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The first written records for the history of France appeared in the Iron Age. What is now France made up the bulk of the region known to the Romans as Gaul . Greek writers noted the presence of three main ethno-linguistic groups in the area: the Gauls , Aquitani and Belgae .
To a large extent, modern France lies within clear limits of physical geography.Roughly half of its margin lies on sea coasts: one continuous coastline along "La Manche" ("the sleeve" or English Channel) and the Atlantic Ocean forming the country's north-western and western edge, and a shorter, separate coastline along the Mediterranean Sea forming its south-eastern edge.
France, [X] officially the French Republic, [XI] is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Its overseas regions and 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, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world.
It is the precursor of modern France. It was divided into the following great fiefs: Aquitaine, Brittany, Burgundy, Catalonia, Flanders, Gascony, Gothia, the Île-de-France, and Toulouse. After 987, the kingdom came to be known as France, because the new ruling dynasty (the Capetians) were originally dukes of the Île-de-France.
Hand-drawn map of one side of the Valley of Vesdre by French geographers (led by the Cassini family) from 1745 to 1748. In France, the first general maps of the territory using a measuring apparatus were made by the Cassini family during the 18th century on a scale of 1:86,400 (one centimeter on the chart corresponds to approximately 864 meters on the ground).
France obtains Lille and other territories of Flanders from Spain. 1678: Treaties of Nijmegen: A series of treaties ending the Franco-Dutch War. France obtains the Franche-Comté and some cities in Flanders and Hainaut (from Spain). 1684: 15 August: Truce of Ratisbon: End of the War of the Reunions. France obtains further territories in the ...
Versailles on the Cassini map. The Cassini Map or Academy's Map is the first topographic and geometric map made of the Kingdom of France as a whole. It was compiled by the Cassini family, mainly César-François Cassini (Cassini III) and his son Jean-Dominique Cassini (Cassini IV) in the 1700s.