The Probert Encyclopaedia of Places of the World

FRANCE

France (properly the French Republic) is a republic in western Europe, bounded north-east by Belgium and Germany, east by Switzerland and Italy, south by the Mediterranean, south west by Andorra and Spain and west by the Atlantic Ocean. The religion is predominantly Roman Catholic (90%), with small Protestant (2%) and Muslim (1%) faiths. The language is French, with regional dialects of Breton, Basque, Catalan and Provencal.

France was a monarchy from 987 until 1792, when it became a republic during the French Revolution. In 1814 the Bourbon monarchy was restored, only to be replaced by a second republic in 1848, which then became an empire under Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870 when France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War prompted the establishment of a third republic.

France long had an animosity towards Great Britain, and was instrumental in the success of the colonists during the American War of Independence, supplying a large army commanded by Rochambeau and fleets under D'Estaing and De Grasse, and following the independence of America from Great Britain, the first treaty made by the new independent States if North America was with France. This treaty was signed on February the 6th, 1778, and was both an offensive and defensive alliance made against the common enemy, Great Britain, with the objective of maintaining the sovereignty and independence of the United States. In return for its military aid, France received from the United States all of the American possessions in the West Indies and exclusive mutual privileges granted to ships of war and privateers bringing prizes into port.
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