PICARDY

French Picardie, rgion encompassing the northern French dpartements of Oise, Somme, and Aisne and roughly coextensive with the historical region of Picardy. The capital is Amiens. Picardy has an area of 7,490 square miles (19,399 square km) and is bounded by the dpartements of Pas-de-Calais and Nord to the north, Ardennes and Marne to the east, Seine-et-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis to the south, and Eure and Seine-Maritime to the west. Somme borders the English Channel to the west. Since Picardy was never unified in the feudal period, its boundaries are disputable. Linguistically, Picardy extended beyond its geographic boundaries to Artois, Cambrsis, Tournsis, and parts of Flanders and Hainaut; ecclesiastically it embraced not only the medieval dioceses of Amiens, Noyon, and Laon but also the northern parts of those of Beauvais and of Soissons. The province of Picardy from the 16th century to the end of the ancien rgime in 1789 comprised the Somme River basin from Saint-Quentin to the Channel, the basins of the Serre and of the upper Oise, and Montreuil on the Canche beyond the Authie. Occupied by the Salian Franks in the 5th century, Picardy was divided in the feudal period and encompassed six countships: Boulogne, Montreuil, Ponthieu, Aminois, Vermandois, and Laonnois. King Philip II Augustus gradually united Aminois and Vermandois to his domain (from 1185), but Ponthieu was held by the English as a fief almost continuously from 1279 to 1360 and then as an outright possession until 1369. The dukes of Burgundy acquired Ponthieu, the Somme towns, and Montdidier under the Treaty of Arras in 1435. Reconquered for France by Louis XI in 1477, Picardy was thereafter a frontier area invaded frequently from the Habsburg Netherlands until the French acquisition of Artois and southern Hainaut in 1659. Some of the bloodiest fighting in World War I occurred in Picardy (reflected in the melancholy English popular song Roses of Picardy ). It was also the scene of bitter fighting in World War IIin May 1940 and AugustSeptember 1944. Picardy belongs to the Paris Basin and is essentially flat; elevations lie below 1,000 feet (300 m). The calcareous plateaus of Laon, Soissons, and Valois rise to the east. An oceanic climate prevails. The population declined by 19 percent between 1861 and 1946, as did that of most of rural France during this period. It has subsequently grown at a rate above the national average. Demographic recovery has favoured Oise over Aisne and Somme. Oise has benefited from its proximity to Paris and has a large population of migrants. Much of the population lives in towns with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants. The countryside is densely populated. Agriculture is highly mechanized. The average farm is large for France, exceeding 100 acres (40 hectares); crops include sugar beets, wheat, barley, and potatoes. Animal husbandry, which has been adversely affected by the policies of the European Economic Community, is of declining importance. Metalworking is the leading industry. Automotive parts are manufactured in Montataire, Beauvais, and Amiens. Bicycles, airplanes, agricultural machinery, and textiles are also produced. Picardy imports coal from the dpartement of Nord and has benefited from the decentralization of Parisian industries since 1950. Pop. (1988 est.) 1,783,400.