- published: 18 Jul 2013
- views: 14590
Lille (French pronunciation: [lil]; Dutch: Rijsel [ˈrɛi̯səl]) is a city in the north of France. It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole. Lille is situated in French Flanders, on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium. It is the capital of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region and the prefecture of the Nord department.
The city of Lille, to which the previously independent town of Lomme was annexed on 27 February 2000, had a population of 226,827 as recorded by the 2009 census. However, Lille Métropole, which also includes Roubaix, Tourcoing and numerous suburban communities, had a population of 1,091,438. The Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, which also includes the Belgian cities of Kortrijk, Tournai and Mouscron, had 2,155,161 residents in 2008. It is the fifth-largest urban area in France after Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse.
Archeological digs seem to show the area as inhabited by as early as 2000 BC, most notably in the modern-day quartiers of Fives, Wazemmes, and Old Lille. The original inhabitants of this region were the Gauls, such as the Menapians, the Morins, the Atrebates, and the Nervians, who were followed by Germanic peoples: the Saxons, the Frisians and the Franks.
France (French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European part of France, called metropolitan France, extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. France spans 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and has a total population of 66.6 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. The Constitution of France establishes the state as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people.
During the Iron Age, what is now Metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The Gauls were conquered in 51 BC by the Roman Empire, which held Gaul until 486. The Gallo-Romans faced raids and migration from the Germanic Franks, who dominated the region for hundreds of years, eventually creating the medieval Kingdom of France. France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453) strengthening French state-building and paving the way for a future centralized absolute monarchy. During the Renaissance, France experienced a vast cultural development and established the beginning of a global colonial empire. The 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots).