Revision 13854 of "History_of_France" on enwiki

{{History_of_France}}
==Gaul==
''For details, see the main [[Gaul]] article.''

Settled mainly by the [[Gauls]] and related [[Celts|Celtic]] peoples (apart from a shrinking area of [[Basque]] population in the south-west and [[Ligurian]] population on the southern coast), the area of modern [[France]] comprised the bulk of the region of [[Gaul]] (Latin ''Gallia'') under [[Roman Empire|Roman]] rule from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD.

==Franks==
''For details, see the main [[Franks]] article.''

In [[486]], [[Clovis I]], leader of the Salian [[Franks]] to the east, conquered the Roman territory between the Loire and the Somme, subsequently uniting most of northern and central France under his rule and adopting ([[496]]) the [[Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] form of [[Christianity]] (over the [[Arianism]] preferred by rival Germanic rulers). 

After Clovis's death ([[511]]) his realm underwent repeated division while his [[Merovingian]] dynasty eventually lost effective power to their successive mayors of the palace, the founders of what was to become the [[Carolingian]] dynasty. The assumption of the crown in [[751]] by [[Pippin III|Pepin the Short]] (son of [[Charles Martel]]) established Carolingian rule in name as well as in fact. 

The new rulers' power reached its fullest extent under Pepin's son [[Charlemagne]], (Charles the Great), who in [[771]] reunited the Frankish domains after a further period of division, subsequently conquering the [[Lombards|Lombard]] kingdom in northern [[Italy]] ([[774]]), incorporating [[Bavaria]] ([[788]]) into his realm, defeating the Avars of the Danubian plain ([[796]]), advancing the frontier with Muslim Spain as 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 his son [[Louis the Pious|Louis I]] (emperor [[814]]-[[840]]), however, 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 part which was to form the basis of the future French kingdom.

==France in the Middle Ages==
''For details, see the main [[France in the Middle Ages]] article.''

During the latter years of the elderly [[Charlemagne]]'s rule, the [[Vikings]] made advances along the northern and western perimeters of his kingdom. After Charlemagne's death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining any kind of political unity and the once great Empire began to crumble. Viking advances were allowed to escalate, their dreaded longboats sailing up the Loire and Seine Rivers and other inland waterways, wreaking havoc and spreading terror.
In 843 the Viking invaders murdered the Bishop of [[Nantes]] and a few years after that, they burned the Church of Saint-Martin at [[Tours]]. Emboldened by their successes, in 845 the Vikings ransacked Paris.  Charles the Simple (898-922), whose territory comprised much of the France of today, was forced during his reign to concede to the Vikings a large area on either side of the Seine River, downstream from Paris, that was to become [[Normandy]].

The Carolingians were subsequently to share the fate of their predecessors: after an intermittent power struggle between the two families, the accession ([[987]]) of [[Hugh Capet]], duke of France and count of Paris, established on the throne the [[Capetian]] dynasty which with its Valois and Bourbon offshoots was to rule France for more than 800 years. 

The Carolingian era had seen the gradual emergence of institutions which were to condition France's development for centuries to come: the acknowledgement by the crown of the administrative authority of the realm's nobles within their territories in return for their (sometimes tenuous) loyalty and military support, a phenomenon readily visible in the rise of the Capetians and foreshadowed to some extent by the Carolingians' own rise to power.  

The new order left the new dynasty in immediate control of little beyond the middle Seine and adjacent territories, while powerful territorial lords such as the [[10th century|10th]] and [[11th century]] counts of Blois accumulated large domains of their own through marriage and through private arrangements with lesser nobles for protection and support. 

The area around the lower [[Seine]], ceded to [[Scandinavia]]n invaders as the duchy of [[Normandy]] in [[911]], became a source of particular concern when [[William I of England|duke William]] took possession of the kingdom of [[England]] in [[1066]], making himself and his heirs the king's equal outside France (where he was still nominally subject to the crown). 

Worse was to follow, with the succession in [[1154]] to the disputed English throne of [[Henry II of England|Henry II]], already count of Anjou and duke of Normandy before his marriage ([[1152]]) to France's newly-divorced ex-queen Eleanor of Aquitaine brought him control also of much of south-west France. A century of intermittent warfare brought Normandy once more under French control in [[1204]] and English control of French territory ended with the French victory at Bouvines in [[1214]]. 

The [[13th century]] was to bring the crown important gains also in the south, where a papal-royal crusade against the region's Albigensian or Cathar heretics ([[1209]]) led to the incorporation into the royal domain of Lower ([[1229]]) and Upper ([[1271]]) [[Languedoc]]. [[Philippe IV of France|Philippe IV]]'s seizure of [[Flanders]] ([[1300]]) was less successful, ending two years later in the rout of her knights by the forces of the Flemish cities at the [[Battle of the Golden Spurs]] in 1302 near [[Kortrijk]] (Courtrai in French).

==Valois Dynasty==
''For details, see the main [[Valois Dynasty]] article.''

The extinction of the main Capetian line ([[1328]]) brought to the throne the related house of [[Valois Dynasty|Valois]], but as Philippe IV's grandson, [[Edward III of England]] claimed the French crown for himself, inaugurating the succession of conflicts known collectively as the [[Hundred Years' War]]. The following century was to see devastating warfare, peasant revolts in both England (Wat Tyler's revolt of [[1381]]) and France (the ''[[Jacquerie]]'' of [[1358]]) and the growth of nationhood in both countries. 

French losses in the first phase of the conflict ([[1337]]-[[1360]]) were partly reversed in the second ([[1369]]-[[1396]]); but [[Henry V of  England]]'s shattering victory at the [[battle of Agincourt]] in [[1415]] against a France now bitterly divided between rival Armagnac and Burgundian factions of the royal house was to lead to his son Henry VI's recognition as king in Paris seven years later under the [[1420]] [[Treaty of Troyes]], reducing Valois rule to the lands south of the [[Loire]] River. 

France's humiliation was abruptly reversed in [[1429]] by the appearance of a restorationist movement symbolised by the Lorraine peasant maid [[Joan of Arc]], who claimed the guidance of divine voices for the campaign which rapidly ended the English siege of [[Orléans]] and ended in [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VII]]'s coronation in the historic city of [[Reims]]. Subsequently captured by the Burgundians and sold to their English allies, her execution for heresy in [[1431]] redoubled her value as the embodiment of France's cause.  

Reconciliation between the king and [[Philippe of Burgundy]] ([[1435]]) removed the greatest obstacle to French recovery, leading to the recapture of Paris ([[1436]]), Normandy ([[1450]]) and [[Guienne]] ([[1453]]), reducing England's foothold to a small area around [[Calais]] (lost also in [[1558]]). After the war, France's emergence as a powerful national monarchy was crowned by the incorporation of the duchy of Burgundy ([[1477]]) and [[Brittany]] ([[1491]]). 

The losses of the century of war were enormous, particularly owing to the plague (the [[Black Death]], usually considered an outbreak of bubonic plague), which arrived from Italy in [[1348]], spreading rapidly up the Rhone valley and thence across most of the country: it is estimated that a population of some 18-20 million in modern-day France at the time of the [[1328]] [[hearth-tax]] returns had been reduced 150 years later by 40% or more. 

Despite the beginnings of rapid demographic and economic recovery, the gains of the previous half-century were to be jeopardised by a further protracted series of conflicts, this time in Italy ([[1494]]-[[1559]]), where French efforts to gain dominance ended in the increased power of the [[Habsburg]] Holy Roman Emperors of Germany. 

Barely were the Italian Wars over than France was plunged into a domestic crisis with far-reaching consequences. Despite the conclusion of a Concordat between France and the Papacy ([[1516]]), granting the crown unrivalled power in senior ecclesiastical appointments, France was deeply affected by the [[Protestant Reformation]]'s attempt to break the unity of [[Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] Europe.

==French Wars of religion==
''For details, see the main [[French Wars of Religion]] article.'' 

A growing urban-based Protestant minority (later dubbed ''[[Huguenots]]'') faced ever harsher repression under the rule of [[Henri II of France|King Henri II]]. 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, (Scottish?), German and Spanish forces intervened on the side of rival Protestant and Catholic forces.

==Bourbon Dynasty==
''For details, see the main [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon Dynasty]] article.''

The conflict was ended by the assassination of both [[Henry of Guise]] ([[1588]]) and king [[Henry III of France|Henri III]] ([[1589]]), the accession of the Protestant king of Navarre as [[Henry IV of France|Henri IV]] (first king of the Bourbon dynasty) and his subsequent abandonment of Protestantism ([[1593]]), his acceptance by most of the Catholic establishment ([[1594]]) and by the Pope ([[1595]]), and his issue of the toleration decree known as the [[Edict of Nantes]] ([[1598]]), which guaranteed freedom of private worship and civil equality. 

France's pacification under Henri laid much of the ground for the beginnings after his assassination ([[1610]]) of France's rise to European hegemony under [[Louis XIII of France|Louis XIII]] and his minister ([[1624]]-[[1642]]) [[Cardinal Richelieu]], architect of France's policy against [[Spain]] and the German emperor during the [[Thirty Years' War]] ([[1618]]-[[1648]]) which had broken out among the lands of Germany's Holy Roman Empire. 

An English-backed Huguenot rebellion ([[1625]]-[[1628]]) defeated, France intervened directly ([[1635]]) in the wider European conflict following her ally (Protestant) [[Sweden]]'s failure to build upon initial success. After the death of both king and cardinal, the [[Peace of Westphalia]] ([[1648]]) secured universal acceptance of Germany's political and religious fragmentation, and the [[Treaty of the Pyrenees]] ([[1659]]) formalised France's seizure (1642) of the Spanish territory of [[Roussillon]] after the crushing of the efemerous Catalan Republic.  

During the reign of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] ([[1643]]-[[1715]]), France was the dominant power in Europe, aided by the diplomacy of Richelieu's successor ([[1642]]-[[1661]]) Cardinal [[Mazarin]] and the economic policies ([[1661]]-[[1683]]) of [[Colbert]]. Renewed war ([[1667]]-[[1668]] and [[1672]]-[[1678]]) brought further territorial gains ([[Artois]] and western [[Flanders]] and the free [[county of Burgundy]], left to the Empire in [[1482]]), but at the cost of the increasingly concerted opposition of rival powers. 

Following the seizure of the (then separate) English, Irish and Scottish thrones by the Dutch prince [[William III of Orange|William of Orange]] in [[1688]], the anti-French "[[Grand Alliance]]" of [[1689]] inaugurated more than a century of intermittent European conflict in which Britain would play an ever more important role, seeking in particular to keep France out of the Netherlands (the Dutch provinces and the future Belgium, then under Spanish rule). 

After the war of [[1689]]-[[1697]] gained France only [[Haiti]] (lost to a slave revolt a century later), the War of the Spanish Succession ([[1701]]-[[1713]]) ended with the undoing of Louis's dreams of a Franco-Spanish Bourbon empire: the two conflicts strained French resources already weakened by disastrous harvests in the [[1690s]] and in [[1709]], as well as by the revocation ([[1685]]) of the Edict of Nantes and the consequent loss of [[Huguenot]] support and manpower. 

The reign ([[1715]]-[[1774]]) of [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]] saw an initial return to peace and prosperity under the regency ([[1715]]-[[1723]]) of [[Philippe II of Orléans|Philippe II]], duke of Orléans, whose policies were largely continued ([[1726]]-[[1743]]) by [[Cardinal Fleury]], prime minister in all but name, renewed war with the Empire ([[1733]]-[[1735]] and [[1740]]-[[1748]]) being fought largely in the East. But alliance with the traditional Habsburg enemy (the "[[Diplomatic Revolution]]" of [[1756]]) against the rising power of Britain and [[Prussia]] led to costly failure in the [[Seven Years' War]] ([[1756]]-[[1763]]).

On the eve of the French Revolution of [[1789]], France was a predominantly rural country ruled by an [[absolute monarchy|absolute monarch]] and the [[aristocracy]] under the now-called ''[[ancien régime]]'', very backwards in many ways (for instance, [[torture]] was considered an appropriate means of extracting [[confession]]s in [[criminal trial]]s; there was no [[freedom of religion]], except that [[Protestantism]] was tolerated...). The ideas of [[the Enlightenment]] had however begun to permeate the educated classes of society.

==French Revolution==
''For details, see the main [[French Revolution]] article.''

[[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]'s reign ([[1774]]-[[1792]]) saw a temporary revival of French fortunes through intervention ([[1778]]-[[1783]]) in support of Britain's rebel American colonies. But the over-ambitious projects and military campaigns the past century had produced chronic financial problems. Deteriorating economic conditions, popular resentment against the complicated system of privileges granted the nobility and clerics, and a lack of alternate avenues for change were among the principal causes of the [[French Revolution]]. This led to the formation of the [[French First Republic|First Republic]] on [[September 21]], [[1792]].

Although the revolutionaries advocated republican and egalitarian principles of government, France subsequently reverted to forms of absolute rule or constitutional monarchy four times: 
* the [[First French Empire|First Empire]] of [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Napoleon]],
* the [[French Restoration|Restoration]] of [[Louis XVIII of France|Louis XVIII]],
* the [[July Monarchy]] of [[Louis-Philippe of France | Louis-Philippe]] (often treated as a continuation of the Restoration), and
* the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]] of [[Napoleon III]].

==First French Empire==
''For details, see the main [[First French Empire]] article.''

==French Restoration==
''For details, see the main [[French Restoration]] article.''

==Second Republic==
''For details, see the main [[French Second Republic]] article.''

==Second French Empire==
''For details, see the main [[Second French Empire]] article.''

==Third Republic==
''For details, see the main [[French Third Republic]] article.''

After the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of [[1870]], the [[Third Republic]] was established and lasted until the military defeat of [[1940]].

The midpoint of the Third Republic was known as the ''[[belle époque]]'' in France, a golden time of beauty, innovation, and peace with its European neighbors.  New inventions made life easier at all social levels, the cultural scene thrived, cabaret, cancan, and the cinema were born, and art took new forms with [[Impressionism]] and [[Art Nouveau]].  The glory of this turn-of-the-century period came to an end with the outbreak of [[World War I]].

[[World War I]] ([[1914]]-[[1918]]) brought great losses of troops and resources. In its aftermath, in the [[1920s]], France established an elaborate system of border defences (the [[Maginot Line]]) and alliances (see [[Little Entente]]) to offset resurgent German strength.

==France during World War II==
''For details, see the main [[France during World War II]] article.''

[[France]] surrendered to [[Nazi Germany]] early in [[World War II]] ([[June 24]] [[1940]]). Nazi Germany occupied three fifths of France's territory leaving the rest to the new [[Vichy France|Vichy]] [[collaboration]] government established on [[July 10]], [[1940]] under [[Henri Philippe Pétain]]. Its senior leaders acquiesced in the plunder of French resources, as well as the sending of French forced labor to Nazi Germany; in doing so, they claimed they hoped to preserve at least some small amount of French sovereignty.
The [[Nazi]] German occupation proved costly, however, as Nazi Germany appropriated a full one-half of France's public sector revenue. 

On the other hand, those who refused defeat and collaboration with [[Nazi Germany]], the [[Free French]], organised [[French resistance|resistance movement]]s in occupied and Vichy France and the [[Free French Forces]]. The Free French Forces started in exile in and with the support of the [[United Kingdom|UK]]. 

After four years of occupation and strife, Allied forces, including [[Free France]], liberated France in [[1944]]. Paris was liberated on [[August 25]], [[1944]]. On [[September 10]], [[1944]], [[De Gaulle]] installed his provisional government in Paris. This time he remained in Paris until the end of the war, refusing to abandon even when Paris was temporarily threatened by German troops during the [[Battle of the Ardennes]] in [[December]] [[1944]].

==Fourth Republic==
''For details, see the main [[French Fourth Republic]] article.'' 

France emerged from World War II to face a series of new problems. After a short period of provisional government initially led by General [[Charles de Gaulle]], a new [[Constitution of France|constitution]] ([[October 13]], [[1946]]) established the [[Fourth Republic]] under a parliamentary form of government controlled by a series of coalitions. The mixed nature of the coalitions and a consequent lack of agreement on measures for dealing with colonial wars in [[Indochina]] and [[Algeria]] caused successive cabinet crises and changes of government. The war in Indochina ended with French withdrawal in [[1954]].

The May [[1958]] seizure of power in [[Algiers]] by French army units and French settlers opposed to concessions in the face of Arab nationalist insurrection led to the fall of the French government and a presidential invitation to de Gaulle to form an emergency government to forestall the threat of civil war. Swiftly replacing the existing constitution with one strengthening the powers of the presidency, he became the elected president in December of that year, inaugurating France's [[Fifth Republic]].

==Fifth Republic==
''For details, see the main [[French Fifth Republic]] article.'' 

Seven years later, in an occasion marking the first time in the 20th century that the people of France went to the polls to elect a president by direct ballot, de Gaulle won re-election with a 55% share of the vote, defeating [[François Mitterrand]].

However, French society experienced growing tiredness at the heavy-handed, patriarcal Gaullist approach. This led to the [[May 1968|events of May 1968]], when [[student]]s revolted, with a variety of revendications ranging from more sexual freedom to the end of the [[Vietnam War]]. At the same time, mass strikes erupted. The situation got nearly out-of-hand, with, at one point, de Gaulle going to see troops in [[Baden-Baden]], possibly to secure the help of the army should he need it to maintain public order. However, the June 1968 legislative elections saw a majority of Gaullists in parliament. Still, May 1968 was a turning point in French social relations, in the direction of more personal freedoms and less social control, be it in work relations or in sexual life.

In April [[1969]], de Gaulle resigned following the defeat in a national referendum of government proposals for  the creation of 21 regions with limited political powers. Succeeding him as president of France have been:
* Gaullist [[Georges Pompidou]] ([[1969]]-[[1974]])
* Independent Republican [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] ([[1974]]-81)
* Socialist François Mitterrand ([[1981]]-95)
* neo-Gaullist [[Jacques Chirac]] (elected in spring [[1995]]).

While France continues to revere its rich history and independence, French leaders  increasingly tie the future of France to the continued development of the [[European Union]] (EU). During President Mitterrand's tenure, he stressed the importance of European integration and advocated the ratification of the [[Maastricht Treaty]] on European economic and political union, which France's electorate narrowly approved in September [[1992]].

Current President [[Jacques Chirac]] assumed office [[May 17]], [[1995]], after a campaign focused on the need to combat France's stubbornly high [[unemployment]] rate. The center of domestic attention soon shifted, however, to the economic reform and belt-tightening measures required for France to meet the criteria for Economic and Monetary Union ([[Economic and Monetary Union|EMU]]) laid out by the Maastricht Treaty. In late 1995, France experienced its worst labor unrest in at least a decade, as employees protested government cutbacks. 

On the foreign and security policy front, Chirac took a more assertive approach to protecting French peacekeepers in the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|former Yugoslavia]] and helped promote the [[Dayton Agreement]] negotiated in [[Dayton, Ohio]] and signed in Paris in December 1995. The French have stood among the strongest supporters of [[NATO]] and EU policy in the Balkans.

== Related articles ==

* [[Franks]] 
* [[List of Frankish Kings]] 
* [[Merovingian]]s
* [[Carolingian]]s

* [[List of French monarchs]]
* [[Capetian|Capetian Dynasty]] 
* [[Valois Dynasty]] 
* [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon Dynasty]]
* [[Bourbon Dynasty, Restored]]
* [[Kings of France family tree]]

* List of every [[President of France]]
* [[French colonization of the Americas]]

* [[Timeline of French history]]

== Further reading ==

* André Maurois, ''A History of France''

[[Category:French history]]

[[cs:Dějiny Francie]]
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[[es:Historia de Francia]]
[[fr:Histoire de France]]
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[[he:היסטוריה של צרפת]]
[[la:Historia Gallorum]]
[[lt:Prancūzijos istorija]]
[[nl:Geschiedenis van Frankrijk]]
[[ja:フランスの歴史]]
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