1.
Polish Army Museum
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Museum of the Polish Army is a museum in Warsaw documenting the military aspects of the history of Poland. Created in 1920, it occupies a wing of the building of the Polish National Museum as well as branches in Poland. Its Warsaws second largest museum and the largest collection of objects in Poland. The collection illustrates a thousand years of Polish military history - from the 10th century to the Second World War, opened in 1920, the museum expanded in 1993 with the Museum of Katyn and the Museum of Polish Military Technology opened in the 9th Czerniakowski Fort. The forecourt of the museum houses several dozen armoured vehicles, artillery pieces and aircraft, several rooms are devoted to Polands part in the Napoleonic Wars, and the national uprisings of 1830-31 and 1863. By far the largest part of space is devoted to the 20th century. Highlights of the Museums collection include an extremely rare gilded helmet from the 10th century, which is said to have belonged to a Polish chieftain, the heavy weaponry is on display in the adjacent park and at the Fort Czerniakowski. The park surrounding the Museum is home to an exhibition of heavy military equipment. The Fort houses also the Museum of Katyń Victims, a subsidiary of the Polish Army Museum, the museum was recently given the equipment from the soldiers lost in the Presidential Smolensk aircraft crash. The equipment includes the ID Passes, portable radios, torches, holsters, the museum is run as a department of the Polish armed forces, an arrangement which brings advantages - such as limitless access to military surplus stock - but also disadvantages. On December 15,2008, the Museum of the Polish Army announced that it will sponsor a competition to choose an architectural design for its new premises. The building will be built in the historic Citadel located in Warsaws Żoliborz district, the new museum is expected to be a modern multimedia institution similar in concept to the highly successful Warsaw Uprising Museum. The winner was expected to be selected in August 2009, construction of the museum was supposed to begin in 2009 or 2010 and completion due in 2013, however in early 2014, this still had not occurred. Once the new Polish Army Museum is built, its current building in the city center will be taken over by the National Museum in Warsaw
2.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
3.
Poles
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The Poles are a nation and West Slavic ethnic group native to Poland who share a common ancestry, culture, history and are native speakers of the Polish language. The population of Poles in Poland is estimated at 37,394,000 out of a population of 38,538,000. Polands population inhabits several historic regions, including Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Mazovia, Silesia, Pomerania, Kuyavia, Warmia, Masuria, a wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Europe, the Americas and in Australasia. Today the largest urban concentration of Poles is the Katowice urban agglomeration of 2.7 million inhabitants, Poland was also for centuries a refuge for many Jews from all over Europe, a large number emigrated in the twentieth century to Israel. Several prominent Israeli statesmen were born in Poland, including Israels founder David Ben-Gurion, former President of Israel Shimon Peres, the Slavic people have been in the territory of modern Poland for over 1500 years. In the 9th and 10th centuries the tribes gave rise to developed regions along the upper Vistula, the last tribal undertaking resulted in the 10th century in a lasting political structure and state, Poland, one of the West Slavic nations. After 1945 the so-called autochthonous or aboriginal school of Polish prehistory received official backing in Poland, Polish people are the sixth largest national group in the European Union. Estimates vary depending on source, though available data suggest a number of around 60 million people worldwide. There are almost 38 million Poles in Poland alone, there are also Polish minorities in the surrounding countries including Germany, and indigenous minorities in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. There are some smaller indigenous minorities in nearby countries such as Moldova, the term Polonia is usually used in Poland to refer to people of Polish origin who live outside Polish borders, officially estimated at around 10 to 20 million. There is a notable Polish diaspora in the United States, Brazil, France has a historic relationship with Poland and has a relatively large Polish-descendant population. Poles have lived in France since the 18th century, in the early 20th century, over a million Polish people settled in France, mostly during world wars, among them Polish émigrés fleeing either Nazi occupation or later Soviet rule. In the United States, a significant number of Polish immigrants settled in Chicago, Ohio, Detroit, New York City, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, the highest concentration of Polish Americans in a single New England municipality is in New Britain, Connecticut. The majority of Polish Canadians have arrived in Canada since World War II, the number of Polish immigrants increased between 1945 and 1970, and again after the end of Communism in Poland in 1989. In Brazil the majority of Polish immigrants settled in Paraná State, smaller, but significant numbers settled in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Espírito Santo and São Paulo. The city of Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world and Polish music, dishes and it is estimated that over half a million Polish people have come to work in the United Kingdom from Poland. Since 2011, Poles have been able to work throughout the EU and not just in the United Kingdom, Ireland. The Polish community in Norway has increased substantially and has grown to a number of 120,000
4.
Lviv
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Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine and the seventh largest city in the country overall, is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. Named in honor of the Leo, the eldest son of Rus King Daniel of Galicia. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1349, from 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland and was known as Lwów. In 1772, after the First partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and was renamed to Lemberg, in 1918 in a short time was the capital of the West Ukrainian Peoples Republic. Between the wars, the city was again as Lwów and was the centre of the Lwów Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. After World War II, it part of the Soviet Union. Administratively, Lviv serves as the center of Lviv Oblast and has the status of city of oblast significance. Lviv was the centre of the region of Galicia. The historical heart of the city, with its old buildings and cobblestone streets, survived Soviet, the city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as Lviv University and Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also the home of many cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the center of the city in September 2006. Lviv is located on the edge of the Roztochia Upland, approximately 70 kilometers from the Polish border and 160 kilometers from the eastern Carpathian Mountains, the average altitude of Lviv is 296 meters above sea level. Its highest point is the Vysokyi Zamok,409 meters above sea level and this castle has a commanding view of the historic city centre with its distinctive green-domed churches and intricate architecture. The old walled city was at the foothills of the High Castle on the banks of the River Poltva, in the 13th century, the river was used to transport goods. Lvivs climate is continental with cold winters and mild summers. The average temperatures are −3.1 °C in January and 18.3 °C in July, the average annual rainfall is 745 mm with the maximum being in summer. Lviv approximately receives 1,804 hours of sunshine annually, archaeologists have demonstrated that the Lviv area was settled by the 5th century. The area between the Castle Hill and the river Poltva was continuously settled since the 9th century, in 1977 it was discovered that the Orthodox church of St. Nicholas had been built on a previously functioning cemetery
5.
Galicia (Eastern Europe)
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Galicia is a historical and geographic region in Central-Eastern Europe, once a small Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria that straddled the modern-day border between Poland and Ukraine. The area, which is named after the city of Halych, was first mentioned in Hungarian historical chronicles in the year 1206 as Galiciæ. The nucleus of historic Galicia lies within the regions of western Ukraine, Lviv, Ternopil. In the 18th century, territories that became part of the modern Polish regions of Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. There is considerable overlap between Galicia and south-west Ruthenia, especially a cross-border region that is inhabited by various nationalities, Halych-Volhynia cut a swathe as a mighty principality under the reign of Roman the Great in 1170–1205. After the expulsion of the Hungarians in 1221, Ruthenians took back rule of the area, Romans son Daniel of Galicia was crowned king of Halych-Volhynia. He founded Lviv, named in honour of his son Leo I, the Ukrainian name Halych comes from the Khwalis or Kaliz who occupied the area from the time of the Magyars. They were also called Khalisioi in Greek, and Khvalis in Ukrainian, the Lypytsia culture supposedly replaced the existing Thracian Hallstatt and Vysotske cultures. Others assert that the name has Slavic origins – from halytsa, meaning a naked hill, the jackdaw was used as a charge in the citys coat of arms and later also in the coat of arms of Galicia. The name, however, predates the coat of arms, which may represent canting or simply folk etymology, although the Hungarians were driven out from Halych-Volhynia by 1221, Hungarian kings continued to add Galicia et Lodomeria to their official titles. In 1527, the Habsburgs inherited those titles, together with the Hungarian crown, in 1772, Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, decided to use those historical claims to justify her participation in the first partition of Poland. In fact, the territories acquired by Austria did not correspond exactly to those of former Halych-Volhynia, Volhynia, including the city of Volodymyr-Volynskyi – after which Lodomeria was named – was taken by Russia, not Austria. On the other hand, much of Lesser Poland – Nowy Sącz and Przemyśl, Zamość, Lublin, the full official name of the new Austrian province was Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator. After the incorporation of the Free City of Kraków in 1846, it was extended to Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, each of those entities was formally separate, they were listed as such in the Austrian emperors titles, each had its distinct coat-of-arms and flag. For administrative purposes, however, they formed a single province, the duchies of Auschwitz and Zator were small historical principalities west of Kraków, on the border with Prussian Silesia. Lodomeria, under the name Volhynia, was not ruled by Austria, dale Dwellers, Krakowiacy, Mazury, Grębowiacy, Głuchoniemcy, Bełżanie, Bużanie, Opolanie, Wołyniacy, Pobereżcy or Nistrowianie. During the Great Migration period of Europe, a variety of nomadic groups invaded the area, overall, Slavs came to dominate the Celtic-German population. In the 12th century, a Rurikid Principality of Halych formed there, Galicia and Volhynia had originally been two separate Rurikid principalities, assigned on a rotating basis to younger members of the Kievan dynasty
6.
Austria-Hungary
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The union was a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and came into existence on 30 March 1867. Austria-Hungary consisted of two monarchies, and one region, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia under the Hungarian crown. It was ruled by the House of Habsburg, and constituted the last phase in the evolution of the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the 1867 reforms, the Austrian and the Hungarian states were co-equal, Foreign affairs and the military came under joint oversight, but all other governmental faculties were divided between respective states. Austria-Hungary was a state and one of the worlds great powers at the time. Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, at 621,538 km2, the Empire built up the fourth-largest machine building industry of the world, after the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina was under Austro-Hungarian military and civilian rule until it was annexed in 1908. The annexation of Bosnia also led to Islam being recognized as a state religion due to Bosnias Muslim population. Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers in World War I and it was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. The realms full, official name was The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council, each enjoyed considerable sovereignty with only a few joint affairs. Certain regions, such as Polish Galicia within Cisleithania and Croatia within Transleithania, enjoyed autonomous status, the division between Austria and Hungary was so marked that there was no common citizenship, one was either an Austrian citizen or a Hungarian citizen, never both. This also meant that there were always separate Austrian and Hungarian passports, however, neither Austrian nor Hungarian passports were used in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia. Instead, the Kingdom issued its own passports which were written in Croatian and French and it is not known what kind of passports were used in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was under the control of both Austria and Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary had always maintained a separate parliament, the Diet of Hungary, the administration and government of the Kingdom of Hungary remained largely untouched by the government structure of the overarching Austrian Empire. Hungarys central government structures remained well separated from the Austrian imperial government, the country was governed by the Council of Lieutenancy of Hungary – located in Pressburg and later in Pest – and by the Hungarian Royal Court Chancellery in Vienna. The Hungarian government and Hungarian parliament were suspended after the Hungarian revolution of 1848, despite Austria and Hungary sharing a common currency, they were fiscally sovereign and independent entities. Since the beginnings of the union, the government of the Kingdom of Hungary could preserve its separated. After the revolution of 1848–1849, the Hungarian budget was amalgamated with the Austrian, from 1527 to 1851, the Kingdom of Hungary maintained its own customs controls, which separated her from the other parts of the Habsburg-ruled territories
7.
Ukrainians
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Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is by total population the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term Ukrainians to all its citizens, also among historical names of the people of Ukraine Rusyns, Cossacks, etc. can be found. According to some definitions, a descriptive name for the inhabitants of Ukraine is Ukrainian or Ukrainian people. Belarusians and Russians are considered among the bloodline of Ukrainians, while Rusyns are another closely related group, the ethnonym Ukrainians became widely accepted only in the 20th century after their territory obtained distinctive statehood in 1917. People of these territories were usually called Rus or Rusyns, the Ukrainian language appeared in the 14th – 16th centuries, but at that time, it was mostly known as Ruthenian, like its brothers. In the 16th – 17th centuries, with the establishment of the Zaporizhian Sich, however, the ethnonym Ukrainians and the linguonym Ukrainian were used only occasionally, and the people of Ukraine usually continued to call themselves and their language Ruthenian. This official name did not spread widely among the peasantry constituted the majority of the population. Ukrainian peasants still referred to their country as Ukraine and to themselves, in areas outside the control of the Russian/Soviet state until the mid-20th century, Ukrainians were known by their pre-existing names for much longer. The modern name derives from Ukrayina, a name first documented in 1187. Several scientific theories attempt to explain the etymology of the term, according to some new alternative Ukrainian historians such as Hryhoriy Pivtorak, Vitaly Sklyarenko and other scholars, translate the term u-kraine as in-land, home-land or our-country. The name in this context derives from the word u-kraina in the sense of domestic region, in the last few centuries the population of Ukraine experienced periods of Polonization and Russification, but preserved a common culture and a sense of common identity. Most ethnic Ukrainians live in Ukraine, where make up over three-quarters of the population. The inhabitants of the Kuban, for example, have vacillated among three identities, Ukrainian, Russian, and Cossack, approximately 800,000 people of Ukrainian ancestry live in the Russian Far East in an area known historically as Green Ukraine. According to some assumptions, an estimated number of almost 2.1 million people of Ukrainian origin live in North America. Large numbers of Ukrainians live in Brazil, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Poland, Argentina, Belarus, Portugal, there are also Ukrainian diasporas in the UK, Australia, Germany, Latvia, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Sweden and the former Yugoslavia. Today, large ethnic Ukrainian minorities reside in Russia, Canada, Ukrainians have one of the largest diasporas in the world. The East Slavs emerged from the undifferentiated early Slavs with the Slavic migrations in the 6th and 7th centuries CE, the East Slavs were united in the Kievan Rus during the 9th to 13th centuries. East Slavic tribes cited as proto-Ukrainian include the Volhynians, Derevlianians, Polianians, and Siverianians and the less significant Ulychians, Tivertsians, the Gothic historian Jordanes and 6th-century Byzantine authors named two groups that lived in the south-east of Europe, Sclavins and Antes
8.
Galician Jews
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Galician Jews or Galitzianers are a subdivision of the Ashkenazim geographically originating from Galicia, from western Ukraine and from the south-eastern corner of Poland. Galicia proper, which was inhabited by Ukrainians, Poles and Jews, was a province within the Austro-Hungarian empire. In the modern period, Jews were the third most numerous group in Galicia, after Poles. In 1910, the 872,000 Jews living in Galicia comprised 10. 9% of the population, compared to approximately 45. 4% Poles,42. 9% Ukrainians. Most of Galician Jewry lived poorly, largely working in workshops and enterprises. Almost 80 percent of all tailors in Galicia were Jewish, the main occupation of Jews in towns and villages was trade, wholesale, stationery and retail. However, the Jewish inclination towards education was overcoming barriers, the number of Jewish intellectual workers proportionally was much higher than that of Ukrainian or Polish ones in Galicia. For comparison, there were only 450 Ukrainian lawyers, Galician Jewry produced four Nobel prize winners, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Roald Hoffman, Georges Charpak and S. Y. Henry Roth, who wrote Call It Sleep, was a Galician Jew whose family emigrated to the U. S. in the first decade of the 19th century. The Jews constituted one third of the population of cities and came to dominate parts of the local economy such as retail sales. They were also successful in the government, by 1897, Jews constituted 58 percent of Galicias civil servants, during the 19th century Galicia and its main city, Lviv, became a center of Yiddish literature. Lviv was the home of the worlds first Yiddish-language daily newspaper, towards the end of World War I, Galicia became a battleground of the Polish-Ukrainian War which erupted in November 1918. During the conflict,1,200 Jews joined the Ukrainian Galician Army, in exchange, they were allotted 10% of the seats in the parliament of the West Ukrainian Peoples Republic which emerged in the same month and was disbanded nine months later. Both Ukrainian and pro-Ukrainian Jewish armed units suffered significant losses as they retreated from Galicia before the army of General Edward Rydz-Śmigły, although the Polish losses were estimated at more than 10,000 dead and wounded, the Western Ukrainian army lost in excess of 15,000 men. Despite the official neutrality, some Jewish men had been noticed aiding the combat Ukrainian units, reportedly, the Council of Ministers of the West Ukrainian Peoples Republic provided assistance to Jewish victims of the Polish pogrom in Lviv, wrote Alexander Prusin. Nevertheless, as noted by Robert Blobaum from West Virginia University, many more pogroms and assaults against Galician Jews were perpetrated by the Ukrainian side in rural areas and other towns. Between 22 and 26 March 1919, during massacres in Zhytomyr, the chief organizer of the pogrom became minister of war soon thereafter. Simultaneous Ukrainian pogroms took place in Berdichev, Uma, and Cherniakhov among other places, the Polish–Soviet War ended with the Peace of Riga signed in March 1921
9.
Lychakiv Cemetery
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Lychakiv Cemetery, officially State History and Culture Museum-Preserve Lychakiv Cemetery, is a famous and historic cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its creation in 1787 as Łyczakowski Cemetery, it has been the main necropolis of the intelligentsia, middle. Initially the cemetery was located on hills in the borough of Lychakiv. The original project was prepared by Karol Bauer, the head of the Lviv University botanical garden, in mid-1850s the cemetery was expanded significantly by Tytus Tchórzewski, who created the present network of alleys and round-abouts. It then became the city cemetery, and soon most other cemeteries were closed. The two largest that remained were the Yanivskiy Cemetery, with working class graves and the adjacent New Jewish Cemetery. Lychakivskiy Cemetery was used by all Christian sects in the city, in addition to Roman Catholics, it also included Eastern Rite Catholics, Protestants and this started a period of devastation of historical monuments located at the cemetery. Up to 1971 many of the sculptures were destroyed, however, in 1975 the cemetery was declared a historical monument and the degradation ended. Since the late 1980s, the cemetery has seen constant rebuilding and refurbishment, the memorial is devoted to the Ukrainian National Army soldiers buried in the cemetery, including soldiers of the SS-Division «Galicia». It is equipped due to the Ukrainian national-patriotic organizations efforts assisted with Ukrainian emigrant veterans movement, in particular, at the memorial was erected a monument to the SS-Division «Galicia». On the north side of the Cemetery is situated Field of Mars and this war memorial contains the graves of 3,800 Soviet soldiers who died in the battles against the Nazi occupiers during the Great Patriotic War and against units of Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów is a memorial and a place for the Poles and their allies who died in Lviv during the hostilities of the Polish-Ukrainian War. The complex is a part of the citys historic Lychakiv Cemetery, there are about 3000 graves in that part of the cemetery, some from the Lwów Eaglets young militia volunteers, after whom that part of the cemetery is named. It was one of the most famous necropolises of the interwar Poland, in 1925 the ashes of one of the unknown defenders of Lviv were transferred to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. After that was built the so-called «Polish mausoleum». After World War II the cemetery of Lwów Eaglets was completely destroyed and turned into a truck depot, though in the late 1980s, workers of a Polish company which were working in Khmelnytskyi started to redecorate and rebuild the necropolis from its ruins. Although the Ukrainian authorities tried to stop the works several times, since 1999 there is also a monument to the Sich Riflemen located just outside the Polish mausoleum. Since the fall of communism, the cemetery had been rebuilt and it was finally reopened on 24 June 2005
10.
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
