France is officially the French Republic (French: R é publiquefran ç aise, pronounced "about this soundlisten"), whose territory includes the metropolis of Western Europe, France and many overseas regions and regions. The metropolitan areas of France extend from the Mediterranean to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It borders Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany in the northeast, Switzerland and Italy in the East, Andorra and Spain in the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 overall regions, five of which are overseas, have a total area of 643801 square kilometers (248573 square miles) and a total population of 67.02 million (as of July 2019). France is a single semi presidential Republic with the capital in Paris. It is the largest city in the country and also the main cultural and commercial center. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and nice.

In the iron age, Celtic Gauls lived in the modern French metropolis. Rome annexed the area in 51 B.C. and it remained until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who founded the kingdom of France. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun divided France into East France, central France and West France. Francia became the kingdom of France in 987. After her victory in the hundred year war (1337-1453), she became the major power in Europe in the late Middle Ages. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and established a global colonial empire. By the 20th century, it will become the second largest empire in the world. The 16th century was mainly a religious civil war between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). In the 17th century under Louis XIV, France became the main cultural, political and military power in Europe. At the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the autocratic monarchy, established one of the earliest republics in modern history, and drafted the declaration of human and civil rights, which expressed the ideal of today's country.

In the 19th century, Napoleon came to power and established the first French Empire. The subsequent Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) changed the course of the European continent. After the collapse of the Empire, France experienced a turbulent re-election of the government, and finally established the Third Republic of France in 1870. France was the main participant in the first World War, which defeated France. It was one of the allies in the world. The Second World War, however, was occupied by the axis powers in 1940. After liberation in 1944, the Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the Algerian war. The Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was founded in 1958 and still exists. Algeria and almost all other colonies became independent states in the 1960s, and most maintained close economic and military ties with France.

France has long been the global center of art, science and philosophy. It has the fourth largest UNESCO World Heritage site in the world and is a major tourist destination, receiving about 83 million foreign tourists every year. France is a developed country, ranking sixth in the world in terms of nominal GDP and tenth in terms of purchasing power parity. In terms of total household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France excels in the international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy and human development. France is regarded as a great power in global affairs, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, with veto power and a formal nuclear weapon state. It is a major member of the European Union and the eurozone, as well as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) group of seven. And la Francophonie.