- Brittany
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- 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.