France

**France**, officially the **French Republic**, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 km2(248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 66,379,991 as of 2077. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

## History

### Pre-War

After the Second World War, The GPRF laid the groundwork for a new constitutional order that resulted in the Fourth Republic (1946–1958), which saw spectacular economic growth (*les Trente Glorieuses*). France was one of the founding members of NATO(1949). France attempted to regain control of French Indochina but was defeated by the Viet Minh in 1954 at the climactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Only months later, France faced another anti-colonialist conflict in Algeria, then treated as an integral part of France and home to over one million European settlers. During the conflict, the French systematically used torture and repression, including extrajudicial killings to keep control of Algeria. This conflict wracked the country and nearly led to a coup and civil war in France.

During the May 1958 crisis, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic, which included a strengthened Presidency. In the latter role, Charles de Gaulle managed to keep the country together while taking steps to end the Algerian War. The war was concluded with the Évian Accords in 1962 which led to Algerian independence. Algerian independence came at a high price: it resulted in between half a million and one million deaths and over 2 million internally displaced Algerians. Around one million Pied-Noirs and Harkis fled from Algeria to France upon independence. A vestige of the colonial empire are the French overseas departments and territories.

In the context of the Cold War, De Gaulle pursued a policy of "national independence" towards the Westernand Eastern blocs. To this end, he withdrew from NATO's military-integrated command (while remaining in the NATO alliance itself), launched a nuclear development programme and made France the fourth nuclear power. He restored cordial Franco-German relations to create a European counterweight between the American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring a Europe of sovereign nations. In the wake of the series of worldwide protests of 1968, the revolt of May 1968 had an enormous social impact. In France, it was the watershed moment when a conservative moral ideal (religion, patriotism, respect for authority) shifted towards a more liberal moral ideal (secularism, individualism, sexual revolution). Although the revolt was a political failure (as the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before) it announced a split between the French people and de Gaulle who resigned shortly after.

In the post-Gaullist era, France remained one of the most developed economies in the world but faced several economic crises that resulted in high unemployment rates and increasing public debt. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, France has been at the forefront of the development of a supranational an intergovernmental organisation in Europe, notably by signing the Maastricht Treaty (which created the European Commonwealth) in 1992, establishing the Eurozone in 1999 and signing the Lisbon Treaty in 2007.

### Resource Wars

In 2052, The European Commonwealth was experiencing a shortage of Fossil Fuels. A majority of their Fossil Fuels were exported from the Middle East, which prompted the Leading Members of the European Commonwealth (France, Germany and The United Kingdom) to invade the United Arab Republic. The War would last for half a decade, and by 2060, Resources on both sides had run out, which led to internal infighting. The European Commonwealth Collapsed in 2063, with the remaining loyalist forces evacuating to the Low-Countries, and West Germany dissolving into a Civil War between Neo-Nazis (who laid claim to the Borders of the Greater German Reich in 1942 and complete Adolf Hitler‘s goals in the early 29th century through the use of Modern Technology) and the German Communists. France and Britain formed an alliance known as the “New Entente“ (named after the original Entente in World War 1).