Early civilizations
Traces of human existence
are rare in France until
about 50,000 BC.
Thereafter, beginning with
the "Mousterian
civilization", they
become ever more numerous,
with an especially heavy
concentration of sites in
the Périgord region of
the Dordogne,...
read
more >>
Pre-roman Gaul
There were about fifteen
million people living in
Gaul , as the Romans
called what we know as
France (and parts of
Belgium), when Julius Cæsar
arrived in 58 BC to
complete the Roman
conquest. The southern
part of this territory
-...
read
more >>
Romanization
Gallic tribal rivalries
made the Romans' job very
much easier. And when at
last they were able to
unite under Vercingétorix
in 52 BC, the occasion was
their total and final
defeat by Julius Cæsar at
the battle of ...
read
more >>
The Franks and
Charlemagne
By 500 AD, the Franks ,
who gave their name to
modern France, had become
the dominant invading
power. Their most
celebrated king, Clovis ,
consolidated his hold on
northern France and drove
the Visigoths out of the
southwest into...
read
more >>
The rise of the French
kings
The years 1000 to 1500 saw
the gradual extension and
consolidation of the power
of the French kings ,
accompanied by the growth
of a centralized
administrative system and
bureaucracy. These factors
also determined their
foreign policy, which...
read
more >>
The Hundred Years War
In 1328 the Capetian
monarchy had its first
succession crisis, which
led directly to the
ruinous Hundred Years War
with the English. Charles
IV, last of the line, had
only daughters as heirs,
and when it was decided
that France could not
be...
read
more >>
The wars of religion
After half a century of
self-confident but
inconclusive pursuit of
military glory in Italy,
brought to an end by the
Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis
in 1559, France was
plunged into another
period of devastating
internal conflict. The ...
read
more >>
Kings, cardinals and
absolute power
The main themes of the
seventeenth century, when
France was ruled by just
two kings, Louis XIII
(1610-43) and Louis XIV
(1643-1715), were, on the
domestic front, the
strengthening of the
centralized state embodied
in the person of...
read
more >>
Louis XV and the parlements
While France remained in
many ways a prosperous and
powerful state, largely
because of colonial trade,
the tensions between
central government and
traditional vested
interests proved too great
to be reconciled. The
parlement of Paris...
read
more >>
Revolution
Against a background of
deepening economic crisis
and general misery,
exacerbated by the
catastrophic harvest of
1788, controversy focused
on how the Estates-General
should be constituted.
Should they meet
separately as on the last
occasion -...
read
more >>
The rise of Napoléon
In 1799, one General Napoléon
Bonaparte , who had made a
name for himself as
commander of the
Revolutionary armies in
Italy and Egypt, returned
to France and took power
in a coup d'état. He was
appointed First Consul,
with power to choose...
read
more >>
The restoration and
1830 revolution
The years following Napoléon's
downfall were marked by a
determined campaign,
including the White Terror
, on the part of those
reactionary elements who
wanted to wipe out all
trace of the Revolution
and restore the ancien régime
. ...
read
more >>
The Second Republic
A provisional government
was set up and a republic
proclaimed. The government
issued a right-to-work
declaration and set up
national workshops to
relieve unemployment. The
vote was extended to all
adult males - an
unprecedented move for
its...
read
more >>
Napoléon III and the
Commune
Through the 1850s, Napoléon
III ran an authoritarian
regime whose most notable
achievement was a rapid
growth in industrial and
economic power. Foreign
trade trebled, the rail
system grew enormously,
and the first investment
banks were...
read
more >>
The Third Republic
In 1889, the collapse of a
company set up to build
the Panama Canal involved
several members of the
government in a corruption
scandal, which was one
factor in the dramatic
socialist gains in the
elections of 1893. More
importantly, the urban...
read
more >>
World War I
With the outbreak of World
War I in 1914, France
found itself swiftly
overrun by Germany and its
allies, and defended by
its old enemy, Britain. At
home, the hitherto
anti-militarist trade
union and socialist
leaders (Jaurès was
assassinated...
read
more >>
World War II
The agonies of World War
II were compounded for
France by the additional
traumas of occupation,
collaboration and
Resistance - in effect, a
civil war. After the 1940
defeat of the Anglo-French
forces in France, ...
read
more >>
The aftermath of war
France emerged from the
war demoralized, bankrupt
and bomb-wrecked. The only
possible provisional
government in the
circumstances was de
Gaulle's Free French and
the Conseil National de la
Résistance, which meant a
coalition of Left and
Right....
read
more >>
De Gaulle's presidency
As prime minister, then
president of the Fifth
Republic - with powers as
much strengthened as he
had wished - de Gaulle
wheeled and dealed with
the pieds noirs and
Algerian rebels, while the
war continued. In 1961,
a...
read
more >>
Pompidou and Giscard
Having petulantly staked
his presidency on the
outcome of yet another
referendum (on a couple of
constitutional amendments)
and lost, de Gaulle once
more took himself off to
his country estate and
retirement. He was
succeeded as president by
his...
read
more >>
The Mitterrand era,
1981-95
When François Mitterrand
won the presidential
elections over Giscard in
1981, he embodied all the
hopes of a generation of
Socialists who had never
seen their party in power.
Headed by Pierre Mauroy as
prime minister and
including...
read
more >>
Chirac's presidency
An immediate dramatic
change wrought by Chirac
was the abolition of
conscription , to give
France more efficient and
effective armed forces.
The move provoked
impassioned responses by
the PCF and other
left-wingers for whom
conscription...
read
more >>
