The history of France
Contrary to popular belief, France's ancestors were not Gauls, but Celts. They came from the centre of Europe.
Their main occupation was war, often among themselves but also against their neighbours, especially the Germans (now Germans).
Roman Gaul (-52 BC to 486 AD)
Julius Caesar, at the head of his Roman legions, swept over the Gauls. The Gallic tribes organised the resistance under the authority of the charismatic chief Vercingetorix.
For three centuries Gaul experienced a period of peace: the Pax Romana. This Roman peace favoured its economic development. Latin replaced Celtic and the Gauls adopted Roman names.
Gaul was Roman and remained so until 486 (Battle of Soissons, led by the future king Clovis I).
Christian Gaul - 5th century
Clovis understood how religion could cement his territory and, in 498, converted to Christianity. This political act enabled him to subdue the rival tribes. Gaul was now a Frankish and Christian kingdom.
The first dynasty was then created (498-751): the Merovingians. At its peak, the Merovingian kingdom covered Belgium, part of Germany, Switzerland and of course Gaul.
The Carolingians (751-987)
Charlemagne, succeeded his father Pépin and gave his name to the new dynasty: the Carolingians. On the strength of his victories, notably over the Lombards, the Muslims of Spain and the Saxons, he took the title of Augustus and Emperor (which he received from Pope Leo III). His empire covered an area of more than a million square kilometres (France, Italy, Germany).
Charlemagne, from the Latin Carolus Magnus or Charles I, known as the Great, developed education and not only religious education. Louis V was the last of the Carolingians.
The Capetians (987-1792)
In 987, Hugues Capet was elected King of France and gave his name to the third dynasty: the Capetians. The all-powerful king by divine right based his authority on the Church and feudalism (a system of population hierarchy), the real backbone of the kingdom. Life was good for some and poverty guaranteed for others. Scientific progress was slowed down by the Church, which forbade any questioning of the truths of the Book, on pain of being burnt at the stake.
The kingdom was then divided into three orders: those who prayed (the Clergy), those who fought and dispensed justice (the Noblemen) and finally, the last who worked (the Serfs) in the service of the first two (orders).
The Crusades
Constantinople, the capital of the Christian Orthodox empire, was threatened by the Persians and then by the Muslims. In 1095, with the aim of liberating these holy places, Pope Urban II (a Frenchman) asked the Frankish King for help.
This was the beginning of the Crusades. Godfrey of Bouillon took the lead and drove the Muslims out of Jerusalem.
The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)
The Hundred Years' War is one of the most famous conflicts of the Middle Ages. It pitted the kings of France of the Valois dynasty against the kings of England for possession of the kingdom of France. The conflict can be divided into two periods during which the throne of France was about to fall under English rule, before witnessing an almost complete reconquest. In each of these periods, an emblematic figure, a hero, embodies the French start.
The first period of the conflict saw England victorious at Crécy and Poitiers, where the King of France was captured. The French start was made thanks to Constable Bertrand du Guesclin and his king Charles V.
The second period of the conflict saw the outbreak of a civil war: Armagnacs against Burgundians. This struggle favoured England, victorious at Azincourt. The throne was then promised to the King of England. It is Joan of Arc who will trigger the awakening of the French forces and their race towards victory.
Modern France
As early as 1450, France had practically its present borders. Lyon became a crossroads of European trade. The castles of the Loire Valley were built. In 1534, Jacques Cartier discovered Canada.
Religious wars
The Christian religion which, since Jesus Christ, advocated love of neighbour, was the cause of profound and murderous upheavals.
France was divided between the Huguenots (supporters of the Reformation, against the cruel actions of the Church) and the Catholics faithful to the Pope, led by Les Guises.
In 1572, on the occasion of the weddings of Margot (Marguerite de Valois) and Henri of Navarre (later Henri IV), Catherine de Medici and Les Guises gave the signal for the so-called "St Barthélémy" massacre.
Hundreds of Huguenots were burned and quartered through the windows...
The Sun King (1643-1715)
Louis XIV, as soon as he came to the throne, suffered the slings and arrows of the lords who challenged the royal authority. To protect his crown, he transformed the nobility of swords into the nobility of robes, attracting the nobility to the court of Versailles from where he could easily keep an eye on them.
Louis XV (1715-1774) and the Enlightenment
With Louis XV, the high bourgeoisie had access to culture and wealth. Some bourgeois, like Voltaire, became much more enlightened than some nobles and often richer!
Revolutionary ideas germinated in many authors: Rousseau and his Social Contract, Montesquieu and his Spirit of Laws. Secularism as the guarantor of freedom and tolerance was a concept to which many thinkers adhered.
Louis XVI (1776-1793) and the Revolution
Over-indebtedness of the kingdom, famine due to bad harvests, that was all it took for the Revolution prepared by the bourgeoisie to break out.
Louis XVI, short of money, summoned the Estates General, the only body of state authorised to levy new taxes. The deputies of the third party then went to the salle du jeu de paume (mayor of Paris) where they swore an oath not to separate until they had given France a constitution.
The storming of the Bastille - 14 July 1789
At the instigation of Camille Desmoulins, the Parisians took the Bastille on 14 July. The National Assembly was constituted and recognised by the King as a token of appeasement.
The Tuileries were taken on 10 August 1792 with the help of insurgent soldiers from Brittany and Marseille. The King took refuge with his family in the National Assembly before being taken to the Temple prison.
The King was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The Convention, the seat of the legislative power, was the scene of a violent confrontation between political parties.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1795-1815)
In 1796, England and Austria were at war with France and Bonaparte took command of the Italian army to attack the Austrians.
As for England, he decided to attack it in Egypt to cut off the trade routes to the English colonies in India. In 1798, Bonaparte thus won Egypt with an army, but also with scholars charged with studying the country. However, France was then experiencing a serious political, economic and social crisis.
In 1799, Bonaparte returned to Paris and, on 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799), he ousted the government and took power: he became First Consul and then, on 2 December 1804, he was crowned Emperor under the name of Napoleon I.
Worried about Napoleon's ambition, the English, Russians and Austrians declared war on France. However, on 2 December 1805, Napoleon won a great victory at Austerlitz.
In France, Napoleon reorganised the administration and placed prefects at the head of the departments; in 1800 he created the Banque de France; in 1802, the Legion of Honour; in 1803, a new currency, the franc; in 1804, he had the Civil Code published.
However, Europe wants the fall of the Emperor. Between 1806 and 1814, Napoleon fought against the Prussians, the Austrians, the Spanish, the Russians and the English. The Emperor's European dream came to an end at Waterloo in 1815.
The DREYFUS case (1899)
Antisemitism was commonplace then. It appeared in the press and ran in the corridors of assemblies. The Dreyfus affair at the turn of the century was the most famous example.
The Dreyfus affair divided France with the conservative (anti-Dreyfusarde) right on one side and the pro-Dreyfusarde left on the other (including Clemenceau, Zola and Jaurès).
Captain Dreyfus, accused of treason, was finally acquitted. France was able to devote itself to the organisation of the 1900 Universal Exhibition where it presented the Eiffel Tower.
World War I (1914-1918)
Kaiser Wilhelm II and his Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck, sure of their strength, wanted to provoke France. The assassination of the Archduke of Austria in Sarajevo by a Serb (of the Black Hand organisation), triggered a mechanism of alliances that led to the conflict.
After the incursion of the German armies into French territory, the front stabilised in trench warfare. Germany, after Russia withdrew from the war, then concentrated its troops on the Western front before the Americans arrived. But it was already too late. Clemenceau proved to be the man for the job. He forced Germany to demand surrender. He was the father of Victory. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) settled the post-war period, without taking into account the defeated peoples.
Between the wars, socialist ideas and the occupation of factories spread. Léon Blum, winner of the elections with the Popular Front (1936), voted for a forty-hour working week and retirement at the age of 65.
The Second World War (1939-1945) - The French State (1940)
Hitler came to power legally (1933) with 30% of the votes on a national and socialist programme. He banned political parties, implemented his policy of segregation and rearmament of Germany. In 1939, he launched his tanks on the Ardennes (1939).
The Nazis were in Paris.
De Gaulle saved France's honour by launching his appeal from London on 18 June. The French government withdrew to Bordeaux. The government took its quarters in Vichy in the zone.
The 3rd republic was no more and gave way to the French state. On 3rd October 1940, the first laws on the Jews were promulgated and France embarked on the path of collaboration.
Allied landing in Normandy (6th June 1944), strong pressure from Stalin on the eastern front, Allied bombardment especially on Dresden, Germany was out of breath. Outraged Paris was liberated and Germany capitulated.
The Fourth Republic and Europe (1945-1958)
1945, the Fourth Republic was born. The National Resistance Council (CNR), created in 1943 in reaction to Vichy, gave the impetus to a programme of social reforms and a planned economy with the nationalisation of energy, insurance and banking and the creation of social security.
On 18 April 1951, the Treaty of Paris establishing the first European Community (including France, Italy and Germany) was signed.
On 25 March 1957, the Treaties of Rome creating the EEC, the European Economic Community, were signed.
The Fifth Republic (1958) and the Wars of Independence
As the Fourth Republic was not very stable, De Gaulle immediately proposed a Fifth Republic (1958). He became the first President of this 5th Republic.
In 1954, at Dien-Bien-Phu, Indochina was lost. Then it was Algeria's turn after the Evian agreements in 1962. France also lost Tunisia, Morocco and Black Africa.
The half revolution of 68
May 1968 marked the beginning of the liberation of morals. July 1, 1968 also saw the establishment of the customs union in Europe.
The time of unemployment (1974 to the present)
The first oil shock sounded the death knell for the "Glorious Thirty (1945-1973)". France, for the first time since the liberation, experienced unemployment.
The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992. It gave a new dimension to the construction of Europe. The European Union (EU) replaced the EEC with the aim of giving Europe a political dimension. In 1999, the single currency, the euro (€), was introduced.
Emmanuel Macron (2017-2022)
In 2017, Emmanuel Macron was elected President against a backdrop of rising extremes in France and Europe, particularly the extreme right wing embodied by Marine Le Pen and the so-called "refugee crisis".
Emmanuel Macron embarked on a policy of reforms (labour law, pensions...) aimed at providing France with structures to prepare for the future by starting to reduce the public deficit which was increasingly hampering France's investment capacity and making it dependent on sovereign wealth funds.
To be continued...