1.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
2.
Provinces and territories of Canada
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Canadas geography is divided into administrative divisions known as provinces and territories that are responsible for delivery of sub-national governance. Over its history, Canadas international borders have changed several times, the ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Several of the provinces were former British colonies, Quebec was originally a French colony, the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, which govern the rest of the area of the former British North America. Together, the provinces and territories make up the worlds second-largest country by area, the powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the federal government and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, the territories are not sovereign, but simply part of the federal realm, and have a commissioner who represents the federal government. Notes, There are three territories in Canada, unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, the following table lists the territories in order of precedence. Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada, over the following years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces. The Hudsons Bay Company controlled large swathes of western Canada referred to as Ruperts Land and the North-Western Territory until 1870, subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The remaining Arctic islands were transferred by Britain to Canada in 1880,1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1,1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward, Manitobas to the 60° parallel, Ontarios to Hudson Bay, in 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a period of economic crisis. In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbias northwestern boundary. This was one of two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 in land area and they are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes
3.
Ontario
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Ontario, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canadas most populous province by a margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and it is home to the nations capital city, Ottawa, and the nations most populous city, Toronto. There is only about 1 km of land made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontarios population and arable land is located in the south, in contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and is heavily forested. The province is named after Lake Ontario, a thought to be derived from Ontarí, io, a Huron word meaning great lake, or possibly skanadario. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes, the province consists of three main geographical regions, The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes, Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions, Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario. The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the north and northeast, mainly swampy. Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe, the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands, the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment, the Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canadas mainland, Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the border of California. The climate of Ontario varies by season and location, the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontarios climate is classified as humid continental, Ontario has three main climatic regions
4.
First Nations
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The First Nations are the predominant Aboriginal peoples of Canada south of the Arctic. Those in the Arctic area are distinct and known as Inuit, the Métis, another distinct ethnicity, developed after European contact and relations primarily between First Nations people and Europeans. There are currently 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Under the Employment Equity Act, First Nations are a group, along with women, visible minorities. First Nations are not defined as a minority under the Act or by the criteria of Statistics Canada. Within Canada, First Nations has come into general use—replacing the deprecated term Indians—for the indigenous peoples of the Americas, individuals using the term outside Canada include supporters of the Cascadian independence movement, as well as U. S. tribes within the Pacific Northwest. The singular, commonly used on culturally politicized reserves, is the term First Nations person, North American indigenous peoples have cultures spanning thousands of years. Some of their oral traditions accurately describe historical events, such as the Cascadia earthquake of 1700, written records began with the arrival of European explorers and colonists during the Age of Discovery, beginning in the late 15th century. European accounts by trappers, traders, explorers, and missionaries give important evidence of early contact culture, in addition, archeological and anthropological research, as well as linguistics, have helped scholars piece together understanding of ancient cultures and historic peoples. Combined with later development, this relatively non-combative history has allowed First Nations peoples to have an influence on the national culture. Collectively, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples constitute Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, First Nations came into common usage in the 1980s to replace the term Indian band in referring to groups of Indians with common government and language. Elder Sol Sanderson says that he coined the term in the early 1980s, others say that the term came into common usage in the 1970s to avoid using the word Indian, which some Canadians considered offensive. No legal definition of the term exists, some Aboriginal peoples in Canada have also adopted the term First Nation to replace the word band in the formal name of their community. While the word Indian is still a term, its use is erratic. Some First Nations people consider the term offensive, while others prefer it to Aboriginal person/persons/people, the term is a misnomer given to indigenous peoples of North America by European explorers who erroneously thought they had landed on the Indian subcontinent. The use of the term Native Americans, which the United States government and it refers more specifically to the Aboriginal peoples residing within the boundaries of the United States. The parallel term Native Canadian is not commonly used, but Natives and autochthones are, under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, also known as the Indian Magna Carta, the Crown referred to indigenous peoples in British territory as tribes or nations. The term First Nations is capitalized, unlike alternative terms, bands and nations may have slightly different meanings
5.
Lake Nipissing
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Lake Nipissing is a lake in the Canadian province of Ontario. It has an area of 873.3 km2, a mean elevation of 196 m above sea level. Excluding the Great Lakes, Lake Nipissing is the third-largest lake in Ontario and it is relatively shallow for a large lake, with an average depth of only 4.5 m. The shallowness of the lake makes for many sandbars along the lakes irregular shoreline, the lake has many islands most of which are protected under the Protection of Significant Wetlands scheme, controlled by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. The largest population centre on the shoreline is the city of North Bay. North Bay sits along the northeastern shoreline. The larger towns toward the end of the lake are Sturgeon Falls, Garden Village, Cache Bay. Lake Nipissing drains into Georgian Bay, which is a part of Lake Huron, Lake Nipissing lies about 25 km northwest of Algonquin Provincial Park. The French fur trader Étienne Brûlé was the first European to visit the lake in 1610, the first permanent European settlement on the lake dates from around 1874 with a trading post of the Hudsons Bay Company on the northwest corner in what is now Sturgeon Falls. In 1882 the North-West Mounted Police established their presence on the north east shore, the lake contains over 40 different species of fish. Numerous sport fishing lodges dot the shoreline and can also be found on several of Nipissings many islands. Most anglers target walleye, smallmouth bass, muskie, and northern pike, for various reasons, largely social, numerous stocking associations are engaged in attempts to manage the lakes walleye population. The lakes name means big water in the Algonquin language, the name Nipissing was also given to many places in the area, notably the Township of Nipissing, Nipissing District, and Nipissing University. In the days of fur trade, coureur des bois and later travelled through the lake by canoe via the Mattawa. When the fur trade started to decline in the 1880s, logging became the economic activity. After World War I, the economic activity became tourism and recreation. Unlike most lakes in Ontario, Lake Nipissing contains two volcanic pipes, which are the Manitou Islands and Callander Bay, the volcanic pipes formed by the violent, supersonic eruption of deep-origin volcanoes. Lake Nipissing lies in the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben, a Mesozoic era rift valley that formed 175 million years ago
6.
Anishinaabe
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The Anishinaabeg speak Anishinaabemowin, or Anishinaabe languages that belong to the Algonquian language family. They traditionally have lived in the Northeast Woodlands and Subarctic, the word Anishinaabeg translates to people from whence lowered. Another definition refers to the humans, meaning those who are on the right road or path given to them by the Creator Gichi-Manidoo. The Ojibwe historian, linguist, and author Basil Johnston wrote that its literal translation is Beings Made Out of Nothing or Spontaneous Beings, Anishinaabe is often mistakenly considered a synonym of Ojibwe, however, it refers to a much larger group of tribes. The name Anishinaabe is shortened to Nishnaabe, mostly by Odawa people, the cognate Neshnabé comes from the Potawatomi, a people long allied with the Odawa and Ojibwe in the Council of Three Fires. Identified as Anishinaabe, but not part of the Council of Three Fires, are the Nipissing, Mississaugas, closely related to the Ojibwe and speaking a language mutually intelligible with Anishinaabemowin are the Oji-Cree. Their most common autonym is Anishinini and they call their language Anishininiimowin, Not all Anishinaabemowin-speakers call themselves Anishinaabeg. The Ojibwe people who moved to what are now the provinces of Canada call themselves Nakawē. Particular Anishinaabeg groups have different names from region to region, according to anishinabe tradition, and from records of wiigwaasabak, the people migrated from the eastern areas of North America, and from along the East Coast. In old stories, the homeland was called Turtle Island and this comes from the idea that the universe, the Earth, or the continent of North America are all sometimes understood as being the back of a great turtle, a mysterious natural consciousness. The Anishinaabe oral history considers the Anishinaabe peoples as descendents of the Abenaki people, another Anishinaabe oral history considers the Abenaki as descendents of the Lenape, thus refers to them as Grandfathers. However, Cree oral traditions consider the Anishinaabe as their descendants. A number of complementary origin concepts exist within the traditions of the Anishinaabe. According to the history, seven great miigis appeared to the Anishinaabe peoples in the Waabanakiing to teach the people about the midewiwin life-style. One great miigis was too powerful and would kill people in the Waabanakiing whenever they were in its presence. This being later returned to the depths of the ocean, leaving the six great miigis to teach the people, the Anishinaabe are one of the first nation in Canada. Each of the six miigis established separate doodem for the people, of these doodem, five clan systems appeared, Awaazisii, Baswenaazhi, Aanaawenh, Nooke, and Moozoonii. After founding the doodem, the six returned to the depths of the ocean as well
7.
Odawa
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They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe and Potawatomi peoples. They considered this their original homeland, after the 17th century, they also settled along the Ottawa River, and in the state of Michigan, United States, as well as through the Midwest south of the Great Lakes in the latter country. In the 21st century, there are approximately 15,000 Odawa living in Ontario, the Odawa language is part of the Algonquian language family. This large family has numerous smaller groups or “bands, ” commonly called “Tribe” in the United States. Their language is considered a divergent dialect of Ojibwe, characterized by frequent syncope, odaawaa, this term is common to the Cree, Algonquin, Nipissing, Montagnais, Odawa, and Ojibwe. The Potawatomi spelling of Odawa and the English derivative Ottawa are also common, the Anishinaabe word for Those men who trade, or buy and sell is Wadaawewinini. But, this meaning is more appropriately associated with the Matàwackariniwak. Their neighbors applied the Trader name to the Ottawa because in traditional times. From The Odawa dealt chiefly in cornmeal, sunflower oil, furs and skins, rugs and mats, tobacco, like the Ojibwe, the Odawa usually identify as Nishnaabe, meaning original people. The Odawa name in its English transcription is the source of the names of Ottawa, Ontario. The Odawas home territory at the time of early European contact, the tribe is source of the name for Tawas City, Michigan, and Tawas Point, which reflect the syncope-form of their name. Ottawa, Ohio is the county seat of Putnam County located at the site of the last Ottawa reservation in Ohio, the Odawa dialect is considered one of several divergent dialects of the Ojibwe language group, noted for its frequent syncope. In the Odawa language, the language group is known as Nishnabemwin. Of the estimated 5,000 ethnic Odawa and additional 10,000 people with some Odawa ancestry, in the early 21st century an estimated 500 people in Ontario, the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma has three fluent speakers. According to Anishinaabeg tradition, and from recordings in Wiigwaasabak, the Odawa people came from the areas of North America, or Turtle Island. Directed by the beings, the Anishinaabe peoples moved inland along the Saint Lawrence River. At the Third Stopping Place near what is now Detroit, Michigan, the Hopewell tradition was a widely extended trading network operating from about 200BCE to 500 CE. Some of these peoples constructed earthwork mounds for burials, a practice that ended about 250 CE, the Saugeen mounds have not been excavated
8.
Georgian Bay
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Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron, located entirely within Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula, to its northwest is the North Channel. Georgian Bay is surrounded by the districts of Manitoulin, Sudbury, Parry Sound and Muskoka, as well as the more populous counties of Simcoe, Grey, the Main Channel separates the Bruce Peninsula from Manitoulin Island and connects Georgian Bay to the rest of Lake Huron. The shores and waterways of the Georgian Bay are the domain of the Anishinaabeg First Nations peoples to the north. The bay was thus a major Algonquian-Huron trade route, Samuel de Champlain, the first European to explore and map the area in 1615–1616, called it La Mer douce, also a reference to the bays freshwater. It was named Georgian Bay by Lieutenant Henry Wolsey Bayfield of the Royal Navy in 1822, Georgian Bay is about 190 kilometres long by 80 kilometres wide. It covers approximately 15,000 square kilometres, making it nearly 80% the size of Lake Ontario. If Georgian Bay were considered a lake in its own right, it would be the fourth largest lake located entirely within Canada after Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake and Lake Winnipeg. Eastern Georgian Bay is part of the edge of the Canadian Shield, granite bedrock exposed by the glaciers at the end of the last ice age. The granite rock formations and windswept eastern white pine are characteristic of the islands, the rugged beauty of the area inspired landscapes by artists of the Group of Seven. The western part of the bay, from Collingwood north, and including Manitoulin, Drummond, Cockburn and St. Joseph islands, there are tens of thousands of islands in Georgian Bay. Most of these islands are along the east side of the bay and are known as the Thirty Thousand Islands. Manitoulin Island, lying along the side of the bay, is the worlds largest island in a freshwater lake. The Trent–Severn Waterway connects Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario, running from Port Severn in the corner of Georgian Bay through Lake Simcoe into Lake Ontario near Trenton. Further north, Lake Nipissing drains into Georgian Bay through the French River, in October 2004, the Georgian Bay Littoral was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Archeological records reveal an Aboriginal presence in the regions of the Canadian Shield dating from 11,000 years ago. Evidence of later Paleo-Indian settlements have found on Manitoulin Island. At the time of European contact, the Ojibwe and Ottawa First Nations, the Huron and Tionontati inhabited the lands along the southern coast, having migrated from the northern shores of Lake Ontario
9.
Mattawa River
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The Mattawa River is a river in central Ontario, Canada. It flows east from Trout Lake east of North Bay and enters the Ottawa River at the town of Mattawa, counting from the head of Trout Lake, it is 76 km in length. The rivers name comes from the Algonquin word for meeting of waterways, the river follows inside an ancient fault line through the Algoma Highlands called the Mattawa Fault. This fault line marks the edge of an ancient rift valley, called the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben. From Lake Talon to Mattawa the river flows through a canyon up to 150 metres in places. Tributaries include the, Amable du Fond River Kaibuskong River North River An interesting feature is the Porte de lEnfer and this is a peculiar cave in the rivers bank speculated to be a native ochre mine. As far back as 1761, Alexander Henry the elder reported on this cave and it was said to be inhabited by an evil and fierce demon, hence its name. Evidence of a spillway which drained the Great Lakes into the Ottawa River until about 4000 years ago can be seen at several sites along the river. The Mattawa River had been used by native peoples as an important transportation corridor for many centuries, in 1610, Étienne Brûlé and in 1615, Samuel de Champlain were the first Europeans to travel the river. For some 200 years thereafter, it formed part of the important water route leading from Montreal west to Lake Superior and it was the primary access to the vast Canadian interior in the days of the fur trade. Canoes travelling west up the Ottawa turned left at the Forks to enter the Petite Rivière, reaching Lake Nipissing by way of La Vase Portage, in the 19th century, the river provided access to large untouched stands of white pine. The river was used to transport logs to sawmills. The value of the Mattawa River as a transportation link ended in 1881 when the railroad was built to Mattawa, almost the full length of the river was protected as a provincial park in 1970 and has been designated as a Canadian Heritage River in January 1988. While logging is still an important industry in this region, its shores are now protected from further development, today, the river and lakes are mainly used for recreation. In 1970, a section of the Mattawa River from the end of Trout Lake to the western boundary of Samuel de Champlain Park was protected. This 33 kilometres long and 122 metres wide ribbon of land on both sides of the river was designated as Ontarios first waterway park and it is a non-operating park, meaning there are no visitor facilities and services. There are some backcountry campsites provided and the trails are marked with signs. However most are in various stages of neglect, there are plans to increase the park by 108.8 square kilometres of Crown Land along both shores, and extending it on the eastern side of Samuel de Champlain Park towards the town of Mattawa
10.
Ottawa River
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The Ottawa River, is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. For most of its length, it defines the border between two provinces. It is a tributary of the St. Lawrence River. The river rises from its source in Lake Capimitchigama, in the Laurentian Mountains of central Quebec, from there its route has been used to define the interprovincial border with Ontario. From Lake Timiskaming, the river flows southeast to Ottawa and Gatineau, the Ottawa River drains into the Lake of Two Mountains and the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. The river is 1,271 kilometres long, it drains an area of 146,300 square kilometres,65 percent in Quebec and the rest in Ontario, with a mean discharge of 1,950 cubic metres per second. The average annual mean waterflow measured at Carillon dam, near the Lake of Two Mountains, is 1,939 cubic metres per second, with average annual extremes of 749 to 5,351 cubic metres per second. Record historic levels since 1964 are a low of 529 cubic metres per second in 2005, the river flows through large areas of deciduous and coniferous forest formed over thousands of years as trees recolonized the Ottawa Valley after the ice age. Generally, the coniferous forests occur on old sand plains left by retreating glaciers, the deciduous forests, dominated by maple, beech, oak and ash occur in more mesic areas with better soil. The vast areas of pine were exploited by early loggers, later generations of logging removed hemlock for use in tanning leather, leaving a permanent deficit of hemlock in most forests. Associated with the logging and early settlement were vast wild fires which not only removed the forests, consequently, nearly all the forests show varying degrees of human disturbance. Tracts of older forest are uncommon, and hence they are considered of importance for conservation. The Ottawa River has large areas of wetlands, the Westmeath sand dune/wetland complex is significant for its relatively pristine sand dunes, few of which remain along the Ottawa River, and the many associated rare plants. Shirleys Bay has a biologically diverse shoreline alvar, as well as one of the largest silver maple swamps along the river, like all wetlands, these depend upon the seasonal fluctuations in the water level. High water levels help create and maintain silver maple swamps, while low water periods allow many rare plants to grow on the emerged sand. There are five principal vegetation types. One is swamp, mostly silver maple, there are four herbaceous vegetation types, named for the dominant plant species in them, Scirpus, Eleocharis, Sparganium and Typha. Which type occurs in a location depends upon factors such as substrate type, water depth, ice-scour
11.
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
12.
Great Lakes
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Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, containing 21% of the worlds surface fresh water by volume. The total surface is 94,250 square miles, and the volume is 5,439 cubic miles. Due to their sea-like characteristics the five Great Lakes have also long been referred to as inland seas, Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world by area, and Lake Michigan is the largest lake that is entirely within one country. The southern half of the Great Lakes is bordered by the Great Lakes Megalopolis, the lakes have been a major highway for transportation, migration and trade, and they are home to a large number of aquatic species. Many invasive species have been introduced due to trade, and some threaten the regions biodiversity, though the five lakes reside in separate basins, they form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water, within the Great Lakes Basin. The lakes form a chain connecting the interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. From the interior to the outlet at the Saint Lawrence River, water flows from Superior to Huron and Michigan, southward to Erie, the lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers, and are studded with approximately 35,000 islands. There are also several smaller lakes, often called inland lakes. The surface area of the five primary lakes combined is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom, while the area of the entire basin is about the size of the UK. Lake Michigan is the one of the Great Lakes that is located entirely within the United States. The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U. S. states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Both Ontario and Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four of the lakes, Ontario does not border Lake Michigan, New York and Wisconsins jurisdictions extend into two lakes, and the remaining states into one of the lakes. This designation, however, is not universal and those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as the lower lakes, because they are farther south. This corresponds to thinking of Lakes Erie and Ontario as down south, vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered upbound even though they are sailing toward its effluent current. The Chicago River and Calumet River systems connect the Great Lakes Basin to the Mississippi River System through man-made alterations, the St. Marys River, including the Soo Locks, connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, the St. Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair. The Detroit River connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, the Niagara River, including Niagara Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The Welland Canal, bypassing the Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the Saint Lawrence River connects Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which connects to the Atlantic Ocean
Canada
Ontario
Nipissing 10
