French History
Two Themes dominate French history. One is the drive to forge a unified nation out of diverse peoples; the second
is the quest for glory. France wanted, and still wants, to embody the most cultured and enlightened
civilization
in the world.
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EARLY SETTLERS
Prehistoric cave dwellers inhabited the region as far back as 750,000 years ago.
The first tribes known to invade France were the Celts.
Megalithic monuments and Celtic words in the French language recall
these people, who were later known as Gauls. In 52 B.C., the Roman emperor Julius Caesar defeated the Gallic chief Vercingetorix. The Romans ruled the area for
the next 500 years and built extensive roads, towns, and cities. They left a legal system, taxes, and the art of
winemaking. In the 5th century Visigoths, Burgundians, and Franks pushed their way into France. The Visigoths settled in
the southwest. The Burgundians stayed in the eastern region now known as Burgundy. The Franks settled in the
northeast around today's Paris. The Frankish king Clovis I of the Merovingian dynasty finally conquered the Romans.
He founded the French kingdom, chose Paris as its capital, and converted to Catholicism. By the 7th century, the
Merovingian dynasty was replaced by the Frankish Carolingian dynasry. The Carolingian ruler, Charlemagne, who ruled
from 768 to 814, expanded the Frankish state with Christian ideals. He was crowned emperor in Rome in 800 and
controlled the largest expanse of territory since the Roman period. After his death, his empire was divided among
his three grandsons. The three parts of their empire had the rough outlines of what are today Germany, France,
and a combination of Holland, Belgium. Alsace-Lorraine, and northern Italy.
THE MIDDLE AGES
In 987, powerful nobles of the thoroughly feudalized kingdom ended the rule of Charlemagne's descendants.
They named Hugh Capet, the weakest of the territorial princes, King of France. Hugh Capet established the principle
of primogeniture, by which the oldest son inherits everything. This led to a more orderly succession of power.
The Capetians ruled with perseverance and a practical sense for politics. Their reign lasted from the 10th to the
14th century, a period known as the Middle Ages.
Feudalism weakened the power of the first Capetian kings. Under this system, noble lords received royal land in
exchange for service to the king and many of them became more powerful than the king. Thus William the Conqueror,
Duke of Normandy. invaded England in 1066 and became King of England. During the Crusades (11th to 13th centuries),
the Capetian kings succeeded in controlling their ambitious vassals. Many Christians had left France for the Holy
Land to fight against the Muslims. The French monarchy took this opportunity to seize the land and power of the
crusading nobles.
In 1328, the kingdom of France was the most powerful in western Europe. During the Capetian reign intellectual
life made great progress. Universities were founded and the Paris University became the biggest center of
philosophical and theological studies in the Christian world.
A political struggle for power led France and England to war in 1337. Periodic battles continued for 116 years,
known collectively as the Hundred Years' War. The war was interrupted by a monstrous plague, the Black Death,
that killed one third of all the people in Europe. When fighting resumed, the English nearly conquered the
entire country of France. In the end, it was the religious zeal, patriotism, and courage of a young girl called
Joan of Arc that altered the course of history.
THE REFORMATION
Roughly, the boundaries of present day France were established by 1500 under the Valois kings, who succeeded the
Capetians. It was also during their reign that the French Renaissance knew its greatest flowering.
The Reformation in the 16th century gave rise to Protestantism and a purer form of Catholicism. During 30 years of
war the Catholics persecuted the Huguenots, or the French Protestants. Thousands of them were massacred in Paris and
in the provinces in 1572. The wars ended when Huguenot leader Henri of Navarre converted to Catholicism and was
crowned King Henri IV in 1594, thus introducing the Bourbon dynasty. Henri continued to sympathize with the Huguenots
and signed the Edict of Nantes in 1598, granting them religious and civil liberties.
The next two kings, Louis XIII and Louis XIV, were both minors when their fathers died. They were trained for
leadership by two remarkable and powerful churchmen Cardinal de Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin. Through the efforts
of these two shrewd tutors, the French throne became an absolute monarchy beginning with
Louis XIV (1643-1715).
French Revolution
The seeds of the French Revolution were planted in part by philosophers of the Enlightenment spreading new ideals of
justice, and in part by the dissatisfaction of the population with the injustices that existed in society.
King Louis XVI tried to deal with the crisis by assembling the old Estates General, a body of clergy, nobles, and
commoners. But tile clergy and nobles clashed with the newer class of commoners. This latter group broke away and
declared itself a National Assembly.
Thinking that the king was planning to suppress the new assembly, an angry mob stormed the Bastille prison in Paris
on July 14, 1789. Soon peasants revolted in the countryside and fighting erupted in the cities. The French's Revolution
had begun.The National Assembly seized control. Traditional privileges were removed from the nobles and clergy, and
the feudal system ended. In 1791, a new constitution changed the absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy.
The National Assembly divided the Country into 83 departements of roughly equal size.
When King Louis and Queen Marie Antoinette tried to flee the country, they were arrested and forced to sign the new
constitution. Royalists throughout Europe tried to restore Louis to his former power. The French revolutionaries
declared war against Austria and Prussia. The Revolution then entered a second, radical phase. Extremist Jacobins
under Georges Jacques Danton, Jean Paul Marat, and Maximilien Robespierre came to power and set up the Commune of Paris.
Massacres and anarchy followed.
In September 1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the First French Republic. Louis XVI
and Marie-Antoinette were found guilty of treason, and the king was guillotined in January 1793. France suddenly found
itself at war with all of Europe.
The next phase, known as the Reign of Terror, saw a virtual dictatorship of the Committee of Public Safety led by
Robespierre. Revolutionary zeal led to the death of 40,000 "enemies of the republic," including Queen Marie-Antoinette,
by guillotining and mass drowning. Then Robespierre was arrested and himself guillotined, along with other terrorists.
Another temporary government, the five man Directory, controlled France from 1795 to 1799. This period saw many
elections, revolts, purges, and much general disorder. The end of the French's Revolution is marked by the beginning of
the French Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte.
Extract from “Cultures Of The World France”, Written by Etbel Caro Gofen. Times Editions Pte Ltd,
Singapore: 1999.
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