Brittany
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
situation:
Brittany, old French province which corresponds to the current area of Brittany and a part of the department of Loire-Atlantique. French administrative area and area of the European Community (EC), Brittany is formed of the departments of Côte-d' Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan. Brittany has a surface of 27 184 km² and is made up of 2 872 700 inhabitants. Its capital is Rennes.
history:
Megalithic rich person vestiges attest the presence of a Celtic pre population. Armorique is conquered by Rome into 57 before JC. After a strong resistance of Vénètes, populates area of Valves, it accepted at the fifth century the Breton ones or Celts of GB, from where its name of Brittany. Those fled in front of the Angles and the Saxon ones. It was converted with the Christian faith. Many monasteries testify some. Franque suzerainty remained theoretical. At the ninth and tenth centuries, the arrival of Norman caused disastrous wars. To the tenth century, the Breton heads said " dukes ", but the king of France knew only one " county ". After the assassination of Plantagenêt Arthur Ier (1203), the county of Brittany, which will be set up in duchy in 1297, escaped from the supervision from England and passed to Pierre Ier Mauclerc (1213), prince capétien, who made of Nantes his capital. Its descendants reigned until 1341. A war of succession (1341-1365) opened then which saw the defeat of Charles of Blois. Jean IV of Montfort was recognized legitimate duke by the king of France to the treaty of Guérande, 1365. Brittany knew a great prosperity at the fifteenth century, under Jean V and François II.  The girl of this last, the duchess Anne, married the kings of France Charles VIII (1491), then Louis XII (1498), thus preparing the annexation of the duchy, which was effective in 1532. In spite of a policy of very sharp assimilation under the third republic, Brittany preserves a real linguistic and cultural originality which gave birth to from the movements separatists. In the west of aSaint-Brieuc-Vannes line, the Breton alive remainder.
geography:
Peninsular end of the Armorican solid mass, old chain hercynienne flush, the area opposes maritime Brittany, Armor, in interior Brittany, Arcoat. The coastal areas, deeply indented in north and the west, less low in the south, the soft and wet climate group, on 1100 km, the majority of the population and the majority of the cities. The interior makes alternate alignments heights, mounts of Arrée, moors of Méné, Montagne Black, moors of Lanvaux, very slightly populated and basins more favourable with the human occupation, like those of Rennes and Châteaulin. Touched as of the end of the nineteenth century by a strong emigration, partly compensated by a raised birthrate, Brittany saw its population increasing again notably only as from the Sixties. Its demographic growth is higher than the national average today and its migratory balance is surplus.
economy:
Until the Sixties, the Breton economy showed significant delays and rested on agriculture and the fishing, to which the harbour activities, the arsenals and an embryonic industry were added. The installation of great infrastructures to disenclose the area, the policy of decentralization and the dynamism of the local initiatives metamorphosed the regional activity. In spite of the difficulties of adaptation of agriculture, fishing and industries of labour, shoe, activities of assembly, the area carries out today envied performances. The agriculture, which associates cultures and breeding closely, occupies the first French rank for the value of the production: pigs, poultries, calf and ox, milk, vegetables early products; these productions, added to those of fishing and the aquiculture, first national rank, allowed the development of a powerful die of agroalimentary industries. The establishment of branches like electronics, telecommunications, the car, diversified the regional industry which develops today activities of high technology in the technopoles of Rennes and Brest. The significant tourist potential is reinforced by the development of thalassotherapy. Today served well by a modern road network and the TGV, Brittany a place of choice occupies on the Atlantic frontage of the UE.