France

Rhineland-Palatinate (/ˌraɪnlænd pəˈlætɪnɪt, -lənd-/ RYNE-land pə-LAT-in-it, -⁠lənd-, US also /-ɪneɪt/ -⁠in-ayt; German: Rheinland-Pfalz [ˌʁaɪnlant ˈpfalts] ; Luxembourgish: Rheinland-Pfalz [ˌʀɑɪ̯nlɑm ˈpfɑlts]; Palatine German: Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers 19,846 km (7,663 sq mi) and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Koblenz, Trier, Kaiserslautern, Worms, and Neuwied. It is bordered by North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse and by France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Rhineland-Palatinate was established in 1946 after World War II, from parts of the former states of Prussia (part of its Rhineland and Nassau provinces), Hesse (Rhenish Hesse) and Bavaria (its former outlying Palatinate kreis or district), by the French military administration in Allied-occupied Germany. Rhineland-Palatinate became part of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 and shared the country's only border with the Saar Protectorate until the latter was returned to German control in 1957. Rhineland-Palatinate's natural and cultural heritage includes the extensive Palatinate winegrowing region, picturesque landscapes, and many castles and palaces.

In Belgium, the French Community (French: Communauté française (de Belgique), pronounced [kɔmynote fʁɑ̃sɛːz də bɛlʒik], CFB) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French minority has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (French: Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, pronounced [fedeʁɑsjɔ̃ walɔni bʁysɛl], FWB), which is controversial because its name in the Belgian Constitution has not changed and because it is seen as a political statement. The name "French Community" refers to the French language and not to France. As such, the French minority of Belgium is sometimes rendered in English as "the French-speaking Community of Belgium" for clarity, in analogy to the German-speaking Community of Belgium.

The Community has its own parliament, government, and administration. It and its predecessor entity have used the flag of Wallonia since 1975.

The Burgundians (Latin: Burgundiones or less commonly Burgundii) were a Germanic people of the Roman imperial era, who established the powerful Kingdom of the Burgundians within the Roman empire, in what is now western Switzerland and south-eastern France. This kingdom is the source of much later names related to the region of Burgundy, including medieval entities such as the Duchy of Burgundy.

In earlier periods, peoples with the same name were reported by Roman sources to have lived in different parts of what is now Germany and Poland, and there are believed to be connections between at least some of these groups. For one thing, the kingdom's core group were followers of the Gibichung dynasty, who had previously led them as foederati in Roman territory on the Rhine border, probably near Worms in present day Germany. They left the Rhine after the Romans and their Hun allies killed many of the Burgundians along with their king Gundahar in 436, accusing them of rebellion. The death of Gundahar at the hands of the Huns became a central theme in medieval Germanic heroic legend, including the Nibelungenlied (where he is “Günther”) and the Völsunga saga (where he is “Gunnar”). After the remnants resettled in Sapaudia near Lake Geneva in about 443, their territory expanded to include Lyon as a new capital. The entire kingdom was incorporated into the Frankish empire in 534.

Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of representative democracy: for example, the United Kingdom (a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy), Germany (a federal parliamentary republic), France (a unitary semi-presidential republic), and the United States (a federal presidential republic). Unlike liberal democracy, a representative democracy may have de facto multiparty and free and fair elections, but may not have a fully developed rule of law and additional individual and minority rights beyond the electoral sphere.

Representative democracy places power in the hands of representatives who are elected by the people. Political parties often become central to this form of democracy if electoral systems require or encourage voters to vote for political parties or for candidates associated with political parties (as opposed to voting for individual representatives). Some political theorists (including Robert Dahl, Gregory Houston, and Ian Liebenberg) have described representative democracy as polyarchy.

The economy of Europe comprises about 748 million people in 50 countries. Throughout this article "Europe" and derivatives of the word are taken to include selected states whose territory is only partly in Europe, such as Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and states that are geographically in Asia, bordering Europe and culturally adherent to the continent, such as Armenia and Cyprus.

There are differences in wealth across Europe which can be seen roughly along the former Cold War divide, with some countries breaching the divide (Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). Whilst most European states have a GDP per capita higher than the world's average and are very highly developed, some European economies, despite their position over the world's average in the Human Development Index, are relatively poor. Europe has total banking assets of more than $50 trillion; the United Kingdom accounts for 25% ($12 trillion) of Europe’s total banking assets followed by France with 20% ($10 trillion) and Germany with 15% ($7 trillion). Europe Global assets under management is more than $20 trillion, with the United Kingdom accounting for more than 40% ($8 trillion) of Europe’s total AUM followed by France with 20% ($4 trillion) and Germany with 12% ($2 trillion). London and Paris are by far the economically strongest cities in Europe, each with a GDP exceeding $1 trillion. London and Paris are major economic hubs in Europe, with the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, the two largest stock exchanges in Europe by market cap.

French Polynesia (/ˌpɒlɪˈniːʒə/ POL-ih-NEE-zhə; French: Polynésie française [pɔlinezi fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ; Tahitian: Pōrīnetia farāni) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) in the South Pacific Ocean. French Polynesia is associated with the European Union as an overseas country and territory (OCT). The total land area of French Polynesia is 3,521 square kilometres (1,359 sq mi), with a population of 282,596 as of September 2025 of which at least 205,000 live in the Society Islands and the remaining population lives in the rest of the archipelago.

French Polynesia is divided into five island groups: the Austral Islands; the Gambier Islands; the Marquesas Islands; the Society Islands (comprising the Leeward and Windward Islands); and the Tuamotus. Among its 121 islands and atolls, 75 were inhabited at the 2017 census. Tahiti, which is in the Society Islands group, is the most populous island, being home to nearly 69% of the population of French Polynesia as of 2017. Papeete, located on Tahiti, is the capital of French Polynesia. Although not an integral part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon (/ˈmiːkəlɒn/, MEEK-ə-lon), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (French: Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located near the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. St. Pierre and Miquelon is an archipelago of eight islands, covering 242 km (93 sq mi) of land. It had a population of 5,819 as of the January 2022 census and its residents are French citizens; they elect their own deputy to the National Assembly and participate in senatorial and presidential elections.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is an Overseas Country and Territory (OCT) of the European Union, although not an integral part of it. It is neither part of the Schengen area, nor of the European customs territory. On the other hand, Saint Pierre and Miquelon is part of the Eurozone, and its inhabitants have European Union citizenship. The territory is also part of the Regional Joint Cooperation Commission (Atlantic Canada Cooperation), the Halifax Search and Rescue Region and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization.

Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent (also spelled Saint–Maxent; 1724 – August 8, 1794) was a French merchant and military officer who played a major role in the development of French and Spanish Louisiana.

St. Maxent was born in Longwy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, in Lorraine, France.

The Blue Banana (Dutch: blauwe banaan; French: banane bleue; German: Blaue Banane; Italian: banana blu), also known as the European Megalopolis or the Liverpool–Milan Axis, is a discontinuous corridor of urbanization in Western and Central Europe, with a population of around 100 million. Over time, the region has been referred to by several names, each reflecting its development and significance. Initially, French geographer Roger Brunet, as the leader of RECLUS (Network for the study of changes in locations and spatial units), described the area as 'the European Backbone', which depicted an urban corridor extending from Liverpool to Milan.

Characterized by significant industrialization and urbanization, this area has attracted numerous public and private enterprises since the early post-war period, prompting researchers and academics to investigate the factors behind its remarkable development within Europe. It stretches approximately from North West England through the English Midlands across Greater London to the European Metropolis of Lille, the Benelux states with the Dutch Randstad and the Flemish Diamond and along the German Ruhrgebiet, Rhineland, Southern Germany, Alsace-Moselle in France in the west and Switzerland (Basel and Zürich), Austria (Vorarlberg and Tyrol) to Northern Italy (Milan, Turin, and Genoa) in the south.

Ligurian (/lɪˈɡjʊəriən/ lig-YOOR-ee-ən; endonym: lìgure) or Genoese (/ˌdʒɛnoʊˈiːz/ JEN-oh-EEZ; endonym: zeneise or zeneize) is a Gallo-Italic language spoken primarily in the territories of the former Republic of Genoa, now comprising the area of Liguria in Northern Italy, parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, Monaco (where it is called Monégasque), the village of Bonifacio in Corsica, and in the villages of Carloforte on San Pietro Island and Calasetta on Sant'Antioco Island off the coast of southwestern Sardinia. It is part of the Gallo-Italic and Western Romance dialect continuum. Although part of Gallo-Italic, it exhibits several features of the Italo-Romance group of central and southern Italy. Zeneize (literally "Genoese"), spoken in Genoa, the capital of Liguria, is the language's prestige dialect on which the standard is based.

There is a long literary tradition of Ligurian poets and writers that goes from the 13th century to the present, such as Luchetto (the Genoese Anonym), Martin Piaggio [it; lij], and Gian Giacomo Cavalli [it; lij].