The origin of the French as a nation. French character, features and differences from other peoples

Self-name "francaise". French is spoken by the Romance group of the Indo-European family. Believers, mostly Catholics, are Calvinist reformers.

Ethnogenesis

The population of France was most likely of Indo-European origin. From the end of the second millennium BC. the settlement of the country by the Indo-European tribes of the Celts begins. By the middle of the first millennium BC. they practically mixed with the local population and occupied the entire territory of modern France. The Iberians (southwest) inhabited the Mediterranean zone, later the Ligurs settled here (southeast). In the 7-6 centuries. BC. Phoenicians and Greeks of Asia Minor founded numerous colonies here, from which the cities of Marseille (ancient Massalia), Nice, Antibes, Arles and others originate. From the 2nd century. BC. the Romans began to penetrate here. They called the Celts Gauls, and their country Gaul. Roman conquest of Gaul 58-52 BC. led to the Romanization of its population, which took place intensively until the end of the existence of the Roman Empire, and the emergence of the Gallo-Roman ethnic community, speaking the local version of folk Latin. A significant role in the transformation of these ethnic groups into Roman-speaking was played from the 3rd century by the Christian Church of Rome, whose official language has always been Latin, which influenced the emergence of the French language. During the Great Migration of Nations in the 5th century Gaul was invaded by the Germanic tribes of the Visigoths to the south and southwest, the Burgundians to the east and southeast, and the Franks to the north and northeast, and the Huns. At the beginning of the 6th century. the Franks drove the Visigoths out of Gaul, and in 534 they conquered the kingdom of the Burgundians. From the middle of the 6th century, the entire territory of Gaul entered the Frankish kingdom, and German-Latin bilingualism was formed. By the end of the 9th century. folk Latin absorbed Germanic dialects and formed the basis of the future French language. Since the Romanization of the north and south of France was not the same, there were two ethnic communities: northern French and southern French, whose languages ​​were called lang d "oyle and lang d" approx. In the south, by the 11th century. the literary Provencal language began to take shape.

By the 10th century, a single political community was formed, uniting around the royal domain of the Capetian Ile-de-France with the center in Paris. By the early 14th century, most of France had been united under the rule of French kings. On the basis of the Ile-de-France dialect, the northern French literary language began to form. Ethnic and linguistic consolidation took place in the north of France much faster than in the south. By the end of the 15th century. the fusion of the northern and southern ethnic communities begins. Northern French became the common French spoken and written language. The formation of a nationwide French culture was accelerated in the 16th century. the strengthening of political centralization and internal economic ties, the establishment of the French national language, which ousted Latin from judicial and administrative proceedings, the flourishing of secular culture during the Renaissance.

France ... It is so mysterious and attractive, aristocratic and alluring ... Probably everyone recognizes that this country is the trendsetter of world fashion, and Paris is synonymous with sophistication. And there are legends about the grace and charm of its inhabitants. We are sure that a Frenchwoman must certainly be a sophisticated, stylishly dressed, slender mademoiselle with high stilettos and a flirty hat.

Oh yes, and certainly a haute couture bag. The Frenchman is an incredibly charming man, temperamental, loving, gallant. He is ready to write poetry to the lady of the heart and give his life, defending her dignity.

France is Coco Chanel and Jean-Paul Gaultier, Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, Edith Piaf and Patricia Kaas ... The great homeland of great people.

How do the French differ from us Slavs? Why even in jokes french woman- thin and ringing, in a short lace peignoir, languidly eating lettuce leaves from a porcelain plate, and the Russian - a sort of thunder-woman in an apron and with a rolling pin in her hand, which will stop a galloping horse and easily enter a burning hut? Why, defending his honor, a Frenchman from book novels, moving gracefully, fights with swords, while a Russian peasant rolls up his sleeves, takes off his bast shoes and starts a fist fight? What is the difference between the French mentality and ours? Let's try to compare and understand.

Pride and Prejudice

The French, especially the Parisians, are very fond of themselves. They pride themselves on being French and consider their nation the most beautiful in the world. An order of magnitude better than everyone else. One gets the impression that they absorb self-esteem and self-respect with their mother's milk. A Frenchman knows he deserves all the best just because he was born French. Take the meal ceremony, for example. The table must be beautifully served, the portion, albeit small, but exquisitely decorated, all the ingredients are laid out tastefully, each in its place. French desserts are masterpieces - the chef, not sparing himself, puts many hours of work into a tiny cake, although he knows perfectly well that a little later, the confectionery miracle will be eaten in a matter of minutes.

Here man is in the center of everything, and everything is done for him and for his sake. If there is a children's park at the school, then, rest assured, this is a park, and not a place for walking dogs, drinking beer and smoking weed. Delightful flowers and freshly painted benches, beautiful fountains of potable water and well-groomed paths. And even a special gendarme making rounds. In addition, there is a gate that can be bolted at night. In a word, everything is for little Parisians. City buses run on schedule, which, by the way, can be obtained at any kiosk, and metro trains run every minute during rush hour. The state works for the people, in no case the other way around.

Ability to live and enjoy life

The second trait of the French is the ability to take everything from life. The so-called "savoir vivre". This is a very multifaceted and multicomponent concept, which, probably, only a true son of France can fully comprehend. This is the ability to live efficiently, enjoying every minute. Good manners, courtesy and elegance in everything. Exquisite clothes - oh, a real Parisian will never buy a new thing that came from China! These are the rules of good form - a real Parisian woman will never fix her makeup in public.

Observance of etiquette - a man during a meeting will never allow himself to take off his jacket or loosen his tie. This is a subtle sense of humor - every Frenchman must be able to defuse a tense situation with a witty joke. And, of course, this is excessive French courtesy. In no case, even being dead drunk, even dying, should we forget about the basics of politeness - when greeting, shake hands with every man; warmly thank for the service rendered; when making a request, do not forget to say "please"; and when leaving, even in a hurry, it is imperative to say goodbye to everyone and kiss the ladies' hands. Otherwise, you can easily cease to be accepted in society. Simply put, savoir vivre is the ability to live with taste. It is this that gives France such a strong attraction, real magnetism.

Love of freedom and penchant for monumentalism

A true Parisian considers himself free - in the sense that he puts his interests above everything else. He can cross the road to red or go to the ticket office without queuing. He is with light feeling own superiority belongs to the representatives of other nationalities. The British are too boring for him, the Slavs are badly educated, the Americans are stingy and hypocritical. How, after all, he is a Parisian, he is of blue blood! He knows how to negotiate and defend his opinion.

However, at the same time, French freedom implies responsibility for one's actions, in contrast to Russian freedom, which is almost always equal to anarchy and chaos. And, unfortunately, few Russian are brought up in the spirit of love and respect for themselves - rather, it is constant dissatisfaction with oneself, disbelief in oneself, disappointment and a feeling of dissatisfaction.

We are in awe of Europeans, while the French look at everyone but themselves condescendingly and a little condescendingly. Maybe that's why Parisian architects suffer from gigantomania? However, even it has truly French features - the new buildings fit so well into the landscape and look so aesthetically pleasing that sometimes you won’t understand whether it is two hundred years old or a couple of dozen. And no ridiculous bad taste spoiling the landscape - just sophistication and style.

Political Correctness

The French are very scrupulous in everything that concerns political correctness. If there is a gang in Paris that includes Africans or Arabs, they will never focus on this! Rather focus on whites, even if they are in the minority. Gradually, such behavior led to the fact that the emigrants became more and more unbridled, they rob and kill with practically impunity, and the French press only shakes its finger reproachfully and explains all this with the vices of bourgeois society.

What is he - a portrait of a true Parisian?

According to romantic stereotypes, the French are great ladies' men and tireless lovers, they are seductive and chivalrously polite, courteous and witty, bold and ambitious. However, for the most part, these images are inspired by films about France and the heroes of the novels of Alexandre Dumas. In fact, not everything is so rosy. The average Frenchman nowadays is quite nervous and irritable. Those who find their salaries low are constantly unhappy that they are not being raised. Those who have decent earnings complain that they are being lowered.

The peasants are on strike because a huge amount of cheaper foreign food is being brought into the country. Small shopkeepers scold supermarkets, because of which their business does not stand up to competition and brings losses. Civil servants have a consistently good salary, but they are not quite satisfied either - they are not satisfied with the number of privileges they are entitled to. Young people are afraid of being out of work - even a red diploma does not guarantee a good job.

Schoolchildren smoke and indulge in alcohol. A familiar picture, isn't it? France is also at a crossroads, but people are not giving up and are looking for ways out. The stake is placed on the development and promotion of high technologies in the industry. Therefore, today the portrait of a successful, self-fulfilling Frenchman is as follows: he is a qualified specialist, an employee of a large international company, elegantly and expensively dressed, who does not part with a laptop and a telephone. Plus, he is - contrary to all ideas about the French - an exemplary family man and a caring father. Now in France it is considered good form.

That's how they are, the French. Something, perhaps, is worth learning from them, something - to take an example from them, not forgetting that every nation is beautiful and unique in its own way!

During the Middle Ages, the population of France was divided into regions in which individual peoples lived: Picard, Gascon and others. Also, the people were divided at the linguistic level - into those who spoke the languages ​​lang d "oil and languages ​​lang d" approx.

Despite the fact that both languages ​​originate from the time of Roman Gaul, the people still preferred isolation.

The northern regions of France were inhabited by Gauls, Romans and Germans. Center and West belonged to Gauls and Romans. In the south, the Romans were most often found, but the Gauls and Greeks also lived.

It was only after France was centralized that its entire population began to be called French.

The mixing of tribes affected the Basques, Germanic Alsatians, Jews, Lorraine and Flemings the most. Italians, Spaniards and Poles also fell under the influence of a united France.

Peoples inhabiting France

France is a fairly homogeneous country, almost all of its inhabitants are native French. But still, since historical times, it is divided into racial groups - Mediterranean, Central European and Northern European.

Representatives of the first group are distinguished by their short stature, thinness, dark hair and brown eyes.

The Central European group is represented by a small population with a fairly strong physique and light brown hair.

And the North European population is distinguished by its tall stature, large physique and blond hair, skin and eyes.

The state language is French, and only some folk groups speak other languages ​​and dialects.

These minorities are: Bretons, Alsatians, Flemings, Corsicans, Basques, Catalans.

These peoples speak their native languages ​​- Alsatians in Alsatian, Bretons in Breton, Corsicans in Corsican, and so on.

Such groups try to preserve everything that their ancestors passed on to them, therefore they teach the language and traditions of their descendants. But this does not mean that these people do not know French. They use it in their studies, at work, in social life.

From representatives of foreign countries in France, you can meet the Portuguese, Spaniards, Italians, Moroccans and Tunisians.

Culture and life of the peoples of France

French houses are usually rented. To buy your property, you need to earn good and long time. There are not so many private houses in France, most often people live in apartments. The size and condition of the dwelling depends on the material condition of the owner. But all apartments have one feature - a very small kitchen.

The family is important for the French, as it is for most nationalities. But they have their own peculiarity of upbringing - they bring up not a talented individual, but an ideal member of society. A child should understand from childhood what the law and generally accepted norms are. This is how love for children is expressed in France.

This also applies to education. Each parent considers it necessary to give a child a decent education that will help him achieve success in the future and have some kind of social status. Therefore, the education of toddlers begins in kindergarten.

The French spend most of their lives at work. But this does not give them much trouble, because France has a rather soft work schedule with a 2-hour lunch break.

People spend evenings with family or alone. And only on weekends the French allow themselves to escape from home and relax with friends.

Traditions and customs of the peoples of France

If we talk about the traditions, customs and habits of the French, then it is worth noting that they categorically do not accept English. They do not accept it to such an extent that even knowing this language, the Frenchman will pretend that he does not understand the interlocutor.

In France, it is customary to apologize for any reason, even if a person just accidentally touched another's hand. And here are the seats in public transport nobody gives in. It is simply not accepted, as well as asking: "Are you coming out on the next one?"

France is a country with no dress code. People can wear jeans and a sweatshirt to a restaurant or a theater.

Traditional French holidays are: New Year, Christmas, Easter, Labor Day, Victory Day, Bastille Day, All Saints Day and others.

There is also a holiday that is not particularly important, but is nevertheless celebrated by the French from the bottom of their hearts - on April 1. Before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the New Year was celebrated at the end of March. But with the introduction of the calendar, the holiday was postponed to January 1. And since in those days the news spread very slowly, some celebrated the New Year from March 25 to April 1 for several years. This is how April Fool's Day came about.

Each nation has a set of features that are most characteristic for each individual in a particular country, therefore the concept of "national character" includes many components and, by definition, cannot be an exact value or a scientifically proven fact. National character includes primarily the emotional and sensory characteristics of a particular nationality and people.

What is most characteristic of the French in general?

Based on many years of observations and statements of great people, as well as an analysis of literary works, we can say that the following features are characteristic of the French:

• Fictions and various fantasies are an unconditional trait of the French, because it is no coincidence that they are considered the most active experimenters by nature. At the same time, for the representatives of the French nation, the most interesting is the passage of the chosen path, and not its final result, because it is the journey that can promise many new and unusual impressions and opportunities.
• The novelty of concepts and ideas in the most different directions- an excellent horse for a self-respecting Frenchman! Serious things like technology and nuclear energy railways and democracy is all fun.
• Compliance with the highest requirements is also one of the main features of the French. At the same time, absolute novelty is of particular importance to them, which shines with not yet completely dried paint, despite its glaring absurdity.

The words "breakfast", "lunch", "supper", "food" and all of the same roots and related meaning are sacred for the French. Only “rugby”, “bicycle”, “football” can “compete” with these words. And then, if on a full stomach. You can’t call a Frenchman when he’s eating! Keep that in mind. And it's not a joke. Being late from dinner will be more forgiven than being stuck in a traffic jam.

• The speed and transience of life attracts the French, creating the reputation of the French nation as a frivolous people. This national trait the French fully admit, because the expression "Frivolous like a Frenchman" is popular and even written in famous Encyclopedia arts, sciences and crafts.
• Wit, grace, delicate taste and wit are not accidentally considered the main features of the French nation, because many examples of history captured in the works of world classics testify to the lightness of the French character, the ability to quickly forget unpleasant moments of life and enjoy life.

French in communication

In the process of communicating with other people about the French, we can say that their honesty in private relationships is perfectly combined with their desire and ability to cheat in relation to the authorities. According to some reports, it is difficult to find a Frenchman who has not deceived a tax collector at least once.

The French are polite with foreigners - this comes from their natural need for gallantry, as well as for a taste for communication. Especially vividly French courtesy is manifested in communication with female representatives. Remember, it was the French language that was adopted in all high society salons, where women were hostesses.

Ease and ability to conduct a conversation, the desire to shine with a word - all this defines the French nation as one of the most intelligent and broad-minded. Politeness, courtesy and a penchant for jokes also contribute to the ease of dealing with French people.

Even in an ordinary handshake, a real Frenchman will be able to bring in so many different shades that a prim Englishman cannot reproduce: in the performance of a Frenchman, it can be friendly, dry, hot, careless, cold.

It should be noted that the speed of French speech is recognized as the highest among other countries in the world.

French family

Family relationships are very important for the French, and sometimes several generations coexist peacefully under one roof. If, after the marriage of the children, they parted with their parents, then they will always strive to live as close to each other as possible.

Sunday dinners and holidays are great occasions for regular family gatherings, and outsiders are rarely involved in such events. Only close friends can be invited to a family celebration.

Family relationships very often become the mainstay in business, and all members of the French family strive to help each other in different enterprises.

French and business

Ease of communication helps a Frenchman to make and maintain the necessary connections and acquaintances, and courtesy and a cheerful disposition to solve the conflicts that have arisen without any particular complications.

However, the French are also characterized by such character traits as independence and criticality due to their education system, as well as some intolerance and categoricalness, which makes joint business and business relations with the French not the easiest and easiest thing to do.

The scrupulousness of the representatives of this nation makes it possible to conduct a clear business, and the desire to study in detail every aspect of a business partnership leads to a longer procedure for drawing up and signing a contract. At the same time, due to their high intelligence and as a result of their superiority over others, they are sometimes intolerant of someone else's point of view.

Numerous monuments testify to the early settlement of France ancient cultures especially excellent specimens primitive art(figurines, stone bas-reliefs, cave painting). Certain periods of the Paleolithic (Chelle, Achel, Moustier, Aurignac, Solutre, Madeleine) received their names in science precisely from those French areas where the material remains of these cultures were found. In France, the best studied are numerous monuments of the Neolithic megalithic culture - menhirs, cromlechs, dolmens.

In ancient times, Ligurians lived in the southeastern part of France; this area is called the Ligurian coast. In the IV century. BC NS. some of the Ligurs were pushed aside by the Celts to the east, to the bay near Genoa, and some were Celticized. Here, on the Mediterranean coast, in the VII-VI centuries. BC NS. Phoenician and Greek colonies were founded. The main Greek colony was Massalia (Massilia, modern Marseille), founded in the 6th century. BC NS. Phoceans ( Asia Minor). Later, other Greek colonies were founded, giving rise to cities that have preserved modified ancient names to this day: Nicea (Nice), Antipolis (Antibes), A relate (Arles). The Greeks brought with them a vine, olive, fig and pomegranate trees, cypress.

Various Iberian tribes lived in the south and southwest of France. Between the Pyrenees and the Garonne lived the Aquitaines, after whom all the southwestern regions of the country were long called Aquitaine. In the VI century. n. NS. the Vascons came from Spain to Aquitaine. Mixing with the Aquitains, they began to be called Gascons, and the area of ​​their settlement - Gascony. The ethnonym "Vascons" was deposited in the modern name of the Basques (for their origin, see pp. 498-499).

The most numerous group of tribes that formed the basis for the formation French people, were the Celts, or Gauls, who gave the name to the country - Gaul.

In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. Gallic tribes lived scattered across the vast expanse of Central Europe and in a small part of Asia Minor. The zone of distribution of the La Tene culture, of which the Gauls are considered carriers, stretches in a wide strip across the territory of modern central France through Switzerland, the south of Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia and Romania.

In the "Notes on the Gallic War" by Julius Caesar, reports are given about the settlement of the Celtic tribes in Gaul, as well as evidence of their material culture, social relations, family life. By the time of the Roman conquest, Gaul was divided into three parts: the southern part was occupied by the Aquitaines, the middle one by the Gauls proper, and the Belgae, Celtic tribes, to a certain extent mixed with the Germans, lived north of the Seine.

In Gaul, the Edui and the Sequans fought for primacy. In the west was the Senton tribe. In the center of Gaul were the lands of the Carnuts, Parisians, Pictons, Turons. The names of the Gallic tribes have been preserved in the names of many cities and regions of France. Parisia gave the name to Paris (in ancient times Lutetia), Sentones, Pictons, Turons gave a name to the provinces of Sentonge, Poitou, Touraine.

The basis of the Gauls economy was agriculture, from the Greeks they adopted the culture of grapes. Cattle breeding was also developed. The main agricultural "tools of this time: a plow with an iron ploughshare, iron sickles and scythes. The Gauls had numerous iron and copper mines. La Tene ceramics were made on a potter's wheel. Clay vessels are richly ornamented. The style of decorations testifies to the originality of Gallic art, despite the presence of Greek and Eastern influences.

The Gauls created complex fortifications, they were skilled in the construction of ships.

Enamel production, borrowed from the south, was widespread among the Gauls. The Gauls created a kind of dark red enamel, which was used to cover bronze and iron objects.

The Gauls settlements looked like villages. There were also heavily fortified settlements that served as a refuge in wartime. Gradually, the fortified points turned into cities, which became the focus of crafts and trade. Such cities were Bibrakte, the main city of the Aedue tribe, located on the slopes of Mount Beauvray in central France, and the capital of the Mandubians, Alesia (modern Aliz). There were many workshops of blacksmiths, copper casters and enamel-makers.

Celtic tribes stood at various stages social development: some still lived in a communal-clan system, others were going through a stage of disintegration of clan orders and they had a clan nobility that owned vast lands and large herds. The mass of the free Gallic population was dependent on the aristocracy. There were several categories of dependence: slaves, debtors, clients. The tribes united in alliances, which often fought with each other over suitable for cultivation lands and pastures.

In the years 58-52. BC NS. Gaul was conquered by the Romans, and Roman legions were brought here. After the conquest, increased romanization began. In socio-economic terms, this was manifested in the establishment of a developed slave system. At the end of the II century. n. NS. large latifundia of the Gallic and Roman nobility appeared. In the latifundia and fisc (estates of the emperors), in the mines and in public works, many slaves worked. The colonies were also widely developed in Gaul.

Romanization proceeded, however, unevenly in different parts of Gaul. Densely populated by the Romans, the southern regions of the country with such rich cities as Narbona, Arelate, Nemouzde, Vienne, Gratianopolis, the areas along the Garonne and Burdigala with the district constituted, as it were, a natural continuation of Italy. Until now, many monuments of the Roman era have survived in these cities: amphitheaters in Arles and Orange, which are still used for open-air performances, arenas, temples, triumphal arches, aqueducts, bridges, tombs.

Less pronounced and less uniform was the romanization of the Lugdun province, whose borders ran along the Loire and Seine, regions north and northeast of the Seine and Aquitaine, which included all the southwestern lands.

In the Lugdun province, the southern regions were the most romanized, especially Lugdunum itself (now Lyon). Trade and crafts were concentrated there. In the rest of the province, the Gaulish population was less likely to mix with the Romans. Here, many cities have retained their old Celtic names. In Aquitaine, there were also no continuous tracts of Roman settlements. In mountainous areas, by deserted shores In the Bay of Biscay, in the swampy areas of Poitou, the old Celtic centers have been preserved almost intact. The area north of the Pyrenees (Gascony) remained entirely Iberian.

In Belgium, which occupied almost the entire northeast of modern France and the land along the Scheldt and the middle reaches of the Meuse and Moselle, Romanization was superficial. There were few Roman colonies, only in the cities there were Roman garrisons and Roman merchants. The main occupation of the population was horse breeding and sheep breeding, the production of wool and woolen fabrics. Only in the Moselle valley were grapes and fruits cultivated. Rich Roman villas arose here.

The inhabitants of the most romanized parts of Gaul were dominated by grain farming, viticulture and wine-making, butter-making.

Exchange between the Italic and Gallic regions developed on a wide scale. Cheap grain and olive oil were exported from Gaul to Rome.

All handicrafts known to the ancient world flourished in the cities, there were active trade and craft corporations. The cities were connected by good roads. In the V century. in Gaul, there were already more than 100 cities. Many of the townspeople were literate, and in the upper strata of society, the study of Greek and Latin literature flourished. Massilia, Burdigala (Bordeaux) and Augustodunum (Autun) were famous for their scholars and rhetoricians. Already in the IV century. far beyond the borders of Gaul there was a high school in Bordeaux.

The long domination of the Romans in Gaul, cultural communication between the Roman and Gaulish population led to the formation of the Gallo-Roman people. Roman schools, Roman culture, and Roman administration contributed to the fact that the population - primarily urban - began to learn the Latin language. Here, in the conquered provinces, the popular spoken language, the so-called vulgar Latin, was spread. As it penetrated from the cities into the countryside, Vulgar Latin itself underwent a change. It was assimilated in different ways in different parts of the country. Various Aboriginal languages, varying degrees Romanization of the north and south determined the dialectal features of the vulgar Latin speech in Gaul. The vocabulary of the Latin language was enriched by the Gaulish language. Gallic elements of speech were preserved primarily in the names of rivers, tracts, settlements... In addition, in the French dictionary, up to three hundred Celtic words have been preserved, relating mainly to agriculture and peasant life: charrue (plow), soc (opener), mouton (ram), lois (goat), ruche (hive), tonneau (barrel), etc. So a new ethnic community, who spoke a somewhat transformed language of the victorious Romans and combined the culture of the two peoples. The Gauls adopted the Roman culture and at the same time preserved and passed on to the winners some elements of their culture, for example, clothes: pants, a cloak with a hood, and special shoes - wooden shoes.

The Romanization process of Gaul was completed by the 5th century. n. e., at the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire.

An important milestone in ethnic history France had an invasion of Gaul by Germanic tribes. It began in the 3rd century. At the beginning of the 5th century. the southern regions of Gaul were captured by the Visigoths, who occupied almost all of Aquitaine from the Loire to the Garonne and founded the Kingdom of Toulouse here; later the Visigoths took possession of Gascony, Provence and almost all of Spain, and at the end of the 5th century. captured the central regions (present Berry, Limousin and Auvergne). In the eastern regions of the country, in the Saone and Rhone valleys, the Burgundians founded the kingdom of Burgundy.

The Armorica Peninsula (modern Brittany) was gradually settled by the Britons who fled Britain from the invasions of the Anglo-Saxons.

The northern regions from the Loire to the Somme and the Meuse were still Galloriman, but they were cut off from direct communication with Italy. At the end of the 5th century. these areas were captured by the powerful and warlike tribal alliance of the Franks under the leadership of Clovis. By the middle of the VI century. the Franks, having subjugated the Visigoths and Burgundians to their power, began to dominate all of Gaul. The Frankish power of the Merovingians was formed, which included Gaul and the indigenous Rhine lands of the Franks. The Frankish aristocracy, led by Clovis, adopted Christianity from Rome, which at the end of the 5th century. became the official religion of the state.

The limits of the Frankish state were expanded under the successors of Clovis. Under Charlemagne (around 800), the Franks became a huge empire that embraced the western part of Germany, all of France and the northern part of Italy. As part of the Frankish state, Gaul retained, however, its cultural characteristics.

The Germanic peoples brought their own order to Gaul: the slave state was broken and the social system of the country changed radically. The free neighboring community (mark) - the basis of the agrarian relations of the Germans - had a great impact on the agrarian established by the Romans; system of Gaul. The most complete form of communal relations was in the northern regions between the Loire and the Somme. The influence of the slave system of Gaul, the presence of Gallo-Roman columns and slaves accelerated class differentiation among the Germans. In the VI century. in Gaul, the folding of feudal landed property began.

At the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th century. in the complex vicissitudes of internecine wars, four parts of the Frankish state clearly took shape: Neustria - the northwestern part of Gaul with Paris, mainly with a Gallo-Roman population; Burgundy is a former independent kingdom in which special dialects of the Romance language developed; Aquitaine - the southwestern lands, as well as Austrasia - the northeastern part, inhabited by the Eastern Franks and the tribes subject to them; this part became part of Germany. Large landed property, secular and ecclesiastical, developed early in Neustria. In Burgundy and Aquitaine, small and medium landownership was preserved, there were many cities left from the Roman era, in which crafts and trade developed.

In the conditions of the formation of a new feudal formation, there was a process of changing the language, the process of the formation of the Northern French and Provencal peoples. By the beginning of the IX century. under the influence of a higher Gallo-Roman culture, the Franks assimilated, lost their language, assimilating Gallo-Roman speech. The Gallo-Romance language experienced some influence of the Frankish language, it included many Germanic words related mainly to the military, administrative, legal and everyday spheres ( werra - war, fr. guerre ; sporn - spur, fr. yoregop; treuwa - armistice, Art.-French. trieve etc.). Gallo-Roman Latin to the first half of the 9th century has undergone significant changes. It became no longer Latin, but the "Romance" language, the official language of the Frankish kingdom.

The difference between the language of Latin literature and the Romance spoken by the population became especially noticeable during the Carolingian Renaissance. In the era of Charlemagne, the foundations of the church-feudal culture of the Middle Ages were laid. In the famous palace Academy, the study of classical poets, philosophers-orators was revived, the members of the Academy created poetry and scholarly treatises on the correct Latin, which deepened the gap between the written language and colloquial speech... In the Reichenaus glossary (end of the 8th century), several hundred words and expressions of classical Latin were translated into folk speech. The decision of the Council of Tours in 813 ordered the priests to deliver sermons in in native language, since Latin became incomprehensible to the masses. The first French text known to us is the famous "Serments" ("Oaths") ^ which were exchanged in Strasbourg in 842 by the kings Karl the Bald and Louis the German. To understand their troops, Louis took the oath in Romanesque, Karl - in German. In addition to this document, the most ancient monuments of French writing belong to religious preaching literature, for example, Cantilene Eulalia (about 900).

An important stage in the ethnic history of the French was the separation in 843 from the disintegrated Carolingian Empire of the West Frankish kingdom, which became known as France. The borders of France more or less corresponded to the linguistic border, but still did not coincide with it. "So, outside of it remained the Burgundian lands and the western part of Lorraine, where the Romance language prevailed. The reunification of these regions with France lasted for many centuries.

Different ethnic backgrounds, different degrees of romanization and the development of feudal relations in the north and south of the country contributed to the long-term preservation of differences between north and south. Dialects of the northern part of the country united in a group langue d ! oui . Dialects of the south, influenced by the Visigoth language, were langue d ’ oc - Occitan language. These names come from the different pronunciation of the word "yes" as « oui » in the north and "wasps" in the south. Linguistic border passed along the northern edge of the Central Massif, which divided the ones that had developed by the 9th century. related to the northern French and Provencal peoples.

In the middle of the IX century. the Normans invaded France and captured the north of the country. In 911, one of the Norman leaders - Rollon - established his rule at the mouth of the Seine. The Duchy of Normandy was formed here. The Norman conquerors were soon assimilated by the larger local population, but they left some imprint on its language and culture.

In the X century. France was divided into counties and duchies, which largely corresponded to the areas of distribution of the old tribal groups and almost coincided with the administrative division of Gaul during the Roman rule. Since the XI century. French kings began to unite

nie French lands. As they joined the royal domain, duchies and counties became provinces.

In conditions of feudal fragmentation and isolation, independent dialects developed in the provinces. Northern French included Norman, Picard, Walloon, Lorraine, Poitvin, and Central French (ile de France) dialects. The South French (Occitan, Provencal) language included the Lyon dialect, the Dauphine and Savoy dialects and the Swiss cantons, which, together with the Franche-Comté dialects, were combined into a group of southeastern dialects.

In the X-XII centuries. the ethnic and linguistic isolation of the south from the north was very noticeable. The cities of the South (Nimes, Montpellier, Narbonne, etc.), which reached their heyday during this period, were economically more connected with the Mediterranean than with the interior of the country.

In the south, already in the XII century. was created first in Western Europe Romanesque literary language and the creativity of poets-troubadours flourished (see section "Folklore", p. 397).

In the north of the country in the XII century. a special position was occupied by the Ile-de-France dialect. Gradually, with the rise of Paris and Ile-de-France as the center of Northern France, this dialect developed into a language common to all northern French. By the end of the XIII century. only the dialects of Picardy and Normandy still retained their significance.

In the XI-XII centuries. the heroic epic took shape and was recorded, which has come down to us in the form of poems, the so-called songs about deeds ( chansons de geste ).

In formation national culture in connection with the growth of free foolish communities - communes - democratic urban culture, in particular literature, began to play a noticeable role.

A medieval theater appeared in the city during this period. The first universities appeared in Paris, Toulouse, Montpellier. Folk traditions and taste are also expressed in the works of architecture. Northern French cities became the birthplace of the Gothic style (cathedrals in Paris, Chartres, Amiens and many others).

Until the beginning of the XIII century. the level of economic and cultural life in the south of France, especially Provence, was higher than in the northern regions, but in military-political terms, the northern regions were stronger. The kings and knights of Northern France, taking advantage of the spread of the Albigensian heresy in the south, subjected the southern regions to a terrible defeat and annexed the County of Toulouse to the king's domain (1208-1229).

A hundred years' war (1357-1453) with England for the French lands hindered the development of culture, delayed the unification of the peoples of France. The prolonged occupation of the French regions was accompanied by their ruin and devastation. The tax oppression and civil strife of the French feudal lords exacerbated the class struggle. In 1358, the largest in the history of France and one of the largest in the history of Europe, the uprising began - Jacqueria (from the mocking nickname "Jacques the Prostac", which the nobles gave to the peasants). In Paris, an uprising of the townspeople broke out under the leadership of the merchant foreman Etienne Marcel.

The feeling of national identity that awakened among the people during the Hundred Years War was manifested in the mass struggle of the French people against foreign invaders. At the head of the army, which defeated the British at Orleans (1429), was a simple peasant girl, patriot, heroine of France Jeanne d'Arc.

The revival of the French economy after the end of the Hundred Years War strengthened royal power. In turn, economic policy Louis XI (1461 -1483) contributed to the revitalization of crafts and trade, the strengthening of economic ties. Under Louis XI, the two-century struggle for the eastern border regions, which were in the possession of the Burgundian dukes, ended.

Economic ties and cultural community of the north and south in the 15th century. and even by the middle of the 16th century. were still weak. The cultural traditions of the southern regions connected them more closely with Catalonia and Italy than with northern France. In northern France by the end of the 15th century. there was a common language, although along with it in some areas, especially in the north-west and north-east, local dialects were preserved. During this period, the penetration of the northern French language to the south began. However, the Provencal language continued to be a spoken language here.

The emergence of the capitalist system brought important changes in all aspects of life French society... The pace of economic development has accelerated. New classes arose - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The class struggle has intensified, political life has become more complicated. It was the era of the flourishing of culture. The national language has established itself in all those areas of social and cultural life, where Latin predominated earlier. Of great importance for the development of the national language was the law issued in 1539 by Francis I, which prescribed the use of the French language in legal proceedings and in the administration instead of Latin and local dialects.

From the very beginning of the XVI century. France, like other European countries, was swept by the Renaissance or Renaissance movement. It was a struggle against the feudal-church worldview, for the creation of a new, secular culture based on the principles of humanism. In terms of the scope and depth of this movement, France was second only to Italy. The Renaissance marked the beginning of the formation of the nationwide culture of France.

Folk traditions were characteristic of French humanism. The largest figure of French humanism is François Rabelais (1494-1553), one of the creators of national literature and literary French.

Politically, the XVI-XVIII centuries. were the period of the domination of absolutism, which took in France the most complete, classical form. True, in the XVI century. and the political, economic and cultural unity of France was threatened by the wars of religion. Protestantism spread in the south and in some other provinces; it manifested the separatism of the local feudal lords and the spontaneous discontent of the peasants. Religious Wars(1562-1592) led to an even greater mixing of the population, to the obliteration of regional differences. Many Protestants (Huguenots) were forced to move to other countries. The Catholic religion remained dominant in France. King Henry IV (1589-1610), who restored the unity of the country, made a claim to all lands "where French is spoken."

The absolute monarchy in France, which flourished during the reign of Louis XIV (1661-1715), was historically progressive, it acted "as a civilizing center, as the founder of national unity". During this period, the economic and national ties in the country strengthened, centralized manufactories developed, economic specialization by regions was created, and the national domestic market grew. The development of economic ties was accompanied by an increase in political centralization.

The political hegemony of France in Europe was also strengthened, achieved at the cost of numerous wars, brutal oppression and exploitation of the masses. In the countryside and in the cities, in different areas countries continuously broke out popular uprisings. In stark contrast to the poverty of the people was the luxury of the royal court and the court aristocracy. At royal court the most prominent French poets, writers, musicians and artists gathered. The French court set the tone for court and aristocratic life in all countries of Western Europe. The wide expansion of the French court culture outside France led to the hegemony of the French language, which became in the 17th-18th centuries. the language of diplomacy and the international language " secular society»All European countries.

France in the 17th century became the birthplace of rationalism, a new philosophical movement, the creator of which was Rene Descartes.

A style established in the literature and art of France in the 17th century. and a significant part of the 18th century, was called classicism. Classicism attached absolute importance to the "laws of reason". The creators of classicism in all areas of culture strove to observe clarity, measure, rigor. The principle of symmetry and harmony was especially pronounced in works of fine and applied art - the planning of cities, in the gardens and parks of that time, geometrically planned. The luminary of classicism in painting XVII v. was Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), the most famous artists this direction - Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), Louis Le Nain (1593-1648) and Jacques Callot (about 1592-1635).

The strict rules of ancient tragedies were revived in the theater. In literature, French classicism reached its pinnacle in the tragedies of Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) (Sid, Horace) and Jean Racine (Andromache, Berenica, Phaedra). Jean-Baptiste Moliere (1622-1673) became the creator of the classic comedy - realistic, splashing fun, healthy folk humor. Moliere's comedy, close to the traditions of folk art, had a huge impact on the development of French comedy in the 18th century. from Renyard and Lesage to Beaumarchais and comedy of all European countries. Until now, do not leave the stage of European theaters, professional and amateur, Moliere's comedies "Don Juan", "Tartuffe", "Bourgeois in the nobility" and others. Exemplary french theater Comedie frangaise called the "House of Moliere". After Moliere, the largest writer who adhered to the free-thinking movement within classicism was the fabulist La Fontaine, widely known outside France. The language of his fables is close to living folk speech... The theorist of classicism was Nicolas Boileau, whose poetic treatise "Poetic Art" had the general European significance of the code of classicism.

The bourgeoisie and the best representatives of the liberal bourgeois nobility became the exponents of the progressive ideas of this era. The main content of the ideological life of France at that time was an intense struggle against the political and cultural system of feudal absolutism, the country's ideological preparation for the bourgeois revolution. Period in the development of French culture and public life, which began in the second decade of the 18th century, is called the Age of Enlightenment.

The French Enlightenment was closely associated with the educational movement in other European countries, but the active participation of the masses in the preparation of the Great French bourgeois revolution gave the French Enlightenment a great deal of democracy. The French enlighteners expressed not only the interests of their class, but also of the entire oppressed people. Leading french writers of this era were not only artists, but also thinkers - publicists, pamphleteers, moralists, philosophers. The philosophy of the French enlighteners was not uniform. Charles-Louis Montesquieu (1689-1755) and François-Marie Voltaire (1694-1778) criticized despotic forms of government and exposed the church and the Christian religion. Julien Ofret Lametrie (1709-1751), Claude Adrian Helvetius (1715-1771), Denis Diderot (1713-1784),

Paul-Henri Holbach (1725-1789) formed the core of the materialist philosophers of the Enlightenment. French materialism of the 18th century served as one of the most important milestones in the development of dialectical materialism.

A radical criticism of the feudal forms of ownership and exploitation * of the feudal-absolutist state was given by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), whose ideas were inherited by the leaders of the Great French bourgeois revolution Maximilian Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat and other leaders of the Jacobins.

On July 14, 1789, the people who rebelled in Paris took by storm and destroyed the fortress-prison Bastille, which was the beginning of the revolution in the whole country. Peasant uprisings and uprisings engulfed all of France.

Revolution of 1789-1794 took place under the leadership of the bourgeoisie, but the widest masses of peasants, artisans, workers and small traders took part in it. After stormy protests and direct demands of the working people, the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 and a democratic electoral system was introduced. Under pressure from the peasant movement, the Convention in the summer of 1793 completed the destruction of feudal relations. The Great French Revolution was the first bourgeois revolution in history in which the struggle against feudalism was brought to a complete victory of the bourgeoisie over the ruling class of feudal society. The feudal order in the countryside, internal customs duties and the guild system were destroyed, the estate privileges of the nobility and clergy were abolished, ecclesiastical and émigré lands were sold, a democratic republic was established, and a new revolutionary army was created.

VI Lenin, assessing the significance of the Great French Revolution, wrote: “The entire 19th century, the century that gave civilization and culture to all mankind, passed under the sign of the French Revolution. In all parts of the world he did only what he carried out, carried out in parts, completed what the great French revolutionaries of the bourgeoisie had created ”1.

The gains of the revolution were of decisive importance for the national cohesion of the people of France. Since 1790, the division into provinces has been abolished. According to the new administrative division, the country was divided into departments that received the names of rivers, mountains, lakes. Dialectal fragmentation was gradually overcome, and French began to predominate in the south.

The growth of industry, which caused the peasants to flow from the villages to the cities and their transition to the position of workers, contributed to the assimilation of the French language by the developing proletariat, who flocked to the cities from different dialectal regions. An important factor the establishment of a single national language was also the creation of a single national army. With the abolition of feudal barriers and customs barriers that divided France into isolated regions, conditions were created for the development of a single national market. In the battles with the armies of foreign coalitions (almost all of feudal Europe took up arms against the young bourgeois France), encroaching on the conquests of the revolution, the national consciousness of the French people was strengthened.

The Great French Revolution greatly influenced the development of French and world culture. French scientists, under the leadership of the revolutionary authorities, developed the metric system, which was later adopted in most countries of the world. During this period, French scientists contributed a lot to metallurgical production, chemical science, biology and other branches of science and technology. The greatest mathematicians of this time - the creator of the theory of analytic functions Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), the author of a number of works on celestial mechanics, the creator of the cosmogonic hypothesis Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827), the creator of descriptive geometry Gaspard Monge (1746 -1818), biologists Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) and Etienne-Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805-1861), the outstanding chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), who established the conservation law substances were the greatest scientists of their time.

The revolution transformed the art and literature of France, brought them closer to the people, filled them with revolutionary content. Largest painter Jacques-Louis David(1748-1825) reflected in his canvases the pathos of the revolution, created images of people from the people. Political cartoons and topical witty popular prints became widespread. The artistic life of France was in full swing; organized mass festivals, exhibitions, great attention was paid to the aesthetic education of the masses.

Theaters staged plays with revolutionary content. Marie-Joseph Chenier is the most famous author of the tragedies of revolutionary classicism. Revolutionary songs were created, many of which are works of folk art. The works of the composers Gossek and Cherubini, who created revolutionary hymns, are permeated with revolutionary ideas.

One of the most popular songs of that time, the Marseillaise, written by Rouget de Lille, became the national anthem of France.

Many of the democratic gains of the Great French Revolution were destroyed in the periods of the Thermidorian reaction that followed the revolution, the Directory, during the period of the consulate and the empire of Napoleon. A new big bourgeoisie came to power, revolutionary years. Domestic policy the state was aimed at preserving and strengthening the bourgeois system created by the revolution.

The main goal Napoleonic Wars there was a struggle for markets, for the economic and political dominance of France in Europe. The collapse of Napoleon's empire led to the triumph of the noble-monarchical reaction in Europe, to the restoration of the Bourbons in France.

During the Restoration period, political dominance belonged to the nobility and clergy. But the French economy continued to develop along the capitalist path. The Restoration regime was forced to come to terms with the fundamental changes in the nature and distribution of property that took place in France during the revolution and under Napoleon.

The capitalist exploitation of the working people, the impoverishment and ruin of small artisans and handicraftsmen caused spontaneous protests by workers in different parts of the country. The progressive thinkers of France raised the question of changing the social system, and the teachings of the Utopian socialists Saint-Simon and Fourier were created.

The popular masses, dissatisfied with the policy of the government of the Restoration, raised an uprising on July 28, 1830. 1830 was a turning point in the history of the nation. Power finally passed from the hands of the nobility to the hands of the bourgeoisie, primarily the financial aristocracy. A bourgeois monarchy was established in France. Along with the numerical growth of the French proletariat, its class solidarity and capacity for revolutionary resistance increased. Already in the first years of the July monarchy, workers' uprisings took place in Lyons (1831-1834). The class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat became the determining factor in the life of the country.

The events of the political life of the 1930s and 1940s (first of all, the revolution of 1848) had a tremendous impact on the growth of the consciousness of the people. During this period, favorable conditions were formed for the development of a democratic culture. The anti-bourgeois tendency among the cultural figures of the petty-bourgeois democracies was limited and often inconsistent, but the fact that many leading writers set themselves the task of exposing social practice and the ideology of capitalism testified to a profound turn in French social life.

The work of the greatest novelist Victor Hugo (1802-1885) belongs to this period. One of the first places in European literature was occupied by the realist writers Stendhal (Henri Beyle, 1783-1842) and Honore de Balzac (1799-1850), who is rightly called the historian of the mores of his age. During this period, he created a wonderful realist artist Prosper Merimee (1803-1870), who contrasted the vulgarity and hypocrisy of bourgeois society with the integrity and beauty of the characters of the people of the people. The oppressed position of women in bourgeois society, the life of the peasants vividly reflected in her novels outstanding writer Georges Sand (Aurora Dudevant, 1804-1876).

In the XIX century. the famous romantic painters (Eugene Delacroix and others) lived and worked, ”the leaders of the romantic school. They responded vividly to the actual political themes, real life is reflected in their canvases. Ancestor critical realism in French art of the XIX century. was Honore Daumier (1808-1879), who exposed in his caricatures the vices of the French bourgeoisie, who gave true images of workers, artisans, wandering actors and beggars of Paris. The canvases of the largest representatives of critical realism, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) and Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875), reflected the unadorned reality, pictures of peasant life, the life of the working people.

Creativity of French impressionist painters of the 19th century. Claude Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Edouard Manet (1832-1833), Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was important milestone in the history of world art.

The work of the great realist writers II half of the XIX v. Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897), Guy de Maupassant (1840-1902), and in modern times - Anatole France (1844-1924) and many others - invaluable the contribution of the French people to the world's cultural treasury.

In the XIX century. clearly manifested duality, internal inconsistency cultural development the French nation. Democratic culture and progressive ideology developed and strengthened in the struggle against the ideology of monarchist-clerical reaction with its protection of the bourgeois "order", fear of progressive changes in public life.

The ruling classes of France have repeatedly betrayed their national interests, went to national treason in fear of the revolutionary activity of the masses. This was also in the year of the Paris Commune (1871), and in our time - in 1940 (Vichy). Throughout the history of the country, the real bearers of the national idea, the fighters for the independence of France were the masses and its vanguard - the working class.

The contribution of the French people to the development of the world revolutionary movement and world revolutionary thought. The working class of France was the most active and united unit of the European proletariat. In the February Revolution of 1848, the participation of the working class was decisive. In the days of June 1848, the workers of Paris for the first time put forward the slogan of a "social republic", and on March 18, 1871, for the first time in the history of mankind, they took power into their own hands, realizing the experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Paris Commune had a tremendous impact on the subsequent development of the international labor movement. The experience of the Commune enriched the revolutionary theory of Marx and Engels.

At the beginning of the XX century. French capitalism has entered the imperialist stage. A specific feature French capitalism of this era had its usurious character. France became one of the richest countries in the world, although in industrial terms it was much weaker than other imperialist powers. From one third to half, the barn of all the country's savings turned into loans that France provided to other countries. This held back the development of the productive forces and the internal market.

An important milestone in the history of France was the First World War, in which France acted as an active member of the Triple Alliance. In 1914-1918. in France, new industrial centers were formed, new industries arose. In connection with the development of industry, the process of concentration of production and capital intensified and accelerated, gigantic industrial monopolies were formed, and the power of the largest banks increased. The real masters of France, determining its policy, were the financial oligarchs: de Vandely, Schneider, Rothschild.

The period between the two world wars was marked by the attempts of the French monopolists to establish their hegemony in Western Europe. The growth of imperialist contradictions and opposition from Britain and the United States thwarted these efforts. The seizure of power in Germany by the Nazis increased the threat to peace in Europe. Instead of taking the path of creating collective security together with the USSR and other countries, the French ruling circles took the position of "appeasing" the aggressor. The result was disastrous - in 1940 Germany defeated the French army and dictated humiliating peace terms to France.

All the healthy forces of the nation rose up against the Nazi occupation. The Resistance Movement in France was led by the Communists. Resistance detachments ("poppies") contributed a lot to the liberation of the country, assisting the allied forces that landed in Normandy in 1944.

The Second World War weakened French imperialism. France has lost a quarter of its foreign investment; as a result of the national liberation wars in the colonies, the collapse of the French colonial empire began.

In the field of culture, the 20th century was marked by the increased role of the progressive French intelligentsia. There are many communists among writers, painters, scientists who have received world recognition. Realistic and humanistic traditions French literature continued in the works of Roger-Martin du Gard, Henri Barbusse, Paul Wayan Couturier, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Louis Aragon, Elsa Triolet and others. In the field of painting, progressive ideas of our time are reflected in the work of Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Georges Effel and others. Of modern scientists worldwide recognition noted the scientific and social activities of Frederic Joliot-Curie (1900-1958) and Irene Joliot-Curie (1897-1956), who discovered the phenomenon of artificial radioactivity.

In post-war France, the class struggle intensified. The left-wing forces have noticeably strengthened their positions. The influence of the Communist Party has grown. Pre-war bourgeois parties for the most part those who have stained themselves with either non-resistance to fascism or open collaboration have lost their former influence. But the big bourgeoisie created new parties to replace them. 1945-1958 characterized in France by the most acute political struggle.

Strengthening internal political and economic difficulties, exacerbated by the growth of the national liberation movement in French colonies(the war in Indochina in 1946-1954 and especially the war in Algeria in 1954-1961) - all this prompted the "200 families" to find a "strong personality" capable of ensuring the inviolability of their income. With the coming to power of De Gaulle in 1958, the era of the "fifth republic" began in France, hallmark which was the strengthening of the president's power by reducing the powers of parliament.

In foreign policy, French diplomacy strives to pursue its own line, which is not always coordinated with the United States and other NATO partners.

The end of colonial wars, some financial and economic measures of the government favor the development of the economy. However, the attack on the democratic rights of citizens, agricultural policy (reduction of the number of small farms under the flag of "intensification of production"), the creation of their own nuclear strike force cause discontent among the working people.