French

Somaliland, French: see Djibouti, republic.

East India Company, French, 1664-1769, commercial enterprise planned by Jean Baptiste Colbert and chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. It failed to found a colony on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon and Île-de-France (now Réunion and Mauritius). By 1719 the company had established itself in India but was near bankruptcy. In that year it was combined under John Law with other French trading companies to make the Compagnie des Indes (see Mississippi Scheme). It resumed independence in 1723. With the decline of the Mughal empire, the French found it necessary to intervene in Indian political affairs to protect their interests. From 1741 the French under Joseph François Dupleix pursued an aggressive policy against both the Indians and the English until they ultimately suffered defeat by Robert Clive. Despite its apparent success, the French company had never been able to maintain itself financially, and in 1769 it was abolished.

Flanders, French, region of N France, on the North Sea and along the Belgian border. It is coextensive with Nord dept. The area is studded with important industrial cities and historic towns and was once a rich coal-mining region. It was incorporated into France in 1678 by Louis XIV and was a province until the French Revolution. Lille was the provincial capital, Douai the seat of the parlement. The area has been a battleground in several major European conflicts.

French, Daniel Chester, 1850-1931, American sculptor, b. Exeter, N.H., studied in Florence and in Boston with William Rimmer. After executing his first large work, The Minute Man (1875), he received many important commissions, including his most famous achievement, the heroic Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. His style varies from a detailed realistic rendering, especially in portraiture, to a grand ideal in his allegorical works. Some of the best of his statues and memorials are John Harvard and the bust of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Harvard); Death and the Young Sculptor, Milmore Memorial (Boston); Mourning Victory, Melvin Memorial (Concord, Mass.); Lewis Cass (Capitol, Washington, D.C.); and Alma Mater (Columbia Univ.). In collaboration with Edward C. Potter he executed equestrian statues of General Grant (Philadelphia), General Washington (Paris), and General Joseph Hooker (Boston).

French, John Denton Pinkstone, 1st earl of Ypres, 1852-1925, British field marshal. After a long career in the army, during which he served in Sudan (1884-85) and in the South African War (1899-1902), he was chief of the imperial general staff (1912-14) and became a field marshal in 1913. His command of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium from the outbreak of World War I (Aug., 1914) to Dec., 1915, was marked by failure to coordinate the movements of his forces and heavy casualties in the first and second battles of Ypres and the battle of Loos. On his return to England he reorganized the home defenses. He was lord lieutenant of Ireland (1918-21) and was created earl in 1922. He wrote 1914 (1919).

Canadian literature, French, the body of literature of the French-speaking population of Canada.

Except for the narratives of French explorers (such as Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Esprit Radisson) and missionaries, no notable writing was produced before the British conquest of New France in 1759. Since that time the inspiration for much French Canadian literature has been a concern with preserving an autonomous identity in a country dominated by the English language and the Protestant religion. Traditionally, there has been little contact between Canada's French and English literature. Until the 20th cent. French Canadian writers found their models mainly in writers from France and their themes in nationalism, the simple lives and folkways of the habitants, and the devotion to the Roman Catholic Church.

The first artistic expression of this spirit was F. X. Garneau's Histoire du Canada (1845-48), still the classic of French Canadian nationalism. Other historians, including Benjamin Sulte, Thomas Chapais, and L. A. Groulx, also placed their emphasis on pride in and protection of their French heritage. This school of thought inspired the first nationalist poet, Octave Crémazie and the Quebec school of poets, novelists, and historians. In 1861 they began a deliberate effort to create a national literature, with such French authors as Hugo and Lamartine as their chief models. The group included Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, J. B. A. Ferland, Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Pamphile LeMay, Abbé H. R. Casgrain, Antoine Gérin-Lajoie, and Nérée Beauchemin.

About 1900 a new group of writers developed, centered chiefly in Montreal, who tried to achieve the stricter technique and keener artistic perceptions of the Parnassians of France. These more sophisticated poets included Charles Gill, René Chopin, and Louis Dantin. Some writers of the new group, such as Émile Nelligan—considered French Canada's first native poetic genius—and Paul Morin, abandoned the national note for exotic subjects. Others, such as Albert Lozeau and Albert Ferland, found inspiration in Canadian nature. About the same time another movement began, led by Adjutor Rivard, aimed at preserving the purity of the French language in Canada. Influential critics included Camille Roy, Henri d'Arles, and the poet Louis Dantin.

In the novel, a rural romanticism was expressed in the works of Félicité Angers (Laure Conan). A more realistic fiction took impetus from Louis Hémon's Maria Chapdelaine (1913), a novel of the peasants of the Lake St. John country. There followed a stream of fiction on habitant life in the backwoods, on the farms, and in the villages, by such native Canadians as Robert Choquette, F. A. Savard, Claude Henri Grignon, Roger Lemelin, and Ringuet.

Although some novels were set in cities and the notable author Robert Charbonneau explored the psychological defeatism of his characters, the realistic regional novel about the simple Catholic community remained dominant until the 1950s. Important poets since 1914 include Clément Marchand, whose inspiration is often religious; Alfred DesRochers, who writes of the life of the soil; and Robert Choquette and Roger Brien, whose romantic lyrics are eloquently individualistic.

Following World War II there was evidence of a new, less self-conscious spirit. Poets and novelists, trying to settle the language problem, declared that pure French should be standard, with the use of Canadianisms accepted wherever these served a purpose. Although it was still possible to detect the influence of France, in the mid-20th cent. much creative writing in Canada, as elsewhere, was characterized by experiment with subject matter and technique.

From the 1970s to the 90s a nationalist focus in the novel was generally replaced with irony, skepticism, and universalism, reflecting developments in both Europe and the United States. Among noteworthy postwar novelists are Herbert Aquin, Yves Beauchemin, Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, Jacques Godbout, Gilbert La Rocque, Antonine Maillet, and Jacques Poulin. Among the poets are Michel Beaulieu, François Charron, Anne Hébert, Paul Marie Lapointe, Rina Lasnier, Gaston Miron, Yves Préfontaine, Jacques Godbout, and Jean Guy Pilon, the last two founding the literary magazine Liberté in 1959.

(born July 13, 1935, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) U.S. politician. He played professional gridiron football with the Buffalo (N.Y.) Bills. As a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1971–89), he championed conservative causes but also strongly supported civil rights legislation. After a failed presidential bid in 1988, he was appointed secretary of housing and urban development by Pres. George Bush (1989). In 1996 he ran unsuccessfully for vice president on a ticket with Republican Bob Dole.

Learn more about Kemp, Jack (French) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 13, 1935, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) U.S. politician. He played professional gridiron football with the Buffalo (N.Y.) Bills. As a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1971–89), he championed conservative causes but also strongly supported civil rights legislation. After a failed presidential bid in 1988, he was appointed secretary of housing and urban development by Pres. George Bush (1989). In 1996 he ran unsuccessfully for vice president on a ticket with Republican Bob Dole.

Learn more about Kemp, Jack (French) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 20, 1850, Exeter, N.H., U.S.—died Oct. 7, 1931, Stockbridge, Mass.) U.S. sculptor. He produced his first important commission for the town of Concord, Mass.—the famous statue The Minute Man (1874). He was the leading turn-of-the-century American sculptor, with studios in Boston, Concord, Washington, D.C., and New York City. His best-known work, the seated marble figure of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 1922. His other notable public monuments include the equestrian statues of Ulysses S. Grant in Philadelphia (1898) and George Washington in Paris (1900) and sculptures representing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, in front of the New York City customhouse (1907).

Learn more about French, Daniel Chester with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Romance language spoken as a first language by about 72 million people in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada (mainly Quebec), and many other countries and regions formerly governed by France. French is an official language of more than 25 countries. Its earliest written materials date from the 9th century. Numerous regional dialects were eventually pushed aside by Francien, the dialect of Paris, adopted as the standard language in the mid-16th century. This largely replaced the dialects of northern and central France, known as the langue d'oïl (from oïl, the northern word for “yes”), and greatly reduced the use of the Occitan language of southern France, known as langue d'oc (from oc, Occitan for “yes”). Regional dialects survive mostly in uneducated rural speech. French grammar has been greatly simplified from Latin. Nouns do not have cases, and masculine and feminine gender are marked not in the noun but in its article or adjective. The verb is conjugated for three persons and for singular and plural; though spelled differently, several of these forms are pronounced identically.

Learn more about French language with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Orchestral and military brass instrument, a valved circular horn with a wide bell. It is normally a transposing instrument (its music written in a different tone than its actual sound) in F. It has a wide bore and three (sometimes four) rotary valves; its conical mouthpiece produces a mellower tone than the cup-shaped mouthpieces of other brass instruments. Horns long relied on separable crooks—circular lengths of tubing that could be attached and removed rapidly—for music modulating to new keys. Since circa 1900 the standard horn has been a “double” instrument, with built-in crooks in F and B-flat that can be selected rapidly by means of a thumb valve. The modern symphony orchestra usually includes four horns. Though difficult to play and prone to producing conspicuous errors, its tone is widely admired.

Learn more about French horn with a free trial on Britannica.com.

River, western North Carolina, U.S. Rising in the Blue Ridge and flowing 210 mi (340 km) north through the Great Smoky Mountains into Tennessee, it then turns west to join the Holston River near Knoxville, forming the Tennessee River. Douglas Dam, part of the Tennessee Valley Authority, is on the river near the junction.

Learn more about French Broad River with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Former federation of French dependencies, western Africa. It consisted of what are now the independent republics of Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. The capital was at Dakar. The federation was established in 1895 and dissolved 1958–59. By 1960 the former colonial territories had become independent republics.

Learn more about French West Africa with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Political entity created by the constitution of 1946 of the Fourth Republic. It replaced the French colonial empire with a semifederal entity that absorbed the colonies (overseas departments and territories) and gave former protectorates limited local autonomy, with some voice in decision making in Paris. By the constitution of 1958, the French Union was replaced by the French Community.

Learn more about French Union with a free trial on Britannica.com.

City (pop., 2006 est.: 325,000), major port, and capital of Djibouti. It is located on the southern shore of the Gulf of Tadjoura in the Gulf of Aden. It was founded by the French in 1888 and made the capital of French Somaliland in 1892. It was linked by rail to Addis Ababa in 1917 and made a free port in 1949. The economic life of both the city and the country depends on the city's function as a transshipment point, especially between Ethiopia and the Red Sea trade. Built on three level areas linked by jetties, the city has a mixture of ancient and modern architecture. Drought and conflict during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s brought many refugees to Djibouti from neighbouring countries, swelling its population.

Learn more about Djibouti with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Movement that shook France between 1787 and 1799, reaching its first climax in 1789, and ended the ancien régime. Causes included the loss of peasant support for the feudal system, broad acceptance of the reformist writings of the philosophes, an expanding bourgeoisie that was excluded from political power, a fiscal crisis worsened by participation in the American Revolution, and crop failures in 1788. The efforts of the regime in 1787 to increase taxes levied on the privileged classes initiated a crisis. In response, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General, made up of clergy, nobility, and the Third Estate (commoners), in 1789. Trying to pass reforms, it swore the Tennis Court Oath not to disperse until France had a new constitution. The king grudgingly concurred in the formation of the National Assembly, but rumours of an “aristocratic conspiracy” led to the Great Fear of July 1789, and Parisians seized the Bastille on July 14. The assembly drafted a new constitution that introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming liberty, equality, and fraternity. The Constitution of 1791 also established a short-lived constitutional monarchy. The assembly nationalized church lands to pay off the public debt and reorganized the church (see Civil Constitution of the Clergy). The king tried to flee the country but was apprehended at Varennes. France, newly nationalistic, declared war on Austria and Prussia in 1792, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars. Revolutionaries imprisoned the royal family and massacred nobles and clergy at the Tuileries in 1792. A new assembly, the National Convention—divided between Girondins and the extremist Montagnards—abolished the monarchy and established the First Republic in September 1792. Louis XVI was judged by the National Convention and executed for treason on Jan. 21, 1793. The Montagnards seized power and adopted radical economic and social policies that provoked violent reactions, including the Wars of the Vendée and citizen revolts. Opposition was broken by the Reign of Terror. Military victories in 1794 brought a change in the public mood, and Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown in the Convention on 9 Thermidor, year II (in 1794 in the French republican calendar), and executed the next day (see Thermidorian Reaction). Royalists tried to seize power in Paris but were crushed by Napoleon on 13 Vendémaire, year IV (in 1795). A new constitution placed executive power in a Directory of five members. The war and schisms in the Directory led to disputes that were settled by coups d'état, chiefly those of 18 Fructidor, Year V (in 1797), and 18–19 Brumaire, Year VIII (in 1799), in which Napoleon abolished the Directory and declared himself leader of France. Seealso Committee of Public Safety; Constitution of 1795; Constitution of the Year VIII; Charlotte Corday; Cordeliers Club; Georges J. Danton; Feuillants Club; Jacobin Club; J.-P. Marat; Marie-Antoinette; Louis de Saint-Just; E.-J. Sieyès.

Learn more about French Revolution with a free trial on Britannica.com.

formerly French Oceania

French overseas territory (pop., 2005 est.: 255,000), south-central Pacific Ocean. French Polynesia has an area of some 1,550 sq mi (4,000 sq km), comprising 130 islands in five archipelagoes: the Society Islands, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Gambier Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and the Austral Islands. Tahiti, in the Society group, is the largest island and the site of the capital, Papeete. More than two-thirds of the population of French Polynesia lives on Tahiti. The islands became French protectorates in the 1840s, and in the 1880s the French colony of Oceania was established. It became an overseas territory of France after World War II and was granted partial autonomy in 1977.

Learn more about French Polynesia with a free trial on Britannica.com.

or Indochinese Peninsula

Region of mainland Southeast Asia. The term, now largely superseded by the name Southeast Asia, was used mainly by Westerners to describe the intermingling of Indian and Chinese cultural influences in the region. Indochinese Peninsula typically referred to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (see French Indochina), though it was sometimes expanded to include Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and the mainland portion of Malaysia.

Learn more about Indochina with a free trial on Britannica.com.

French Guyane Française

Overseas department (pop., 2002 est.: 172,000) of France, northeastern coast of South America. It has an area of 33,399 sq mi (86,504 sq km) and is bounded by Brazil to the south and east, by Suriname to the west, and by the Atlantic Ocean to the northeast. The capital is Cayenne. Most of French Guiana is low-lying, with mountains in the south and a swampy coastal plain. The Maroni River forms the border with Suriname. French Guiana's population is mostly Creole. The principal languages are French (official) and creole; nine-tenths of the people are Roman Catholic. Originally settled by the Spanish, French, and Dutch, the territory of French Guiana was awarded to France in 1667, and the inhabitants were made French citizens after 1877. By 1852 the French began using the territory for penal settlement; the penal colony at Devils Island was notorious. French Guiana became a department of France in 1946; the penal colonies were closed by 1953.

Learn more about French Guiana with a free trial on Britannica.com.

formerly French Congo

Former federation of French possessions, western Central Africa. It was in existence from 1910 to 1959; its capital was Brazzaville. With independence in 1960, the former territory of Ubangi-Shari, to which Chad had been attached in 1920, became the Central African Republic and the Republic of Chad; the Middle Congo became the Republic of the Congo; and Gabon became the Republic of Gabon.

Learn more about French Equatorial Africa with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Trading company founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1664, and its successors, established to oversee French commerce with India, East Africa, and other territories of the Indian Ocean and the East Indies. In constant competition with the already-established Dutch East India Co., it mounted expensive expeditions that were often harassed by the Dutch. It also suffered in the French economic crash of 1720, and by 1740 the value of its trade with India was half that of the English East India Co. Its monopoly over French trade with India was ended in 1769, and it languished until its disappearance in the French Revolution.

Learn more about East India Co., French with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(French, la Communauté) Association of overseas territories created in 1958 by the constitution of the Fifth Republic to replace the French Union in dealing with matters of foreign policy, defense, currency and economic policy, and higher education. As the former colonies gained full independence in the 1960s and '70s, the Community became obsolete; it was defunct by the late 1970s.

Learn more about French Community with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Literary academy in France. The Académie Française was established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1634 to maintain standards of literary taste and to establish the literary language. In modern times it has endeavoured (somewhat absurdly) to purify French of foreign loanwords. Its membership is limited to 40. Despite its conservatism, most of France's great writers, including Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Voltaire, and Victor Hugo, have been members.

Learn more about Académie Française with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 20, 1850, Exeter, N.H., U.S.—died Oct. 7, 1931, Stockbridge, Mass.) U.S. sculptor. He produced his first important commission for the town of Concord, Mass.—the famous statue The Minute Man (1874). He was the leading turn-of-the-century American sculptor, with studios in Boston, Concord, Washington, D.C., and New York City. His best-known work, the seated marble figure of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 1922. His other notable public monuments include the equestrian statues of Ulysses S. Grant in Philadelphia (1898) and George Washington in Paris (1900) and sculptures representing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, in front of the New York City customhouse (1907).

Learn more about French, Daniel Chester with a free trial on Britannica.com.

French may refer to:

• French people, inhabitants of France
• French language, the language spoken widely in France and in former French colonies
• People named French
• The French, a band

Fictional characters:

• Joseph French, a Detective Inspector appearing in several novels by Freeman Wills Crofts
• Giles French or "Mr. French" on the television series Family Affair, played by Sebastian Cabot

See also

• French revolution
• French flag
• french anthem
• French fries
• French kiss
• French in Action
• French horn
• French toast
• French dressing
• Pardon my French, a common euphemism used in the United States and United Kingdom
• French catheter scale
• French Defence, the name of a chess opening
• Allpages/French
• List of French phrases used by English speakers