FRANCE
70S
PRANCE
of Marengo. By the peace of LuneVille the boundaries of France were once more extended to the Rhine. In 1804 Napoleon was declared emperor by the vote of the people. In his victorious career he made himself king of Italy, made Holland and Naples vassal kingdoms, set up in Germany the Confederation of the Rhine, conquered Prussia, occupied Portugal, deposed the Bourbons in Spain, made Rome a French town and carried off the pope to Fontainebleau. With 1811 came a turning point in his fortunes; he was defeated in 1814; Paris capitulated to the allies and Napoleon retired to Elba. Louis XVIII (1814-24) succeeded to the throne, his reign being soon interrupted by the return of Napoleon, who met his final defeat at Waterloo. Charles X and Louis Philippe end the long line of French kings, the Revolution of 1848 overthrowing the latter. Louis Napoleon was in 1848 elected president of the new republic, but assumed the powers of a dictator by the coup d'etat of December, 1851, and a year later, by a vote of the people, became emperor as Napoleon III, reigning nearly twenty years. The Franco-German War (1870-71) was begun by him as a vent for the growing discontent of the people; but the French army lost battle after battle, until at Sedan the emperor, with 83,000 men, surrendered to Prussia. France, after the treaty by which she lost Alsace and a part of Lorraine, again became a republic, the first president being M. Thiers (q. v.) who had opposed the war with Germany. She has since been successfully endeavoring to restore the "prosperity of the people and make up for the ravages of war. The colonial possessions of France include, besides those in Africa—Algeria, Tunis, Senegal, French Sudan, Dahome, French Congo, Madagascar and Reunion •—a few possessions in India, in Indo-China (including Tonking, Anam, Cochin-China and Cambodia), French Guiana, New Caledonia and several islands in the West Indies, the Pacific and those off Newfoundland. See French and English by Hamerton; French Revolution by Carlyle; History of the Girondists by Lamartine; and History of France (for young people) by Charlotte M. Yonge. See, also, FRENCH LANGUAGE and LITERATURE.
Natural Resources. Owing to its long coast-line of 1,760 miles the fisheries are of great importance. The country is deficient in minerals; iron and coal are imported in large quantities, though it has excellent quarries of stone.
Agriculture. Three fourths of the people live in the country and one fourth in the cities. Half of the people live by agriculture. The products are wheat, oats, rye, barley, buckwheat and corn; beetroots grown for sugar cover half a million
acres; while market-gardening has been carried to great perfection, reaching often from $300 to $900 an acre in the value of the crop. Cattle-breeding, raising horses and mules and sheep-rearing are large industries.
Manufactures. In manufactures France is progressing rapidly. It has nearly 150,-ooo factories, employing 2,000,000 people. France holds the first rank in silk-manufacture; and is about equal to Germany in the manufacture of cotton-goods, though below Great Britain and the United States. All industries connected with furniture, dress and articles of luxury are active, and show the artistic taste for which the people are noted. Valenciennes, Chantilly and Alenjon laces, Sevres and Limoges porcelain and Aubusson carpets are examples of the productions of this class, while in the manufacture of jewelry few places in the world can rival Paris. It also is the greatest book-market in the world.
Revenues and Commerce. The revenues of France in 1911 were 4,386 million francs, and its expenditures nearly equalled this sum. Commerce is carried on by 15,878 sailing-vessels of 638,265 tons, with crews of 72,968 men; there also are 1,670 steamers of 806,073 tons and crews numbering 16,558. Much internal commerce is conducted via the rivers, canals and railways. These canals connect the natural waterways and thus establish easy communication through the interior as well as between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. There are 30,709 miles of railway and 113,332 of telegraph lines.
Government. The present government is republican. There are a president, elected for seven years, and two nouses, the chamber of deputies with 584 members and the senate, which consists of 300 members, of whom seventy-five hold their seats for life. There are eleven ministers, corresponding to the cabinet-officers of the United States. There are three courts, the civil, criminal and supreme court, the latter called the court of cassation. The unit of the local government is the commune, most of these having less than 1,500 inhabitants. The army in time of peace has 629,500 men, and in time of war, with the active army, a garrison-force and reserves, it comprises nearly two and a half millions of men. Every young man serves, from 20 to 45, either in the active army or in the reserves. The navy, second only to that of Great Britain, consists of 515 vessels, including battleships, armored cruisers, torpedo-boats, submarines, etc., besides those building or completing, about 36 in number. Cherbourg, Brest, Toulon, Roche-fort and L'Orient are fortified naval ports. The population of France is 39,601,509, of whom 1,126,531 are foreigners. The annual
