FRANCE 



2294 



FRANCE 



RANCE, one of the great powers of 

 Europe, the only large republic on the Conti- 

 nent. Since France first became truly a nation, 

 almost a thousand years ago, there has been 

 scarcely a movement of importance in Europe 

 in which it has not taken a prominent part, 

 and at intervals it has been, over long periods, 

 the dominant nation. To many who are not 

 close students the very name of France, and 

 especially of its capital, Paris, stands for light- 

 ness, gayety and lack of depth; "the French," 

 say the very old geographies, "are a frivolous 

 people, fond of dancing and light wines." But 

 the nation has proved in the crises of its 

 history that underneath the pleasure-loving ex- 

 terior there is most remarkable depth and 

 stability. The fleur-de-lis, or iris flower, which 

 is the national emblem, stands for very real 

 achievements in peace, as in war. 



Location and Size. Save for the peninsula 

 of Spain, France is the westernmost portion 

 of continental Europe. It lies between 4 48' 

 west and 7 31' east longitude and 42 20' 

 and 51 5' north latitude, and is thus in about 

 the' same latitude as the Great Lakes region 

 of North America. Though distinctly a part 

 of the continental mass, France is in a sense 

 as much of an isolated unit as an island, for 

 almost everywhere it has natural boundaries 

 mountains or sea. On the north are the Eng- 

 lish Channel and the Strait of Dover; on the 

 west the Bay of Biscay, the Atlantic and the 

 English Channel; on the south, Spain and the 

 Mediterranean; on the east Italy, Switzerland 

 and Germany, and on the northeast, Belgium. 

 The boundary between Spain and France is 

 the almost impassable wall of the Pyrenees, 

 while on the east are various Alpine ranges, 

 the Jura and the Vosges. In general, the 

 dividing line between France and the neighbor- 

 ing states follows the crest of the mountains. 



This power, now third in area among the 

 countries of -Europe, is about the size of the 

 Canadian province of Yukon, and about one- 

 fifth smaller than Texas; the total area was 



LOCATION MAP 



207,054 square miles, until 1918, at the close of 

 the War of the Nations. Then Alsace-Lorraine 

 was returned to it by Germany, increasing the 

 area to 212,659 square miles. The greatest 

 north-and-south length is 600 miles, the great- 

 est breadth about 

 525 miles, and the 

 very longest di- 

 mension, the di- 

 agonal from Brest 

 in the extreme 

 -northwest to 

 Mentone in the 

 southeast, is al- 

 most 680 miles. 

 That is, one 

 may travel in a straight line across France less 

 than the distance from Chicago to Philadel- 

 phia. To a mind accustomed to the "magnifi- 

 cent distances" of North America, those of 

 France seem small, but the country has been 

 large enough to work out not only a remark- 

 able history but phenomenal industries as well. 



The People. Almost everyone feels a pe- 

 culiar interest in the French people. They 

 stand for something very distinctive, some- 

 thing which other peoples strive for, at times, 

 but never attain. For the French have re- 

 ceived heritages from various stocks, and the 

 national character combines the vivacity, bril- 

 liance and quickness of the old Celtic races 

 with the practical sense, industry and talent for 

 organization of the Northern, or Teutonic, peo- 

 ples. A surface survey of the history of the 

 late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries 

 might indicate from the frequent revolutions 

 and changes of government that the French 

 are fickle and fond of excitement, at whatever 

 cost; but the true cause for these movements 

 is quite otherwise, and the French are a people 

 peculiarly fond of peace and of order. 



In their physical characteristics the peoples 

 of the different parts of the country vary con- 

 siderably, though intermarriage through the 

 centuries has made these variations less dis- 



