France's history
French history has been a constant quest for national identity. As fossil finds and cave paintings attest, France has been inhabited for millennia. The Gauls settled it, the Romans usurped it and the French made it a nation. The 17th and 18th centuries saw the rise and apogee of the monarchy, and a golden age of learning before the storm clouds of revolution set in. The Ancien Régime had to be overthrown but no one could agree on a system of government to replace it. There followed a century of constitutional experiment. The Belle Epoque gave way to the nightmare of a “war to end all wars”. Two decades later France again became an international battleground. Emerging from the misery of war, France needed to overcome internal instability and become a cohesive nation at ease with itself. The 21st century has brought with it the challenges of market liberalisation, environmental crisis and meeting the needs of an increasingly diversified society.
France Timeline
France in the ancient ages
600 BC
Greeks found Massalia (Marseille).
58 BC
Beginning of Roman occupation of Gaul under Julius Caesar.
AD 3rd–5th century
Barbarian invasions of Roman Gaul by Goths, Vandals and Franks.
France in the middle ages
496
Clovis the Frank, first ruler of the Merovingian Dynasty, having driven out the Romans, converts to Christianity.
751
Pepin the Short initiates the Carolingian dynasty.
800
Pepin’s son, Charlemagne, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
843
Treaty of Verdun splits the Carolingian Empire into three.
987
Hugh Capet becomes the first ruler of the Capetian Dynasty.
1066
Norman conquest of England.
1152
Henry Plantagenet (future Henry II of England) marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. A third of France falls into English hands.
1305
The Papacy is transferred from Rome to Avignon.
1337
Beginning of the Hundred Years’ War.
France in the Renaissance
1415
French defeat by Henry V of England at the Battle of Agincourt.
1429
Joan of Arc leads French troops against the English at Orléans. Charles VII is crowned at Reims.
1431
Joan of Arc burned at Rouen.
1453
End of the Hundred Years’ War.
1562–98
Wars of Religion setting Huguenots (Protestants) against Catholics.
1594
Henry of Navarre, having converted to Catholicism, is crowned Henry IV.
France in the 17th-19th centuries
1624
Cardinal Richelieu represses Protestants and involves France in the Thirty Years’ War.
1643
Accession of Louis XIV, the “Sun King”.
1756–63
The Seven Years’ War; France loses her North American colonies.
1769
Annexation of Corsica.
1778–1783
French support for the 13 colonies in the American War of Independence.
1789
Storming of the Bastille.
1792
Overthrow of Louis XVI. Declaration of the First Republic.
1793
Execution of Louis XVI; Robespierre’s Reign of Terror, ending in his execution in 1794.
1804
Napoleon crowned as emperor; introduction of the Code Napoleon. First Empire.
1815
Napoleon’s One Hundred Days; he is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled to St
Helena.
1830
Revolution deposes Charles X in favour of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe.
1848
Louis-Philippe, the Citizen King, deposed. Second Republic.
1851
Coup d’état by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon’s nephew. Second Empire.
1870
Franco-Prussian War; overthrow of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon III).
1871
Uprising by Paris Commune with 25,000 people killed. Third Republic.
1889
Universal Exhibition of Paris; construction of the Eiffel Tower.
1897–99
The Dreyfus Affair.
France in the 20th-21st centuries
1914–18
World War I, concluded by
Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
1939
Outbreak of World War II.
1940
France falls to Nazi armies and is occupied.
1944
Allied landings in Normandy on D-Day (6th June). Paris is liberated.
1945
End of World War II.
1946
Fourth Republic is declared. War commences in Indochina.
1954
France withdraws from Indochina. Start of the Algerian insurrection.
1958
Algerian crisis topples the Fourth Republic.
1959
General de Gaulle elected the first president of the Fifth Republic.
1962
Algerian independence.
1968
Strikes and student riots in Paris threaten to bring down the de Gaulle government.
1981
François Mitterrand elected president.
1995
Jacques Chirac elected president.
2002
The euro becomes official currency. Chirac wins a second term after a surprise showing for the Front National.
2007
Nicolas Sarkozy wins the presidential elections, promising tough reforms.
2012
Socialist François Hollande is elected president.
2015
In January and November, two separate Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris make over 140 victims.
2016
A terrorist attack on Nice’s promenade des Anglais kills over 80.
2017
Emmanuel Macron is elected French president.
2018
France win the World Cup for a second time. The “Yellow vest” movement stages demonstrations throughout the country, initially against the government’s attempts to curb fossil fuel use, but soon turn into anti-austerity protests.
2019
On 15 April, Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris catches fire and the church’s main spire and most of the roof collapsed.
2024
In July and August, Paris is to host the XXXIII Summer Olympics.
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