the economy of the city of Strasbourg. The European Parliament has four buildings in the quarter and it previously used the hemicycle of the Council of Europe to hold its meetings until 1999 when it completed its main building, the Louise Weiss building, across the river from the Palace of Europe. It is connected by a bridge to its office buildings, Pierre Pflimlin, Winston Churchill and Salvador de Madariaga. The Salvador de Madariaga building also houses the other EU body of which Strasbourg is the official seat, the location of Parliament has caused some controversy, as its work takes place not only in Strasbourg but also in Brussels and Luxembourg city. The split arrangement has caused financial, environmental and practical difficulties, the École nationale dadministration, founded in 1945 in Paris, was moved to Strasbourg by decree in 1991 and permanently established there in 2005. Another related academic institution is the Institut des hautes études européennes, located in the Art Nouveau former Villa Knopf, close to the Parliament and this school was founded in 1953 and was then called Centre universitaire des hautes études européennes. The École Européenne de Strasbourg has been inaugurated by French education minister Xavier Darcos on 4 September 2008 and it is the first school of its kind in France. Strasbourg is also, since its inception in 1991, the seat of the Franco-German television channel Arte
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Institutional seats of the European Union
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The seven institutions of the European Union are seated in four different cities, viz. Brussels, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, rather than being concentrated in a single capital city. The EU agencies and other bodies are located all across the union, the Hague is the only exception, as the fixed seat of the European Police Office. The seats have been a matter of dispute since the states first failed to reach an agreement at the establishment of the European Coal. However, an agreement between member states was reached in 1992, and later attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam. Despite this, the seat of the European Parliament remains controversial, the work of Parliament is divided between Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, which is seen as a problem due to the large number of MEPs, staff, and documents which need to be moved. As the locations of the seats have been enshrined in the treaties of the European Union, Parliament has no right to decide its own seat. Locating new bodies is not without political disputes. The European Central Banks seat had to symbolise its independence from political control, new agencies are also being based in eastern Europe since 2004 to balance the distribution of agencies across the EU. The treaties of the European Union outline the locations of the institutions, The European Parliament has its seat in Strasbourg. Brussels hosts additional sessions and committees, Luxembourg hosts the Secretariat of the European Parliament. The Council of the European Union has its seat in Brussels, except during April, June, and October, the European Commission also has its seat in Brussels, although some departments are hosted by Luxembourg. The European Court of Justice, the General Court, and the Court of Auditors are based in Luxembourg along with the European Investment Bank, separately, the Treaty of Nice establishes Brussels as the venue for all formal summits of the European Council after 2004. However some extraordinary sessions are held outside the city. The European Councils seat is fixed by a declaration rather than a protocol. The 2011 Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism states that the seat of the ESM must be in Luxembourg, the ESM should be ratified and active in mid-2013 and it is allowed to establish a liaison office in Brussels. There are numerous bodies and agencies that have not had their seats fixed by treaties. Brussels hosts the European Defence Agency, Luxembourg hosts the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union and the European Investment Bank. Strasbourg hosts the office of the European Ombudsman, the other agencies are spread across Europe and since the 2004 enlargement, there has been a drive to locate more agencies in the new member-states to make a more equal distribution
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European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
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Eastern Europe
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Eastern Europe, also known as East Europe, is the eastern part of the European continent. There is no consensus on the area it covers, partly because the term has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, cultural. There are almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region, a related United Nations paper adds that every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct. One definition describes Eastern Europe as an entity, the region lying in Europe with main characteristics consisting in Byzantine, Orthodox. Another definition was created during the Cold War and used more or less synonymously with the term Eastern Bloc, a similar definition names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe. Historians and social scientists generally view such definitions as outdated or relegating, several definitions of Eastern Europe exist today, but they often lack precision or are extremely general. These definitions vary both across cultures and among experts, even scientists, recently becoming more and more imprecise. The Ural Mountains, Ural River, and the Caucasus Mountains are the land border of the eastern edge of Europe. Eurovoc, a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union, provides entries for 23 EU languages, of these, those in italics are classified as Eastern Europe in this source. Other official web-pages of the European Union classify some of the countries as strictly Central European. The East–West Schism is the break of communion and theology between what are now the Eastern and Western churches which began in the 11th century and lasts until this very day and it divided Christianity in Europe, and consequently the world, into Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. Since the Great Schism of 1054, Europe has been divided between Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches in the east, due to this religious cleavage, Eastern Orthodox countries are often associated with Eastern Europe. A cleavage of this sort is, however, often problematic, for example, Greece is overwhelmingly Orthodox, the fall of the Iron Curtain brought the end of the East–West division in Europe, but this geopolitical concept is sometimes still used for quick reference by the media. The Baltic states have seats in the Nordic Council as observer states and they also are members of the Nordic-Baltic Eight whereas Eastern European countries formed their own alliance called the Visegrád Group. Estonia Latvia Lithuania The Caucasus nations may be included in the definitions of Eastern Europe, the extent of their geographic or political affiliation with Europe varies by country and source. All three states are members of the European Unions Eastern Partnership program and the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, on 12 January 2002, the European Parliament noted that Armenia and Georgia may enter the EU in the future. Georgia — in modern geography, Georgia has been classified as part of Eastern Europe. Under the European Union’s geographic criteria, Georgia is viewed as part of Eastern Europe and is the only Caucasus country to be actively seeking EU membership and it is a member of Council of Europe and Eurocontrol
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Austrasia
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Austrasia was a territory which formed the northeastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. In AD567, it became a kingdom within the Frankish kingdom and was ruled by Sigebert I. In the 7th and 8th century it was the powerbase from which the Carolingians, originally mayors of the palace of Austrasia, Austrasia gradually lost its territorial character after the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire in the second half of the 9th century. The name Austrasia is not well attested in the Merovingian period and it is a latinisation of an Old Frankish name recorded first by Gregory of Tours in c. AD580 and then by Aimoin of Fleury in c, Austrasia was centered on the Middle Rhine, including the basins of the Moselle and Main, and the Meuse rivers. It bordered on Frisia and Saxony to the north, Thuringia to the east, Swabia and Burgundy to the south and to Neustria, metz served as the Austrasian capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Reims, Trier, and Cologne. Other important cities included Verdun, Worms and Speyer, fulda monastery was founded in eastern Austrasia in the final decade of the Merovingian period. In the High Middle Ages, its territory divided among the duchies of Lotharingia and Franconia in Germany, with some western portions including Reims. After the death of the Frankish king Clovis I in 511, his four sons partitioned his kingdom amongst themselves, with Theuderic I receiving the lands that were to become Austrasia. Descended from Theuderic, a line of kings ruled Austrasia until 555, when it was united with the other Frankish kingdoms of Chlothar I and these three kingdoms defined the political division of Francia until the rise of the Carolingians and even thereafter. From 567 to the death of Sigbert II in 613, Neustria and Austrasia fought each other almost constantly and these struggles reached their climax in the wars between Brunhilda and Fredegund, queens respectively of Austrasia and Neustria. Finally, in 613, a rebellion by the nobility against Brunhilda saw her betrayed and handed over to her nephew and foe in Neustria, Chlothar then took control of the other two kingdoms and set up a united Frankish kingdom with its capital in Paris. During this period the first majores domus or mayors of the palace appeared and these officials acted as mediators between king and people in each realm. The first Austrasian mayors came from the Pippinid family, which experienced a slow, in 623, the Austrasians asked Chlothar II for a king of their own and he appointed his son Dagobert I to rule over them with Pepin of Landen as regent. Dagoberts government in Austrasia was widely admired, in 629, he inherited Neustria and Burgundy. Austrasia was again neglected until, in 633, the demanded the kings son as their own king again. Dagobert complied and sent his elder son Sigebert III to Austrasia, historians often categorise Sigebert as the first roi fainéant or do-nothing king of the Merovingian dynasty. His court was dominated by the mayors, in 657, the mayor Grimoald the Elder succeeded in putting his son Childebert the Adopted on the throne, where he remained until 662
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Benelux
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The Benelux Union is a politico-economic union of three neighbouring states in western Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It is now used generally to refer to the geographic, economic. In 1951, these countries joined West Germany, France, and Italy to form the European Coal and Steel Community, the Benelux General Secretariat is located in Brussels. It is the central pillar of the Benelux Union. It handles the secretariat of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Economic Union, a Benelux Parliament was created in 1955. This parliamentary assembly is composed of 21 members of the Dutch parliament,21 members of the Belgian national and regional parliaments, in 1944, exiled representatives of the three countries signed the London Customs Convention, the treaty that established the Benelux Customs Union. Ratified in 1947, the treaty was in force from 1948 until it was superseded by the Benelux Economic Union, under the Treaty the Union implies the co-operation of economic, financial and social policies. The Benelux Union involves an intergovernmental co-operation and they only become legally valid after having been incorporated into national law, with the exception of Belgium. The Belgian court of cassation decided in 1971 that any self-executing treaties have priority over laws by the Belgian parliament, the Treaty establishing the Benelux Union has provided the Committee of Ministers with the following legal instruments, decisions, conventions, recommendations and directives. The Committee of Ministers can promulgate decisions in the fields for which it has competence - those fields are set down in the Union Treaty or the additional conventions. When the Committee of Ministers adopts a decision, it immediately becomes binding on the three governments, for a decision to be also applicable to the citizen, it must be transposed into national law. The Union Treaty is not exhaustive, for this reason, Article 19 of the Treaty provides that the Committee of Ministers may conclude additional conventions. These therefore constitute extensions of the Union Treaty and they are submitted to the national parliaments for approval in keeping with the ratification procedure applied in each of the Member States. Thus there are a number of Benelux conventions in a wide range of subject matters. In 1965, the treaty establishing a Benelux Court of Justice was signed and it entered into force in 1974. The Court, composed of judges from the highest courts of the three States, has to guarantee the uniform interpretation of legal rules. This international judicial institution is located in Brussels, the Benelux is particularly active in the field of intellectual property. The three countries established a Benelux Trademarks Office and a Benelux Designs Office, both situated in The Hague, in 2005, they concluded a treaty establishing a Benelux Organization for Intellectual Property which replaced both offices upon its entry into force on 1 September 2006
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Belgium
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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
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Luxembourg
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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
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Germany
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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
France
Strasbourg
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English: Great East, German: Großer Osten — both in the Alsatian and the Lorraine Franconian dialect), previously Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine (ACAL or less commonly, ALCA),[3] is an administrative region in eastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions—Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne, and Lorraine—on 1 January 2016, as a result of territorial reform which was passed by the French legislature in 2014.[4][5] Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine was a provisional name, created by hyphenating the merged regions in alphabetical order; its regional council had to approve a new name for the region by 1 July 2016.[5] France's Conseil d'État approved Grand Est as the new name of the region on 28 September 2016, effective 30 September 2016,[6] the administrative capital and largest city is Strasbourg.
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Lorraine topics
