How France Is (Technically) The Fifth Biggest Country In The World

No, this is no clickbait. And yes, its a stretch

France. The country that has big towers, poodles in purses, and the best record in warfare. The country itself is mediocre in size, the country is the 49th largest country in the world (Worldometer). However, there is a strong argument that France is in fact, the 5th largest country on the planet. Now you may be asking, how? Well it all boils down to one thing: the ocean. 

First, it begins with a meeting of world leaders in December of 1982. The United Nations convened to decide on what the exact international laws on the ocean will be, and what the exact limits of a nation's sovereignty on the waves would be as well. Thus, the UN convened the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The countries at the convention decided on this: “each country’s sovereign territorial waters extend to a maximum of 12 nautical miles (22 km) beyond its coast, but foreign vessels are granted the right of innocent passage through this zone.” (“Law of the Sea | International Law [1982] | Britannica”). It goes on to say “Beyond its territorial waters, every coastal country may establish an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extending 200 nautical miles (370 km) from shore.” (“Law of the Sea | International Law [1982] | Britannica”). Within these EEZ zones the country the zone belongs to has the exclusive rights to all fishing, mining, drilling, etc. At all times, innocent vessels (vessels that aren’t committing in acts violative of international law or fishing) are allowed to pass through these territorial waters. There are other parts of UNCLOS, however they are mainly irrelevant to the rest of this paper. 

But what does this have to do with France? The answer lies in their conquests when France was at the height of her power. Even though France has lost many of her overseas claims over the years (like the Louisiana Purchase, the Seven Years War, etc), there are still many French islands all over the Atlantic and Pacific ocean. It is nearly impossible to describe in words just how vast and numerous these French islands are across the seas, thus, here is a map:

(“France in the World”)

As you can see, France has several islands spread across the world in her sole possession. These islands function as complete members of the French political system, with all citizens of these islands sending their own members to the French Parliament (“French Overseas Possessions Travel Guide”). These territories are given the same political status as mainland territories, and are governed by all of the same rules and regulations, with some changes based on their individual needs (as one can expect, French islands in the Pacific are different from Paris), however the local governments can’t pass their own laws (France). The land itself “cover[s] almost 120 000 km² and is home to more than 2.6 million people.” (“French Overseas Territories”). The currency is the Euro (except for Pacific territories) and all of the French territory is technically part of the European Union (EU) (“French Overseas Territories”). 

So how does all of this make France the fifth biggest country in the world? It comes down to UNCLOS. The EEZ provided to each country is also given to all of its overseas territories as well. Thus, every French island has an EEZ going out 200 nautical miles in every direction. Most of these islands under French control are also quite remote, which means they don’t conflict with the EEZ claims of any other country, giving them the full 200 nautical miles. However, there are some French possessions that do conflict with the EEZ claims of other countries. When a conflict occurs, “it is up to the states to delineate the actual maritime boundary.” (Slomanson). The UN advises (and this generally is what happens) that the party with the closest land gets that part of the ocean (thus contested zones are typically split down the middle) (United Nations). One example of such a dispute came between France and Canada.

The Canada-France Maritime Boundary Case was a dispute between the two countries over the extent of the EEZ in St. Pierre and Miquelon, two French provinces located 15 miles off the coast of Canada (Blakeslee). The case fell to an independent arbitration committee, which gave France “a 24-mile extrusion west of Miquelon, and a corridor southward from the islands, only 10 nautical miles wide, but 188 nautical miles long.” (Jacobs). The shape of this new EEZ was peculiar, but it was given to France to allow access to the French islands from the high seas without going through Canadian waters, however the line was poorly drawn and one would still have to anyway (Jacobs). But presently, there are no active EEZ disputes involving France.

So because of UNCLOS and leftover French possessions from her age of conquest, she is now in possession of thousands of nautical miles of water, exclusively under French control. Because of all these waters, France has the biggest EEZ of any other country in the world, roughly 300 thousand square kilometers above second place, the United States which also has several overseas possessions, but the numbers drop off after that. Here is a table of the five biggest EEZs:

Rank Country EEZ in km2

1 France 11,691,000

2 United States of America 11,351,000

3 Australia 8,505,348

4 Russia 7,566,673

5 United Kingdom 6,805,586

(“Countries with the Largest Exclusive Economic Zones”)

Because of these EEZs, France has a strong argument for being the fifth biggest country on the planet. Why? Because if you add every country's EEZ to their land size, France ends up on top, encompassing an area of 12,240,087 km2. If you add this to their total land size, then they end up as the fifth biggest country in the world, the new stats are as follows:

Rank Country Total size (including EEZ) in km2

1 Russia 24,664,915

2 United States of America 21,184,517

3 Australia 16,246,568

4 Canada 15,583,747

5 France 12,238,030

(“Countries with the Largest Exclusive Economic Zones”), (Worldometer)

Thus, because of UNCLOS and French overseas possessions from the colonial age, France can make the strong argument that they are in fact, the fifth largest country on Earth.

And France is not the only country that uses EEZ to bolster their land size. Portugal, with a land size of 92,345 square kilometers (“Portugal”), is doing the same thing, also claiming their EEZ of 1,727,408 square kilometers as territory (“Countries with the Largest Exclusive Economic Zones”). Because of the exclusive fishing and mining rights given to countries with these EEZs, they are very valuable. They play a major role in current political affairs between countries, and is the source for many disputes, including several ongoing ones in the South China Sea, and one from 2009 between Romania and Ukraine over Snake Island, and it was ruled that the island would have a 12 nautical mile EEZ instead of 200 (“Latest Developments | Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine) | International Court of Justice”). Because of the value of EEZs, then it seems inevitable that more disputes are to happen. 

But one thing is for sure: France is exponentially bigger with it's EEZ added. And as one of the most prideful countries in the world, one that has the greatest military record in history, the fashion capital of the world, and stinky cheese, they can add one more notch to their feats: the fifth biggest country in the world.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please subscribe, it means a lot and helps me realize my dream of being a writer. If you would like to read some of my other works, check out this other geography related piece about how Canada now borders Denmark, or this other piece about why it doesn't matter if we are in an economic recession. If you know someone who would like to check me out, feel free to share with your friends, thanks once again for reading, and have a great rest of your day.

Works Cited

Blakeslee, Merritt. THE DISTANT ISLAND PROBLEM: THE ARBITRATION on 

the DELIMITATION of the MARITIME ZONES around the FRENCH 

COLLECTI VITI TERRITORIALE of SAINTPIERRE-AND- MIQUELON. 

1991.

“Countries with the Largest Exclusive Economic Zones.” WorldAtlas, 

www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-largest-exclusive-economic-zo

Nes.html.

“France in the World.” Www.coolgeography.co.uk, 

www.coolgeography.co.uk/9/France/World/France_World.htm.

France. The French Constitution, Adopted by the Referendum of September 28, 1958 

and Promulgated on October 4, 1958. French Text and English Translation. 

New York :French Embassy, Press and Information Division, 1958.

“French Overseas Possessions Travel Guide.” World Travel Guide, 

www.worldtravelguide.net/guides/caribbean/french-overseas-possessions/.

“French Overseas Territories.” Uk.france.fr, 

uk.france.fr/en/news/article/french-overseas-territories.

Jacobs, Frank. “Oh, (No) Canada!” Opinionator, 10 July 2012, 

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/oh-no-canada/. Accessed 2 Dec. 

2021.

“Latest Developments | Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. 

Ukraine) | International Court of Justice.” Www.icj-Cij.org, 

www.icj-cij.org/en/case/132.

“Law of the Sea | International Law [1982] | Britannica.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 

2019, 

www.britannica.com/topic/Law-of-the-Sea. 

“Portugal.” Www.nationsencyclopedia.com, 

www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Europe/Portugal.html. Accessed 3 

Dec. 2021.

‌Slomanson, William R. Fundamental Perspectives on International Law. Boston, Ma, 

Wadsworth, 2011.

‌United Nations. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 1982.

Worldometer. “Largest Countries in the World by Land Area - Worldometers.” 

Worldometers.info, 

2019, www.worldometers.info/geography/largest-countries-in-the-world/.