The history of human habitation in France stretches back for many millennia, with evidence of prehistoric culture sill vividly evident in such places as the Vézère River Valley of Southwest France. Here amazingly well-preserved cave paintings of animals drawn between 15,000 and 17,000 years ago are a testament to both the hunting and artistic skills of the Cro-Magnon people.
Other findings, including pottery and polished stone tools, show that villages and farms began to flourish in France in the Neolithic period of 4,000 and 7,500 years ago. Sometime during this period mysterious stone megaliths were erected in France, many of them concentrated in what is now the south-central Morbihan part of Brittany.
Between 1500 and 500 B.C., the Celtic Gauls began to migrate to France, establishing trading links with the Greeks by about 600 B.C. The Greeks, meanwhile, were establishing colonies throughout the Mediterranean basin, including a vital seaport in what is now Marseille. By A.D. 52, the Romans became the dominant force in France when Julius Caesar defeated the Gallic chief Vercingétorix who was leading an attempted revolt. Paris, then called Lutetia, became a base for the Roman hierarchy. Christianity was established in the 2nd century A.D.
Roman rule was overthrown about A.D. 500 when several tribes were united under the leadership of King Clovis into a powerful entity known as the Franks. The Franks remained in power from the 5th to the 10th century, a time when much of the country became divided into small feudal states. Their most powerful ruler was Charlemagne who extended the boundaries of the kingdom and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in A.D. 800. Meanwhile, Vikings began invading the northwest coast, establishing the duchy of Normandy in the early 900s.
Power over the young kingdom shifted to the Capetian dynasty when nobles selected Huges Ier Capet as their king in 987, establishing a reign that would last for the next 800 years. At first, the dynasty ruled over a relatively small area that primarily encompassed Paris and its environs. Increasingly, large areas of France fell into English hands. in 1066 Guillaume Ier Conquérant, Duke of Normandy, invaded England and established a powerful base that included both England and Normandy. Following this, a third of France became part of England when Aliénor d'Aquitaine married Henri d'Anjou, later Henry II of England, in 1152, thus transferring her vast holdings in southwestern France to England.
Struggle to regain territory from the English would consume the Capetian rulers from the 12th to 14th century, years that also saw France take a central role in the Crusades and build most of the great Gothic cathedrals that still stand today. Fighting between the French and the English reached its zenith during the Hundred Years' War, which was waged intermittently between 1337 and 1453. Its most famous warrior was the young Jeanne d'Arc, who rallied the French troops to defeat the English near Orléans, but she died a martyr three years later in 1432. Finally, in 1453, the French regained all their lands from the English.
With the 16th century came a shift of power in the monarchy from the Capetian to the Bourbon dynasty. It also ushered in the Renaissance, which means "rebirth" in French, and a new era when art, culture, and science began to flower. Italian artists and architects, including Leonardo da Vinci, were brought to France by the aristocracy to design and embellish their palaces and chateaux. At the same time, the Reformation and the tide of Protestantism sweeping through Europe led to great religious conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots (French Protestants). Bloody battles ensued during several religious wars waged during the last half of the 16th century. The Edict of Nantes, which gave certain civil, religious, and political rights to Huguenots, was issued in 1598, but Catholicism remained the religion of power in France. Later, in 1685, King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes.
Louis XIV or le Roi-Soleil started his powerful reign in 1643 at the age of five and remained in power until 1715. Insisting on absolute power, the Sun King spent vast sums on his palace at Versailles and presided over the most extravagant count Europe had yet seen. By the time his son Louis XV, who ruled from 1715 to 1774, came to the throne, however, the rumblings of a major cultural shift were about to begin. As the 18th century progressed, new ideas in opposition to the powerful monarchy were being expressed by such great minds as François-Marie Arouet Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The reign of Louis VX also saw the loss of France's colonies in American and Canada to the British.
The nail in the coffin for the monarchy came with the reign of Louis XVI and his wife, Marie-Antoinette. The king's inability to handle his nation's economic troubles, including food shortages and chronic unemployment, led political reformers to establish the Assemblée Nationale in 1789, a body designed to wrest power from the parliament and the king. On July 14th, a mob stormed the Bastille prison in Paris as the ultimate symbol of protest, and the French Revolution was in full sway.
As the revolution progressed, a radical political faction called the Jacobins took control, abolishing the monarchy in 1792 and executing Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette the next year. From September 1793 to July 1794, the Jacobin leaders presided over what became known as the Reign of Terror, a period in which 17,000 people lost their heads, religious freedoms were revoked and churches were ransacked. After the Terror, a more moderate delegation led by Paul Barras gained control of the fledgling republic, setting up a body called the Directoire.
It was not long, however, before power was seized by a young Corsican general named Napoléon Bonaparte. Returning to Paris from military victories over Austria in 1799, Napoléon overthrew the Directoire and put himself in charge. After being crowned emperor in 1803, he sought to enlarge his kingdom by waging endless wars across Europe before finally reaching defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Although exiled soon afterwards, Napoléon left behind a legacy that included civil and judical reforms known as the Code Napoléon, which still form the basis of the French legal system.
In 1815 European allied forces at the Congress of Vienna restored the Bourbon dynasty to the throne of France, crowning Louis XVIII as king. Various rulers presided over France until the February Revolution of 1848 ushered in the Second Republic and a more democratic system. In presidential elections held that year, Louis Napoléon Bonapart, a nephew of Napoléon, was elected to office but was blocked from assuming power by legislative deadlock. In 1851, he staged a military coup and declared himself Emperor Napoléon III, a title he would hold until 1870 when widespread dissent led to the creation of a new government called the Third Republic.
The latter part of the 19th century was a time of economic growth and artistic achievement for France, a period in which Impressionist art came into full flower and the grand boulevards of Paris were created under the stewardship of the great urban planner Baron Georges Haussmann. Towards the end of the century came a period known as the Belle Epoque, an era when Art Nouveau design flourished, particularly in Paris and Nancy. The quintessential symbol of the age is the Eiffel Tower, originally intended as a temporary structure for the World Exposition held in Paris in 1889.
World War I, waged partly to regain the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from Germany, was especially devastating for France. Some 1.3 million Frenchmen were killed and nearly a million more were maimed. Just two decades after the war ended with the Treaty of Versailles, France again found itself at the epicentre of a world conflict. With World War II came fours years of German occupation, not ending until the summer of 1944 with the invasion of the Allied Forces.
After World War II, France turned to the task of rebuilding its economy, devastated rail networks, and cities where nearly a half-million buildings had been destroyed by bombs. By 1957, France had recovered enough to play a significant role in the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC), which has been called the European Union (EU) since 1993. The 1950s also saw the erosion of many of France's colonial interests, particularly in Indochina and North Africa. In 1958 President Charles de Gaulle and his administration instituted the country's current governmental system, the Fifth Republic. National leadership in France is divided between a president, who is elected for a five-year term; representatives serving in the Assemblée Nationale and the Sénat; and the Conseil des Ministres, who are appointed by the president.
In the 1960s, the country, especially Paris, found itself rocked by much of the same social unrest being felt in the United States, including massive student demonstrations against labour conditions and the war in Vietnam. With the two-term presidency of socialist François Mitterrant from 1981 to 195 came significant changes such as the establishment of regional government councils in France and an ambitious series of Grands Projets, a building boom of monuments and other structures around the country.
Despite a series of labour strikes in the 1990s, France has been enjoying modest economic growth and a relatively low inflation rate. Always a leader in the European Union, France was among the first countries to adopt the euro currency system. Headquarters for the EU are located in Strasbourg, where member nations convene at the European Parliament 12 times a year.
