FRANCE 



..).-> 



FRANCE 



tinct. The inhabitants of the northern dis- 

 tricts, however, are still predominantly of the 

 tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed type, obviously re- 

 lated to the Scandinavians and Teutons who 

 long ago made that part of the country their 

 home, while to the south and west are to be 

 found the short stature, dark hair and dark 

 eyes which speak of Latin origin. All the peo- 

 ple speak French, but in the northwest the 

 old Breton tongue is still used, while Flemish, 

 Italian and the peculiar Basque language are 

 the common speech in some of the border 

 regions (see FRENCH LANGUAGE). 



The population of France, according to the 

 census of 1911, was 39,601,509. The War of the 

 Nations sadly decreased this number; a very 

 careful estimate made in 1919 showed that 

 1,300,000 men had been killed outright or mor- 

 tally wounded. The statistics here, as in the 

 paragraphs on the industries, of necessity relate 

 to conditions before August, 1914, for just what 

 changes have been made by that gigantic strug- 

 gle it will be impossible to say until years after 

 a settled condition returns to Europe. Among 

 the states of Europe, Austria-Hungary, Ger- 

 many, the United Kingdom and Russia sur- 

 passed France in population, and Italy almost 

 equals it. As regards density of population 

 France stands eighth among the states of 

 Europe, having 191.19 people to the square mile. 

 Compared with the United States as a whole, 

 hundred per cent, while France has gained less 

 than thirty per cent, and of that by far the 

 greater increase took place in the first half of 

 square mile. 



No other great state of Europe has had 

 within the last century so small an increase in 

 population, whether actual or proportionate 

 increase be counted. A hundred years ago 

 France had over 30,000,000 inhabitants and 

 England .and Wales had but 12,000,000; the 

 population of England and Wales has increased 

 since then to over 36,070,000, a gain of two 

 hundred per cent, while France has gained less 

 than thirty per cent, and of that by far the 

 greater increase took place in the first half of 



the period. There have been wars, it is true, 

 which have lessened the population, and the 

 cession to Germany of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871 

 made a notable decrease, but in general the 

 slow growth is due to the very low birthrate of 

 France the lowest of all the countries of the 

 world, so far as is known. In some years, as 

 in 1911, for instance, the number of deaths has 

 been greater than the number of births, but in 

 general the latter is slightly in excess. 



Frenchmen do not have in very great 

 measure the tendency to emigrate, and the 

 country is not drained in that manner as is 

 Ireland; on the other hand, immigration to 

 France has increased, as there were at the last 

 census 1,132,696 foreigners in the country. 



France shows, like almost every other coun- 

 try, a toward-the-city trend which the "back- 

 to-the-land" slogan has not yet conquered. 



A RURAL HOME 



At the middle of the nineteenth century, little 

 more than half a century ago, over three- 

 fourths of the inhabitants of France lived 

 under rural conditions that is, on farms or 

 in small villages; to-day almost half of the 

 people are urban, and the cities are growing 

 at the expense of the country. There is no 

 danger of the French peasant's, whose wrongs 

 and struggles have played so large a part in 

 French history, becoming extinct, for he is too 

 necessary; but he is much less in the majority 

 than formerly. 



Physical Features 



The Coast. Roughly speaking, France is 

 hexagonal in shape, and of its six sides three 

 front the sea. The coast line, rather more 

 than half of the total frontier, is about 1,950 

 miles, but in this very considerable stretch 

 good harbors are comparatively few. Time was 

 when the greatest advantage a country could 



have was a shore line on the Mediterranean, 

 that great waterway of the ancient world, and 

 France has felt and still feels the benefit of 

 this contact, profiting largely from its easy 

 access to the Orient and to Africa. The finest 

 French harbor, Marseilles, is on this Mediter- 

 ranean coast, and to the east of it are other 



