France 1700 - 1715
France as the military super power
France was the superpower when Louis XIV took the reigns of government into his hands in 1661. Its motto was 'Nec Pluribus Impar' or 'not unequal to many' a statement which perfectly reflected the miltary balance of power at the time. It could therefore be logical to conclude that European society was dominated by what happened in France at the time and many present day tourists would suppose so too.
In other fields than the military France was however just one of the great powers. Unlike 'our' United States of America it did not dominate finance, trade or the arts. Upon closer examination its presently perceived dominance in many achievements is not based on facts or contemporary impressions, but on generations of biased, bilingual and or nationalistic historians copying each others' works. Here I'll try to describe some aspects of Baroque France. It's a rather limited and random list.
Population of France in 1700
In 1700 France counted about 21 million inhabitants. The biggest city was Paris with about 500,000 inhabitants. The second city was Lyon with about 100,000. Other major cities were Marseille with 75,000; Rouen with 60,000 and Lille with 55,000. Of the total population of France about 17 million lived in the country side, giving a rural population of about 80%. This population did not speak the same language. The main distinction between languages was that between the langue d'oil of northern France and the langue d'oc of southern France which were quite distinct. Apart from this there were linguistic minorities in Alsace, Britanny and French Flanders. The consequence of this was that loyalty and identification were much more local than later on.