AQUITAINE

rgion encompassing the dpartements of Dordogne, Gironde, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, and Pyrnes-Atlantiques in southwestern France. It is roughly coextensive with the western half of the historical region of Aquitaine. The capital is Bordeaux. In Julius Caesar's description of Gaul, Aquitania was an area extending from the Pyrenees to the Garonne River. The Roman emperor Augustus (reigned 27 BCAD 14) made it a Roman administrative district, and its borders were extended as far north as the Loire River and east to the Massif Central. A Visigothic province in the 5th century, Aquitaine came under Frankish rule in the 6th century, retaining a measure of provincial identity exploited by local rulers. Long resistant in the 8th century, it was finally subdued by Charlemagne, who bestowed it (less Gascony) as a kingdom upon his son Louis (the future emperor Louis I). It remained a kingdom under Louis's son Pippin I and the latter's son Pippin II, its chief towns being Toulouse, Limoges, and Poitiers. Devastation by the Normans in the 9th century resulted in political and social upheavals during the course of which various feudal domains were established. The title of duke of Aquitaine, which had already been used by various little-known persons in the 7th century, was assumed at the end of the 9th by William I the Pious, count of Auvergne, the founder of the Abbey of Cluny. In the first half of the 10th century the counts of Auvergne, of Toulouse, and of Poitiers each claimed this ducal title, but it was eventually secured by William I, count of Poitiers (William III of Aquitaine). The powerful house of the counts of Poitiers retained Aquitaine during the 10th and 11th centuries, endeavouring from time to time to restore to the name its former significance by extending the boundaries of the duchy to include Gascony and Toulouse. Then, on the death without heirs of the last duke, William X (William VIII of Poitiers), in 1137, his daughter Eleanor united Aquitaine to the kingdom of France by her marriage with Louis VII. When Louis divorced her, however, Eleanor of Aquitaine married in 1152 the count of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, who two years later became king of England as Henry II. The duchy thus passed to her new husband, who, having suppressed a revolt there, gave it to his son, Richard the Lion-Heart (later Richard I of England), who spent most of his life in Aquitaine, often subduing rebellious vassals. When Richard died in 1199, the duchy reverted to Eleanor, and, on her death five years later, it was united to the English crown and henceforward followed the fortunes of the English possessions in France. Aquitaine, as it came to the English kings, stretched as of old from the Loire to the Pyrenees, but its extent was curtailed on the southeast by the wide lands of the counts of Toulouse. The name Guyenne (or Guienne), a corruption of Aquitaine, seems to have come into use about the 10th century, and the subsequent history of Aquitaine is merged in that of Gascony and Guyenne, which were completely reunited to France by the end of the Hundred Years' War. Lowlands predominate in Aquitaine outside the Pyrenees mountains themselves, which rise in the south. The highest point in the region is the peak of Midi d'Ossau (9,465 feet [2,885 metres]); most land, however, lies below 1,600 feet. Annual precipitation exceeds 30 inches (800 mm) outside Lot-et-Garonne and southern Dordogne and increases toward the Pyrenees. An oceanic climate prevails. The population of the Aquitaine region is increasingly urban, and small towns are generally in decline. Corn (maize) was introduced into Aquitaine in the late 16th century and has become the leading cereal. Viticulture is widespread. Cash crops were introduced in the late 19th century and include tobacco, apples, pears, peaches, French beans, and peas. Forests cover much of the land. The industrial sector is of little importance outside Bordeaux. Area 15,949 square miles (41,309 square km). Pop. (1990) 2,803,340; (1999 prelim.) 2,908,359.