Metropolitan France - Origin of The Name

Origin of The Name

The term "metropolitan France" dates from the country's colonial period (from the 16th through the 20th centuries), when France was referred to as la Métropole (literally "the Metropolis") as distinguished from its colonies and protectorates, known as les colonies or l'Empire. Similar terms existed to describe other European colonial powers (e.g. "metropolitan Britain", "España metropolitana"). This usage of the words "metropolis" and "metropolitan" itself came from ancient Greek "metropolis" (from μήτηρ mētēr "mother" and πόλις pólis "city, town") which was the name for a city-state from which originated colonies across the Mediterranean (e.g. Marseille was a colony of the city-state of Phocaea, therefore Phocaea was the "metropolis" of Marseille). By extension "metropolis" and "metropolitan" came to mean "motherland", a nation or country as opposed to its colonies overseas.

Today there are some people in overseas France who object to the use of the term France métropolitaine due to its colonial origins. They prefer to call it "the European territory of France" (le territoire européen de la France), as the Treaties of the European Union do. Likewise, they oppose treating overseas France and metropolitan France as separate entities. For example, INSEE used to calculate its statistics (demography, economy, etc.) for metropolitan France only, and then treat the overseas departments and territories separately, but people in the overseas departments opposed this separate treatment, arguing that the five overseas departments are fully part of France. As a result, starting in the end of the 1990s, INSEE is now including the five overseas departments in its figures for France (such as total population or GDP). INSEE refers to metropolitan France and the five overseas departments as France entière ("entire France"); "entire France" includes the five overseas departments, but does not include the other overseas collectivities and territories. Other branches of the French administration may have different definitions of what France entière is. For example, when the Ministry of the Interior releases election results, they use the name France entière to refer to the entire French Republic, including all of overseas France and not just the five overseas departments contrary to INSEE.

Note that since INSEE is now calculating statistics for France entière, this practice has spread to international institutions so that for instance the French GDP published by the World Bank includes metropolitan France and the five overseas departments. The World Bank refers to this as "France" only, and not "entire France" as INSEE does.