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Although Greek and Roman colonies were founded along the French Riviera
centuries before, Julius Caesar conquered the rest of Gaul only in 58-51 BC.
Invasions by Germanic tribes in the 5th century AD hastened the end of the
empire, and the Franks,
led by Clovis, consolidated control of the region. |
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Because the king, according to Frankish custom, divided his lands and titles
among his heirs, the Merovingian dynasty was beset by internal divisions.
Over time, royal officials came to play an increasingly prominent role, and
one of these, Pepin the Short, overthrew the last Merovingian king in 751. |
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His son, Charlemagne, reunited the disparate Frankish states and conquered a
number of Germanic tribes to the east. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne "Emperor of the Romans", first of a long line of Holy Roman
Emperors who would nominally rule the Germans until the 19th century.
His domains, however, were ultimately divided among three of his grandsons,
permanently separating France from Germany. |
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Royal authority waned under the Capetian dynasty, as feudal vassals such as
the Dukes of Normandy – Kings of England after 1066 – and the Abbots of
Cluny exerted far more influence than the king. During the 12th-13th
centuries, French kings became embroiled in the Crusades while struggling to
reassert their authority at home. |
Frontière
Alsace & Lorraine, Franche Comté
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After the death of the last Capetian king, a dispute between Philip of
Valois and the English king over the succession to the throne led to the
Hundred Years' War in 1337. Despite numerous English victories and
periodic outbreaks of the plague, the French finally managed to expel the
English in 1453. |
Champagne & Nord
Champagne-Ardenne, Picardie & Nord-Pas-de-Calais
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France was split by wars of religion during the 16th century. The
accession of a Protestant, Henry of Bourbon, to the throne only exacerbated
the tensions. Although Henry IV soon converted to Catholicism, the
Edict of Nantes granted religious toleration to French Huguenots in 1598,
but they were revoked by Louis XIV in 1685. The "Sun King" ruled
France for 72 years, fighting a series of wars to extend its frontiers. |
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Facing a financial crisis, Louis XVI called the Estates-General in 1789.
When the king tried to disperse the assembly by force, the people of Paris
rebelled and seized the Bastille. The French Revolution soon
degenerated into a reign of terror whose victims included the king and queen
in 1793. In 1799, the five-man Directory was overthrown by Napoleon
Bonaparte, who declared himself emperor in 1804 and went on to conquer much
of Europe in the next decade. |
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The restoration of the monarchy in 1814 was uneasy, punctuated by
revolutions in 1830 and 1848. The Second Republic lasted until 1852,
when Napoleon's nephew restored the empire. Defeat by Germany in 1871 in the
Franco-Prussian War led to the loss of Alsace and Lorraine and the
establishment of the Third Republic. |
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During World War I, most of the fighting along the western front took place
on French soil, and cost over a million French lives. The Treaty of
Versailles which ended the war did not bring to security to France, nor did
the Maginot Line of fortifications along the German frontier. The
Nazis easily defeated French forces in 1940 and occupied about two-thirds of
the country, while the rest was ruled from Vichy. The Fourth Republic
was established after World War II. |
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Despite fighting three wars in less than a century, France reached out to
Germany during the 1950s, working together to overcome their enmity and make
further wars impossible. In the meantime, France watched its imperial
empire unravel, as first Indochina (Vietnam), then Algeria fought for
independence. A military coup in 1958 set the stage for the rise to
power of WWII resistance leader Charles de Gaulle. A new constitution
was drafted, vesting increased power in the president. |
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The Fifth Republic has witnessed an era of unprecedented prosperity, ever
closer integration with its European neighbors, and frustration over its
declining influence in world affairs. France clings to a faith in the
superiority of its language and culture, and hasn't quite come to terms with
the fact that it is no longer a world power. Still, it's a beautiful
country with a rich heritage, and well worth a visit. |
This page last
updated 29 March 2005.
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