France (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

France, officially the French Republic (French: République française), is a unitary semi-presidential republic located mostly in Western Europe, with several overseas regions and territories. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. France is the largest country in Western Europe and the third-largest in Europe as a whole. France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military, and political influence in Europe and around the world.

History
The French Revolution in 1789 abolished Ancien Régime absolute monarchy and established a constitutional monarchy in France. Through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, France established fundamental rights for French citizens and all men without exception. As a result of the spike in public violence and the political instability of the constitutional monarchy, the Republic was proclaimed on September 22, 1792.

Facing increasing pressures from European monarchies, internal guerrilla wars and counterrevolutions, the young Republic fell into the Reign of Terror. Between 1793 and 1794, 16,000 to 40,000 people were executed. In Western France, the civil war between the Blues, supporters of the Revolution, and the Whites, supporters of the Monarchy, lasted from 1793 to 1796

After a short-lived governmental scheme, Napoleon Bonaparte took control of the Republic in 1799. He later made himself first Emperor of the French Empire (1804–1813). As a continuation of the wars sparked by the European monarchies against the French Republic, changing sets of European Coalitions declared wars on the French Empire. His armies conquered most of continental Europe, while members of the Bonaparte family were appointed as monarchs in some of the newly established kingdoms.

These victories led to the worldwide expansion of French revolutionary ideals and reforms, such as the Metric system, the Napoleonic Code or the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. After the catastrophic British naval campaign and Napoleon's sudden death in 1813, his four-year old son, Napoleon II, replaced him. The infant emperor was under the influences of his mother, Empress Dowager Marie Louise, and the Austrian Empire took this opportunity to break-up the weaker French Empire through the Congress of Vienna.

After the early death of Napoleon II in 1832, his uncle and Napoleon's youngest brother, Louis Napoleon, was crowned as Louis I and reigned until 1846. With Louis I's poor mental condition, France was hampered by political and economic stagnation. That was not until the rule of Louis's son, Emperor Louis II (1846-1868), France's old glory was returned. Louis II ruled France as a tandem with his brother, Prince Louis-Napoleon (then became Emperor Louis III from 1868 to 1871) as the main political adviser. After the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 against Prussia, French Empire was abolished and the Second French Republic was declared.

The Second Republic was originally intended to be a transitional government. Dominated by the monarchist governments in its early days, the prospect for the monarchical restoration was still high. However, the split between the pro-monarchist factions enabled President Adolphe Thiers, who a monarchist himself, to impose the Second Republic on the unwilling monarchist majority of the French National Assembly. As result, throughout the end of 19th century, the issue of monarchy versus republic dominated public debate on France.

In 1889, France saw the rise of Georges Ernest Boulanger. An enormously popular general, he won a series of elections and promoted an aggressive, revanchist nationalism aimed against the German Empire. Together, the Bonapartists, the Army, the Catholic Church and several Opportunist Republicans were rallied behind Boulanger who they believed can maintaining the balance between the Right and the Left. Numerous Liberal Legitimists also continued to give him financial aid, even though Boulanger saw himself as a leader rather than a restorer of kings.

Boulanger and his supporters launched a coup to overthrow the republican government after victoriously being elected as the deputy of Paris in January 27, 1889. Boulanger declared himself as the interim President of the Republic and dissolved the Assembly in the following days. After the 1890 Assembly election that saw the victory of the Boulangists, Boulanger was formally elected by the newly elected National Assembly as the President for Life of the French Republic.

Based his government on the "Napoleonic idea", Boulanger introduced the universal male suffrage in 1891 while kept the regime's authoritarian nature. All executive power was entrusted to Boulanger as the head of state who solely responsible to the people, reminding the political structure of the old French Empire. The National Assembly nominally was elected by universal suffrage, but as it had no right of initiative, all laws were being proposed by the executive power. It was not until after the start of 20th century that Boulanger would devolved most of his powers back to the Assembly.

During the Second Republic era, France built the second largest colonial empire after the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, ruling large portions of Indian subcontinent, Northwest and Central Africa; Indochina and southeast China; and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands. The culture and politics of these regions were influenced by France. Many ex-colonies officially speak the French language.