|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
Historical overviewPrehistoryThe Neanderthals, the earliest Homo sapiens, began to occupy Europe from about 200,000 BC. but seem to have died out by about 30,000 years ago, presumably out-competed by the modern humans during a period of cold weather. The earliest modern humans — Homo sapiens sapiens — entered Europe (including France) around 50,000 years ago (the Upper Palaeolithic).
GaulGaul covered large parts of modern day France, Belgium and Northwest Germany. Gaul was a land inhabited by many Celtic tribes Romans referred to as Gauls who spoke the Gaulish language. On the southwestern part of the Garonne the people spoke an archaic language related to Basque, the Aquitanian language. The Celts founded cities such as Lutetia Parisiorum and Burdigala while the Aquitanians founded Tolosa. Long before any Roman settlements, Greek navigators settled in what would become Provence. The Phoceans founded important cities such as Massalia and Nicaea which brought them in to conflict with the neighboring Celts and Ligurians. The Celts themselves were often fighting against Aquitanians and Germans while a Gaulish war band led by Brennus invaded Rome circa 300BC following the Battle of the Allia. When he fought the Romans Hannibal Barca recruited several Gaulish mercenaries against Rome, it was this Gaulish participation that caused Provence to be annexed by the Roman Republic. Then the Consul of Gaul -Julius Caesar- conquered all of Gaul.
Roman GaulGaul was divided into several different provinces. The Romans displaced populations in order to prevent local identities to become a threat to the Roman integrity. Thus, many Celts were displaced in Aquitania or were enslaved and moved out of Gaul. There was a strong cultural evolution in Gaul under the Roman Empire, the most obvious one being the replacement of the Gaulish language by Vulgar Latin. It has been argued the similarities between the Gaulish and Latin languages favoured the transition. Gaul remained under Roman control for centuries. Following Nero’s suicide the Roman Empire was hit by civil unrest. The man that took Rome and installed Vespasian as Emperor, namely Marcus Antonius Primus, was born in Palladia Tolosa and Gauls became better integrated with the Empire with the passage of time. In the decade following Valerian’s capture by the Persians there was a short lived Gallic Empire established by Postumus. This loose Empire included the Iberian Peninsula and Britannia in addition to Gaul itself. Germanic tribes entered Gaul at this time; they were the Franks and the Alamanni. Emperor Aurelian recaptured Gaul in 274 at Chalons thus ending the Gallic Empire. Image:GaulSoldiers.JPG Gaul soldiers. A migration of Celts appeared in the 4th century in Armorica. They were led by the legendary king Conan Meriadoc and came from Britain. They spoke the now extinct British language which evolved into the Breton, Cornish and Welsh languages. In 418 the Aquitanian province was given to the Goths in exchange for their support against the Vandals. Those Goths had previously sacked Rome in 410 and established a capital in Toulouse. The Roman Empire had difficulty responding to all the barbarian raids, and Flavius Aëtius had to use these tribes against each other in order to maintain some Roman control. He first used Huns against Burgundians and these mercenaries destroyed Worms, killed king Gunther, and pushed the Burgundians westward. The Burgundians were resettled by Aëtius near Lugdunum in 443. The Huns, united by Attila became a greater threat, and Aëtius used the Visigoths against the Huns. The conflict climaxed in 451 at the Battle of Chalons, in which the Romans and Goths defeated Attila. The Roman Empire was on the verge of collapsing. Aquitania was definitely abandoned to the Visigoths who would soon conquer a significant part of southern Gaul as well as most of the Iberian Peninsula. The Burgundians claimed their own kingdom, and northern Gaul was practically abandoned to the Franks. Frankish kingdoms (486-987)Image:Steuben - Bataille de Poitiers.png The Battle of Poitiers. This battle is often considered of macro-importance in European and islamic history. In 486,Clovis I, leader of the Salian Franks, defeated Syagrius at Soissons and subsequently united most of northern and central Gaul under his rule. Clovis then recorded a succession of victories against other Germanic tribes such as the Alamanni at Tolbiac. In 496, he adopted the Roman Catholic form of Christianity. This gave him greater legitimacy and power over his Christian subjects and granted him clerical support against the Visigoths. He defeated Alaric II at Vouillé in 507 and annexed Aquitaine, and thus Toulouse, into his Frankish kingdom. The Goths retired to Toledo in what would become Spain. Clovis made Paris his capital but his kingdom would not survive his death. The Franks treated land purely as a private possession and divided it among heirs, so four kingdoms emerged: Paris, Orleans, Soissons, and Rheims. The Merovingian dynasty eventually lost effective power to their successive mayors of the palace, the founders of what was to become the Carolingian dynasty. Muslims invaders had conquered Hispania and were threatening the Frankish kingdoms. Duke Odo the Great defeated a major invading force at Toulouse in 721 but failed to repel a raiding party in 732. The mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, defeated that raiding party at the Battle of Tours (actually the Battle of Poitiers) and earned respect and power within the Frankish Kingdom. The assumption of the crown in 751 by Pippin the Short (son of Charles Martel) established the Carolingian dynasty. Image:Sacre de Charlemagne.jpg The coronation of Charlemagne The new rulers' power reached its fullest extent under Pippin's son Charlemagne, who in 771 reunited the Frankish domains after a further period of division, subsequently conquering the Lombards under Desiderius in what is now northern Italy (774), incorporating Bavaria (788) into his realm, defeating the Avars of the Danubian plain (796), advancing the frontier with Islamic Spain as far south as Barcelona (801), and subjugating Lower Saxony (804) after prolonged campaigning. In recognition of his successes and his political support for the Papacy, Charlemagne was in 800 crowned Emperor of the Romans, or Roman Emperor in the West, by Pope Leo III. On the death of Charlemagne's son Louis I (emperor 814-840), Charles the Bald, and Louis the German swore allegiance to each other against their brother in the Oath of Strasbourg, and the empire was divided among Louis's three sons (Treaty of Verdun, 843). After a last brief reunification (884-887), the imperial title ceased to be held in the western realm which was to form the basis of the future French kingdom. The eastern realm, which would become Germany, elected the Saxon dynasty of Henry the Fowler. Under the Carolingians, the kingdom was ravaged by Viking raiders. In this struggle some important figures such as Count Odo of Paris and his brother King Robert rose to fame and became kings. This emerging dynasty, called the Robertines, was the predecessor of the Capetian Dynasty, who were descended from the Robertines. Led by Rollo, the Vikings had settled in Normandy and were granted the land first as counts and then as dukes by King Charles the Simple. The people that emerged from the interactions between Vikings and the mix of Franks and Gallo-Romans became known as the Normans. See also:
France in the Middle-Ages (987-1453)Hugh Capet was elected by an assembly summoned in Rheims on 1 June 987. Capet was previously "Duke of the Franks" (Dux Francorum), and then became "King of the Franks" (Rex Francorum). He was recorded to be recognised king by the Gauls, Bretons, Danes, Aquitanians, Goths, Spanish and Gascons.[1] The Danes here are certainly the Normans (of Normandy), and the Spanish entry probably refers to the Carolingian Spanish marches. Hugh Capet's reign was marked by the loss of the Spanish marches as they grew more and more independant, Count Borell of Barcelona called for Hugh's help against islamic raids. If Hugh intended to help Borell he was occupied fighting Charles of Lorraine. Spanish principalities then followed their way. His son -Robert the Pious- met the Emperor in 1023 on the borderline. They agreed to end all claims over each other's realm, setting a new stage of Capetian and Ottonian relationships. The French kingdom was a very decentralised kingdom. If the king ventured outside of his own small personal possessions, he risked being captured by his own vassals. This is especially true for the early Capetians, but from Louis VI onward, royal authority became more accepted. Even more powerful vassals such as Henry Plantagenet did homage to the French kings.[2] Louis VII was well served by a competent advisor, Abbot Suger, who helped him gain the respect of the nobles. Suger's vision of construction became known as the Gothic Architecture during the later renaissance. This style became standard for most French cathedrals built in the late middle-age. Some of these vassals would grow so powerful that they would be among the strongest rulers of western Europe. The Normans, the Plantagenets, the Lusignans, the Hautevilles, the Ramnulfids, and the House of Toulouse successfully carved lands outside of France for themselves. The most important of these conquests for the French history was the Norman Conquest of England following the Battle of Hastings by William the Conqueror because it linked England to France through Normandy. The Norman nobles then commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry. These lords created an "Old French"–speaking diaspora across Europe and the Holy Land. Most remarkable was the Angevin Empire which was probably the greatest threat to the King of France, resulting from both the Norman Conquest of England and The Anarchy. The Battle of Bouvines was probably the most important event in the collapse of this so-called empire. In addition to defeating John of England, Philip Augustus founded the Sorbonne and made Paris a city of scholars. His grandson Saint Louis inflicted further defeats on the Angevins during the Saintonge War and also supported new forms of art such as Gothic architecture and his Sainte-Chapelle became a very famous gothic building, he is also credited for the Morgan Bible. While the French kings were struggling against the Plantagenets the Church called for the Albigensian Crusade. Southern France was then largely absorbed in the royal domains. Image:Louis-ix.jpg Saint Louis. He saw France's cultural expansion in the Western Christian world. It can be said that France became a truly centralised kingdom under Saint Louis, who initiated several administrative reforms. More administrative reforms were made by Philip the Fair. This king was responsible for the end of the Templars, signed the Auld Alliance, and established the Parlement of Paris. Philip IV was so powerful that he could name popes and emperors, unlike the early Capetians. The papacy was moved to Avignon and all the contemporary popes were French such as Philip IV's puppet: Bertrand de Goth. The tensions between the Houses of Anjou and Capet climaxed during the so-called Hundred Years' War (actually several distinct wars) when the English descendants of the former claimed the throne of France from the Valois. This was also the time of the Black Death as well as several civil wars. The French population suffered very much from these wars. It has been argued that the difficult conditions the French population suffered during the Hundred Years' War awakened French nationalism, a nationalism represented by Joan of Arc. Although this is debatable, the Hundred Years War is remembered more as a Franco-English war than as a succession of feudal struggles. During this war, France evolved politically and militarily. Although a Franco-Scottish army was successful at Baugé, the humiliating defeats of Poitiers and Agincourt forced the French nobility to realise they could not stand just as armoured knights without an organised army. Charles VII established the first French standing army, the Compagnies d'ordonnance, and defeated the English once at Patay and again, using canons, at Formigny. The Battle of Châtillon was regarded as the last engagement of this "war", yet Calais remained under English and French control. See also:
French Kings: English interlude (between Charles VI and VII) Important figures: Early Modern France (1453-1789)France evolved from a feudal country to an increasingly centralized state (albeit with many regional differences) organized around a powerful absolute monarchy that relied on the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings and the explicit support of the established Church. France engaged in the long Italian Wars (1494-1559), which marked the beginning of early modern France. Francis I faced powerful foes, and he was captured at Pavia. The French monarchy then sought for allies and found one in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Admiral Barbarossa captured Nice on 5 August 1543 and handed it down to Francis I. These times also gave birth to the Protestant Reformation, and John Calvin and his reformed doctrine challenged the power of the Catholic Church in France. During the 16th century, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs were the dominant power in Europe. In addition to Spain and Austria, they controlled a number of kingdoms and duchies across Europe. Charles Quint, as Count of Burgundy, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Aragon, Castile and Germany (among many other titles) encircled France. The Spanish Tercio was used with great success against French knights and remained undefeated for a long time. Finally on January 7, 1558 the Duke of Guise seized Calais from the English. Despite the challenge to French power posed by the Habsburgs, French became the preferred language of Europe's aristocracy. Charles Quint (born in 1500) said this about languages:
Because of its international status, there was a desire to regulate the French language. Several reforms of the French language worked to uniformise it. The Renaissance writer François Rabelais (probably born in 1494) helped to shape the French language as a literary language, Rabelais' French is characterised by the re-introduction of Latin and Greek words. Jacques Peletier du Mans (born 1517) was one of the scholars that reformed the French language. He improved Nicolas Chuquet's long scale system by adding names for intermediate numbers (milliards instead of thousand million, etc...). During the 16th century the French kingdom also established colonies began to claim North American territories. Jacques Cartier was one of the great explorers who ventured deep into American territories during the 16th century. The largest group of French colonies became known as New France, and several cities such as Quebec City, Montreal, Detroit and New Orleans were founded by the French. Religious conflicts
Renewed Catholic reaction headed by the powerful dukes of Guise culminated in a massacre of Huguenots (1562), starting the first of the French Wars of Religion, during which English, German, and Spanish forces intervened on the side of rival Protestant and Catholic forces. The War of Religions culminated in the War of the Three Henrys in which Henry III assassinated Henry de Guise, leader of the Spanish-backed Catholic league, and the king was murdered in return. Following this war Henry III of Navarre became king of France as Henry IV and enforced the Edict of Nantes (1598). Religious conflicts resumed under Louis XIII when Cardinal de Richelieu forced the Protestants to disarm their army and fortresses. This conflict ended in the Siege of La Rochelle (1627-1628), in which Protestants and their English supporters were defeated. The following Peace of Alais confirmed religious freedom yet dismantled the Protestant defences. This was also a time of philosophy. René Descartes sought answers to philosophical questions through the use of logic and reason and formulated what would be called Cartesian Dualism in 1641. The religious conflicts that plagued France also ravaged the Habsburg-led Holy Roman Empire. The Thirty Years' War eroded the power of the Catholic Habsburgs. Although Cardinal Richelieu, the powerful chief minister of France, had previously mauled the Protestants, he joined this war on their side in 1636. Imperial Habsburg forces invaded France, ravaged Champagne, and nearly threatened Paris. Richelieu died in 1642 and was replaced by Mazarin, while Louis XIII died one year later and was succeeded by Louis XIV. France was served by some very efficient commanders such as Louis II de Bourbon and Henry de la Tour d'Auvergne. The French forces won a decisive victory at Rocroi (1643), and the Spanish army was decimated; the Tercio was broken. The Truce of Ulm (1647) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648) brought an end to the war. But some challenges remained. France was hit by civil unrest known as the Fronde which in turn evolved into the Franco-Spanish War in 1653. Louis II de Bourbon joined the Spanish army this time but was inflicted a severe defeat at Dunkirk (1658) by Henry de la Tour d'Auvergne. The terms for the peace inflicted upon the Spanish kingdoms in the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) were harsh, as France annexed Northern Catalonia. Louis XIVImage:Ruiterportret Lodewijk XIV.jpg Louis XIV, the "Sun King" The Sun King wanted to be remembered as a patron of the arts, like his ancestor Louis IX. He invited Jean-Baptiste Lully to establish the French opera. A tumultuous friendship was established between Lully and Molière. Jules Hardouin Mansart became France's most important architect of the time. Louis XIV's long reign saw France involved in many wars that drained its treasury. His reign began during the Thirty Years' War and during the Franco-Spanish war. His military architect, Vauban, became famous for his pentagonal fortresses, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert supported the royal spending as much as possible. France fought the War of Devolution against Spain in 1667. France's defeat Spain and invasion of the Spanish Netherlands alarmed England and Sweden. With the Dutch Republic they formed the Triple Alliance to check Louis XIV's expansion. Louis II de Bourbon had captured Franche-Comté, but in face of an indefensible position, Louis XIV agreed to a peace at Aachen. Under its terms, Louis XIV did not annex Franche-Comté but did gain Lille. Peace was fragile, and war broke out again between France and the Dutch Republic in the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678). Louis XIV asked for the Dutch Republic to resume war against the Spanish Netherlands, but the republic refused. France attacked the Dutch Republic and was joined by England in this conflict. Through deliberate floods, the French invasion of the Dutch Republic was brought to a halt. The Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter inflicted a few strategic defeats on the Anglo-French naval alliance and forced England to retire from the war in (1674). Because the Netherlands could not resist eternally, it agreed to peace in the Treaties of Nijmegen, according to which France would annex France-Comté and acquired further concessions in the Spanish Netherlands. On 6 May 1682, the royal court moved to the Palace of Versailles, which Louis XIV had greatly expanded. Peace, once again, did not last, and war between France and Spain resumed once again. The War of the Reunions broke out (1683-1684), and once again Spain, with its ally the Holy Roman Empire, was easily defeated. Meanwhile, in October 1685 Louis signed the Edict of Fontainebleau ordering the destruction of all Protestant churches and schools in France. Its immediate consequence was a large Protestant exodus from France. France would soon be involved into another war, the War of the Grand Alliance. This time the threatre was not only in Europe but also in North America. Although the war was long and difficult, its results were inconclusive. The Treaty of Ryswick confirmed French sovereignty over Alsace yet rejected its claims to Luxembourg. Louis also had to evacuate Catalonia and the Palatinate. This peace was considered a truce by all sides, thus war was to start again. In 1701 the War of the Spanish Succession began. The Bourbon Philip of Anjou was designated heir to the throne of Spain. The Habsburg Emperor Leopold opposed a Bourbon succession, because of the power that such a succession would bring to the Bourbon rulers of France. England and the Dutch Republic joined Leopold against Louis XIV and Philip of Anjou. The allied forces were led by John Churchill and by Prince Eugene of Savoy. They achieved resounding defeats of the French army, yet after Malplaquet, a Pyrrhic victory, they had lost too many men to continue the war. Led by Villars the French forces recovered much of the ground they had lost in battles such as Denain. Finally, a compromise was agreed on at Ultrecht in 1713. Philip of Anjou was confirmed as Philip V, king of Spain, but he was barred from inheriting France. Colonial struggles and the dawn of the revolutionLouis XIV died in 1714 of gangrene. In 1718 France was, once again, at war as Philip II of Orleans's regency joined the War of the Quadruple Alliance against Spain. King Philip V of Spain had to withdraw from the conflict confronted with the reality that Spain was no longer a great power of Europe. Under Fleury's administration, peace was maintained as much as possible. However, in 1733 another war broke in central Europe, this time about the Polish succession, and France joined the war against the Austrian Empire. This time there was no invasion of the Netherlands, and Britain remained neutral. As a consequence, Austria was left alone against a Franco-Spanish alliance and faced a military disaster. Peace was setted in the Treaty of Vienna (1738), according to which France would annex, through inheritance, the Duchy of Lorraine. Two years later war broke out over the Austrian succession, and France seized the opportunity to join the conflict. The war played out in North America and India as well as Europe, and inconclusive terms were agreed to in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Once again, no one regarded this as a peace but rather as a mere truce. Prussia was then becoming a new threat as it had gained substantial territory from Austria. This led to the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, in which the alliances seen during the previous war were mostly inverted. France was now allied to Austria and Russia while Britain was now allied to Prussia. In the North American theatre, France was allied with various Indian peoples during the Seven Years War and, despite a temporary success at the battles of the Great Meadows and Monongahela, French forces were defeated at the disastrous Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. In Europe, Russia was on the verge of crushing Prussia, and the Anglo-Prussian alliance was saved by The miracle of the House of Brandenburg, while the French suffered naval defeats against British fleets at Lagos and Quiberon Bay. Finally peace was concluded in the Treaty of Paris (1763), and France lost most of its North American empire. In 1768 the French Kingdom bought Corsica from Genoa. Image:Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.jpg Lord Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown to American and French allies. Having lost its colonial empire, France saw a good opportunity for revenge against Britain during the American Revolutionary War. Spain also joined the war on the American side but suffered a strong naval defeat at Cape St. Vincent. Admiral de Grasse defeated a British fleet at Chesapeake Bay while Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur and Gilbert du Motier joined American forces in defeating the British at Yorktown. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Paris (1783), under which and Britain lost its former American colonies. While the state was expanded yet broke new ideas on the role of the king and the powers of the state, Charles de Secondat described the separation of powers. Many philosophers became well influential among the French intellectual class such as: Voltaire, Denis Diderot and most importantly Jean-Jacques Rousseau with The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right. Louis XVI commissioned a unified system of units for his kingdom, French scientists such as Antoine Lavoisier then worked on create a scientific system to replace the anarchic ones used previously. Lavoisier also worked on the Conservation of mass and recognised Oxygen and Hydrogen. The Early Modern period in French history spans the following reigns:
See also:
France in modern times I (1789–1914)From the Revolution to World War I.
The RevolutionOn May 28, 1789, the Abbot Sieyès moved that the Third Estate proceed with verification of its own powers and invite the other two estates to take part, but not to wait for them. They proceeded to do so, and then voted a measure far more radical, declaring themselves the National Assembly. Tensions finally caused the Third Estate to pronounce the Tennis Court Oath on June 20 1789 after finding the door to their chamber locked and guarded. They were joined by some members of the second and first estates in the conflict against the king. On July 14, 1789, after four hours of combat, the insurgents seized the Bastille prison, killing the governor and several of his guards. Gilbert du Motier, hero of the American independence, took command of the national guard and the king was forced to recognise the Tricolour Cockade. Although peace was found several nobles did not regard the new order as acceptable and migrated to push neighbouring kingdoms to war against the new rule. Because of this new period of unstability the state was struck by the Great Fear, the two classes were scared of each other. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen tried to give everyone egual rights and France's administrative map was totally changed, moving from provinces to départements. Rising conflicts between two factions brought even more unstability to the already weak regime as some wanted a constitutional monarchy and some wanted a republic. During riots Gilbert du Motier ordered the National Guard to open fire on the protesting crowd. Republican publications were censored afterward. In the Declaration of Pillnitz outsiders such as: Emperor Leopold II, Count Charles of Artois and King William II of Prussia made Louis XVI's cause theirs. These noblemen also required the assembly to be dissolved through threats of war but instead of cowing the French institutions this infuriated them. The borderlines were militarised as a consequence. Under the Constitution of 1791 the solution of a constitutional monarchy was adopted and the king supported a war against Austria in order to increase his popularity starting the long French Revolutionary Wars. On the night of the 10th of August the Jacobins, who had mainly opposed the war, suspended the monarchy. With the Prussian army entering France more doubts raised against the aristocracy, these tensions climaxed during the September Massacres. After the first great victory of the French revolutionary troops at the battle of Valmy on 1792 September 20 the French First Republic was proclaimed the day after on 1792 September 21. The French Republican Calendar was enforced. The Brunswick Manifesto threatened once more the French population from Austrian (Imperial) and Prussian attacks if royalist advance in France was still opposed, following this threat Louis XVI was suspected of treason and was guillotined on 21 January 1793. Spain, Naples, Great-Britain and The Netherlands joined Austria and Prussia in their war against France. The Republican government was radicalised after a diplomatic coup from the Jacobins and the Reign of Terror was now reality. Royalist invading forces were defeated at | |||||||||
