France is located between the Mediterranean sea (on the southeast) and the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel to the North and West. It’s a total of 547,030 square kilometers and it shares a border with Andorra, Monaco, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain. Paris is France’s capital and a large part of the population is located there.
France began as separated section of the Roman Empire called the Gallic Empire. Their independence from Rome, however, was short lived and, in the Battle of Chalons, Rome re-established it’s hold on this section of Europe. This area remained in Roman possession until the Franks (Germanic Franks) invaded in the 5th century and took ahold of France. Clovis, the king of the Franks, converted to Christianity and this in turn brought unity and stability to the nation. This unity didn’t last forever, because when Charlemagne died the kingdom was divided. His three grandsons ruled the different sections of the Frankish kingdom.
The hundred years war started in 1337 and lasted until 1443. This battle was fought over who had the rights to the Frankish throne. The British claimed they had the right, due to Queen Eleanor being previously married to Henry II of
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Napoleon directed many military campaigns to expand his empire, but was defeated several times in Russia before returning home to be replaced by Louis XVIII who was overthrown by Charles X. Unfortunately Charles’s regime reminded the people too much of the old one and this led to another revolt in 1830. Charles was replaced by Louis Philippe, whose reign lasted only 18 year and his place was taken by Louis Napoleon in 1848. It was under his rule that the French industrial revolution was