It was
Rome that
put Paris on the map, as
it did the rest of
western Europe. When
Julius Caesar's armies
arrived in 52 BC, they
found a Celtic
settlement confined to
an island in the Seine -
the Île de la Cité.
Under the name of
Lutetia, it remained a Roman
colony for the next
three hundred years,
prosperous commercially
because of its
commanding position on
the Seine trade route,
but insignificant
politically. The Romans
established their
administrative centre on
the Île de la Cité,
and their town on the
Left Bank on the slopes
of the Montagne Ste-Geneviève.
Though only two
monuments from this
period remain today -
the baths by the Hôtel
de Cluny and the
amphitheatre in rue
Monge - the Roman street
plan , still evident
in the north-south axis
of rue St-Martin and rue
St-Jacques, determined
the future growth of the
city.
Although Roman rule
disintegrated under the
impact of Germanic
invasions around 275
AD, Paris held out until
it fell to Clovis the
Frank in 486, whose
conversion to
Christianity hastened
the Christianization
of the whole country.
Under his successors,
Paris saw the foundation
of several rich and
influential monasteries,
especially on the Left
Bank.
With the election of Hugues
Capet , Comte de
Paris, as king in 987,
the fate of the city was
inextricably identified
with that of the monarchy
. Recurrent political
tension between the
classes and the crown
led to open rebellion
, such as in 1356, when
Étienne Marcel, a
wealthy cloth merchant,
demanded greater
autonomy for the city.
Further rebellions,
fuelled by the hopeless
poverty of the lower
classes, led to the king
and court abandoning the
capital in 1418, not to
return for more than a
hundred years.
Growth of the city
As the city's livelihood
depended from the first
on its river-borne
trade, commercial
activity naturally
centred on the place
where the goods were
landed. This was the
place de Grève on the
Right Bank , where the Hôtel
de Ville now...
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Civil wars and
foreign occupation
From the mid-thirteenth
to mid-fourteenth
centuries, Paris shared
the same unhappy fate as
the rest of France,
embroiled in the long
and destructive Hundred
Years War with the
English. The country
reached its lowest point
when the English...
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Planning and
expansion
The first systematic
attempts at planning
were introduced by Henri
IV at the beginning of
the seventeenth century:
regulating street lines
and uniformity of façade,
and laying out the first
geometric squares. The
place des Vosges ...
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The 1789 Revolution
The immediate cause of
the Revolution of 1789
was a campaign by the
clergy and nobility to
protect their status -
especially their
exemption from taxation
- from erosion by the
royal government. The
revolutionary movement,
however, was quickly...
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Napoleon - and the
barricades
Napoleon's chief legacy
to France was a very
centralized,
authoritarian and
efficient bureaucracy
that put Paris in firm
control of the rest of
the country. For the
rest of the nineteenth
century after his
demise, France was left
to fight out,...
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Expansion and the
changing face of the
city
There followed a period
of foreign acquisitions
on every continent and
of laissez-faire
capitalism at home, both
of which greatly
increased the economic
wealth of France, then
lagging far behind
Britain in the
industrialization...
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The Siege of Paris
and the Commune
In September 1870,
Napoleon III surrendered
to Bismarck at the
border town of Sedan,
less than two months
after France had
declared war on the
well-prepared and
superior forces of the
Prussian state. The
humiliation was enough
for a...
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The Belle Époque
Physical recovery was
remarkably quick. Within
six or seven years few
signs of the fighting
remained. Visitors
remarked admiringly on
the teeming streets, the
expensive shops and
energetic nightlife.
Charles Garnier's Opéra
was opened in 1875.
Aptly...
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The German Occupation
During the occupation of
Paris in World War II,
the Germans found some
sections of Parisian
society, as well as the
minions of the Vichy
government, only too
happy to hobnob with
them. For four years the
city suffered fascist
rule with...
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Postwar Paris - one
more try at revolution
Postwar Paris has
remained no stranger to
political battles in its
streets. Violent
demonstrations
accompanied the
Communist withdrawal
from the coalition
government in 1947. In
the 1950s, the Left took
to the streets again in
protest against...
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The Mitterrand era,
1981-95
The Socialists' first
government after 23
years in opposition
included four Communist
ministers: an alliance
reflected in the
government commitments
to expanded state
control of industry,
reduction of the hours
in the working week,
high...
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Modern developments
of the city
Until World War II,
Paris remained pretty
much as Haussmann had
left it. Housing
conditions showed little
sign of improvement.
There was even an
outbreak of bubonic
plague in Clignancourt
in 1921. In 1925, a
third of the houses
still had no sewage...
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The political present
Mitterrand's avuncular
fourteen-year presidency
was well calculated and
a hard act to follow,
but general unease
demanded a change of
direction. Lionel Jospin
, the uncharismatic
former education
minister, performed
remarkably well in
the...
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