Aquitaine

Aquitaine (or "Guyenne" or "Guienne") now forms a region in south-western France along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. The region comprises five départements:

• Dordogne
• Gironde
• Landes
• Lot-et-Garonne
• Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

History

In Roman times, the province of Aquitania originally comprised the region of Gaul between the Pyrenees Mountains and the Garonne River, but Augustus Caesar added to it the land between the Garonne and the Loire River. At this stage the province extended inland as far as the Cevennes and covered an area about one third of the size of modern France.

The 4th century AD saw the Roman province of Aquitaine divided into three separate provinces:

• Aquitania prima, the north-eastern portion, including the territories which later became Berry, Bourbonnais, Auvergne, Velay, Gévaudan, Rouergue, Albigeois, Quercy and Marche
• Aquitania secunda, the northwestern portion, with its capital at Burdigala (Bordeaux) and comprising the future Bordelais, Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois and western Guienne
• Aquitania tertia or Aquitania Novempopulana, the southernmost portion, adjoining the Pyrennees and covering present-day Bigorre, Cominge, Armagnac, Béarn, the Basque country, Gascony, etc.

In 1052 the duchy of Gascony (French: Gascogne) became part of "Aquitainia".

Geography

Area: 41,400 km² (7.6 % of France's total area)

Major cities in Aquitaine include Bordeaux, Mont-de-Marsan, Pau, and Perigueux.

Demographics

Population: 2,908,300 (4.97% of the total French population) (1999)

See also

• Basques