Prehistory
( -200BC)
Gallery
Cro-Magnon engraving, may be lunar notation. Blanchard,
France
Sculptures made by Cro-Magnon man, found in Dordogne,
France
Cave
Paintings at Lascaux |
Homo Erectus, who
lived around 950,000 B.C., was the first human found in France. With the
end of the Ice Age, prehistoric man began to settle down in more permanent
agricultural settlements (Neolithic Revolution). The Celts
came from Central Europe and settled in Gaul around 2500 B.C. The Celts
were iron workers and dominated Gaul until 125 B.C., when the Roman Empire
began its reign in southern France.
950,000-80,000 BC:
Homo Erectus
(400,000 B.C. Discovery
of Fire)
80,000-30,000 BC:
Neanderthal
33,000-10,000 BC: Homo
Sapiens - Cro Magnon Man
28,000 BC: Cro-Magnon
notation, possibly of phases of the moon, carved onto bone, discovered
at Blanchard, France
4,000-2,500 BC: Neolithic
Revolution
2,500-50 BC: Celtic
Domination in Gaul
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Antiquity
(200 BC - 481)
Gallery
Baptism of Clovis
Roman remains in Provence and Arlon |
Julius
Caesar led the Romans into Gaul during the Gallic Wars (58-51 BC).
When Augustus
became emperor of Rome, the result was two centuries of relative peace
and prosperity known as the Pax Romana. During the 2nd century, Romans
brought Christianity into Gaul. However, by the third century the Roman
Empire had begun its decline. The fourth century started with Barbarian
invaders from the East such as the Franks, the Vandals and the Visigoths.
People feared for their safety and began allying themselves with local
lords in exchange for protection from the barbarians. In this way, the
feudal society that would characterize so much of the Medieval Age began
to emerge. Christianity in France received a boost when Clovis, King of
the Franks, converted to Christianity. In some ways Clovis' reign brought
stability and unity to France, but in some ways it also contributed to
fragmentation, because Clovis divided up the territory as gifts and rewards.
58-51 BC: Caesar's
Gallic Wars
52 BC: Lutetia is
built, the future Paris
43 AD: Lugdunum
(Lyon)
becomes the capital of the Gauls
2nd century AD: Romans
bring Christianity to Gaul
485-511: Reign of
Clovis I, Merovingian
King of the Franks
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Middle
Ages (481-1453)
Gallery
Carolingian Script (840)
Joan of Arc
Bayeux Tapestry
The coronation of Charlemagne
Construction of cathedrals; birth of Gothic architecture |
Charles Martel
was the first leader of the Carolingian dynasty. He expanded the Frankish
kingdom and stopped the Muslim advance in 732. He was succeeded by Pepin
II, also known as Pepin the Short. Charlemagne
(742-814) continued the expansion of the Frankish kingdom.Charlemagne not
only was an able military leader, but he was also a great supporter of
education and the arts. In fact, there was a Carolingian renaissance during
Charlemagne's rule. Shortly after his death, however, the kingdom was divided.
All of Charlemagne's sons died except for Louis the Pious, who reigned
for 30 years and managed to keep the kingdom together. However, when Louis
died, different alliances formed around Louis' three sons, Lothar, Louis
the German and Charles the Bald. Louis and Charles agreed to keep the lands
where they were most powerful (Louis in German areas and Charles in Frankish
areas). They left Lothar with the unorganized lands in the middle. The
Treaty of Verdun was the treaty Louis and Charles presented to Lothar.
The Carolingian dynasty ended in 987 when Hugh Capet was elected to the
throne of France, beginning the Capetian Dynasty. In 1066, William, Duke
of Normandy invaded England and was crowned as the English king on Christmas
Day, 1066. The marriage of Eleanor
of Aquitaine, who had previously been married to Louis VII of France,
to Henry II of England yielded most of the western part of France to the
British Crown. After the death of the last Capetian king Charles IV, Edward
III of England claimed the French Throne and started the Hundred Years'
War in 1337. With the help of a French peasant girl, Joan
of Arc, Charles VIII emerged victorious in the war and drove the English
back to Calais.
637: Dagobert I,
last Mervingian king
732: Charles Martel
defeats Muslims at Poitiers, stopping Arab invasion
751: Pepin II "The
Short" becomes king of the Franks
755: Franks protect
the church against Lombards and create the Papal States
768-814: Charlemagne
rules as King of the Franks
800: Charlemagne
crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III
814-40: Louis the
Pious succeeds Charlemagne as emperor
843: Treaty of Verdun
partitions the Carolingian Empire
870: Treaty of Mersen
allows eastern and western Frankish kingdoms to absorb the fragmented middle
lands
910: Foundation of
the monastery of Cluny
987: Hugh
Capet starts Capetian dynasty
1095: Pope Urban
II preaches the First Crusade- link: The
Crusades
1066: William
of Normandy invades England; Battle of Hastings
1120: St
Denis Cathedral is rebuilt: birth of Gothic
architecture
1189-92: Third Crusade;
crusaders fail to recover the Holy Land
1200: University
of Paris starts messenger service
1202: Fourth Crusade
launched; crusaders capture Constantinople
1209: Pope Innocent
III launches the Albigensian Crusade in southern France
1305-1378: The
Avignon Papacy
1337-1443: Hundred
Years' War
1453: English out
of France except for Calais
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Renaissance
(1453-1598)
Gallery
Leonardo da Vinci
Catherine de Medici
|
Francois I strengthened the French Crown during the early 16th century.
He also welcomed to France many Italian artists, such as Leonardo
da Vinci. Their influence assured the success of the Renaissance
style. The years between 1562 and 1598 saw an increase in the number
of the Huguenots
(Protestants), which led to the Wars of Religion between Catholics and
Protestants. Catherine
de Medici ordered the St.
Bartholomew's Day Massacre of hundreds of Protestants. In 1589, Henri
IV, who was a target of the massacre, became the first Bourbon king of
France and wisely converted to Catholism. Henry ended the Wars of Religion
with the Edict
of Nantes, which guaranteed religious and political rights to the Huguenots.
1464: King of France
establishes postal system
1494-1559: Italian
Wars- France and Austria fight over Italian territories
1515: François
I crowned King
1519: Leonardo
da Vinci dies in the arms of François I
1547-59: Reign of
Henry
II
1562-98: The
Wars of Religion
1572: Massacre of
Protestants on St. Bartholomew's Eve in Paris
1589-1593: Henri
IV becomes 1st Bourbon King and converts to Catholicism, ending Wars of
Religion
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Grand
Siecle (1598-1715)
Revolution
(1715-1804)
Gallery
Jean
Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) - "The Concert" (1716)
Robespierre
French Revolution Poster
|
The majority of the population of France was made up of commoners,
who resented the privileges enjoyed by the nobles and clergy. In addition,
the growth of new ideas during the 18th
century's Enlightment resulted in thinkers such as Voltaire
and Rousseau
beginning to question the principles of the old regime and absolutism.
These thinkers spoke of a liberal society that enjoyed free commerce. They
also championed equal rights and the abolition of the class system. The
notion of revolution was further encouraged by Frenchmen who had been exposed
to the ideas behind the American Revolution. In 1789 the crisis came to
a head. On July 14th, a Parisian mob revolted and stormed the Bastille
prison, which was seen as a symbol of political oppression. The French
revolution had begun. On the August 26, 1789 the revolutionaries issued
the Declaration of
the Rights of Man which embodied the principles of Liberté,
Egalité, and Fraternité, and was meant to end the class system.
During the Revolution, Louis XVI was guillotined, along with scores of
moderates and radicals, at the Place de la Revolution (now the Place de
la Concorde). Robespierre
and his Committee of Public Safety brought brought on the Reign of Terror
in France.
1762: Rousseau's
Social Contract
1769: Napoleon Bonaparte
born in Ajaccio, Corsica
1774: Louis
XVI becomes king
1778-83: The kingdom
supports the American Revolution
1789: French
Revolution, storming of La Bastille
1792: Louis XVI tried
for treason and convicted; monarchy abolished
1793: Louis XVI and
Queen Marie Antoinette are guillotined in Paris
1794: Robespierre
overthrown and end of Reign
of Terror
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Napoleonic
Era (1804-1870)
Gallery
Napoleon shocks everyone, especially the Pope, by crowning himself Emperor
in 1804
Jacquard
(1801) invents a "punch- card" loom
Rosetta Stone
Earliest
known photograph (1827) - Nicéphore
Niépce
Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), inventor of the Daguerreotype
Honoré
Daumier's lithograph (1850) - Plead Not Guilty |
The Revolution came to an end in 1799 when Napoleon
Bonaparte entered Paris and was crowned First Consul. In 1804 he took
the title of emperor Napoleon I. He took the crown from the Pope and placed
it on his head himself, thereby directly challenging the authority of the
church. Napoleon created a powerful central administration, and engaged
in many military campaigns that allowed him to expand his empire. Napoleon
was defeated in Russia in 1812 and then in Waterloo
in 1815. Napoleon was replaced by Louis XVIII, who was then overthrown
by Charles X. Charles' reign reminded people too much of the old regime,
and this led to the July Revolution of 1830. The July Monarchy elected
a king, Louis Philippe (the Duke of Orleans). His reign lasted 18 years
(until 1848) and was a period of prosperity. In 1848, Louis Napoleon, the
nephew of Napoleon I, was elected the first president of the Second Republic.
He was then proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III in 1852 by national plebiscite.
It was Napoleon III who commissioned Baron
Haussman to redesign Paris and started the French industrial revolution.
1796: Napoleon weds
Rose de Beauharnais (the future Empress Joséphine)
1799: Robert in France
invents a paper-making machine
1799: French soldiers
discover the Rosetta
Stone
1799: General Bonaparte
enters Paris
1801: Joseph-Marie
Jacquard invents a loom using punch cards
1803-15: Napoleonic
Wars expand the Empire
1804: Bonaparte crowns
himself Emperor Napoleon I
1808: Napoleon Commercial
Code goes into effect, standardizing commercial practices throughout the
French Empire
1809: The baccalaureate
examination is established
1814: Napoleon abdicates
and is exiled to Elba
1814–24: Reign of
Louis XVIII
1814: Congress of
Vienna begins to remake Europe after the downfall of Napoleon
1815: Napoleon enters
Paris, the beginning of the "100 Days"
1815: Napoleon defeated
at Waterloo
1815: Napoleon
is deported to Santa Helena, an island off the coast of Africa
1824–30: Reign of
Charles X
1827: Nicéphore
Niépce makes a true photograph
1829: Louis-Jacques-Mandé
Daguerre (1787-1851) joins Niépce to pursue photographic inventions
1830-48: Reign of
Louis Philippe
1839: Daguerre annouces
invention of first practical camera
1852: Napoleon I's
nephew crowned as Emperor
Napoleon III
1853: Haussman redesigns
Paris
1854: Bourseul in
France builds an experimental telephone
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19th
Century
Gallery
The Eiffel Tower
Louis (1864-1948) and Auguste (1862-1954)
Lumière
Claude Monet - Impression: soleil levant (1872) |
| The Franco-Prussian war began in 1870. The Germans captured Paris and
claimed the Alsace and Lorraine regions of France. Following the defeat,
Napoleon III was exiled. The Third Republic emerged in France in 1871,
indicating the end of monarchy in France. Industrial expansion continued
during this time, and a portable movie camera was invented. The Eiffel
Tower was constructed during the Universal Exhibition of 1889 in order
to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution. Its construction
was very controversial at the time, although now the Tower is one of the
most well-known and frequently visited monuments in France. The nineteenth
century in France is also renowned for its cultural contributions, including
the paintings of the Impressionists,
the Art Nouveau style, the novelist Flaubert
and the satirist Zola.
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20th
Century
Gallery
The Big Four meet in Paris in 1919 to discuss the Versailles Treaty: Lloyd
George of England, Orlando of Italy, Clemenceau of France, and Wilson of
the U.S.
Charles
de Gaulle and the liberation of Paris
Detail from Picasso's Guernica- Guernica was a
city in Spain that was bombed by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War;
Picasso meant the painting to be a statement about the violence of warfare. |
The First World War began in 1914 in northeast France. Initially the
Germans won many victories, but eventually both the Germans and the French
dug trenches, and the war on the Western Front was deadlocked in trench
warfare. The United States eventually entered the war in 1917 and helped
France to defeat the Germans. The Allies demanded generous restitutions
and payments from the Germans in the Versailles Treaty. The Germans greatly
resented the humiliation of this treaty, and this was one of the factors
which sparked WWII.
During the Entre Guerres (Between Wars) period, France played a leading
role in the avant garde movement, attracting artists, musicians and filmmakers
from around the world. In 1940, the Germans invaded Paris and occupied
the north and west parts of France until 1944. Meanwhile, the country was
controlled the puppet government of Vichy, led by Marshal
Petain. However, a resistance movement was being organized by General
Charles de Gaulle. The Allied Forces invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944,
and de Gaulle entered Paris as the head of the new government of the Fourth
Republic. The postwar years were characterized by consumerism and technical
advancements. In the 1950's and 60's, France's African and Asian colonies
were claiming their independence, which led to wars in Algeria and Indochina,
as well as general strikes and the student revolts of 1968.
1905: CharlesPathé
colors black and white films by machine.
1907: Lumière
brothers invent still color photography process.
1914-18: World
War I
1919: Versailles
Treaty
1929-39: The Depression
1939: France declares
war on Germany
1940: Paris falls,
Vichy's government formed
1944-45: D-Day
and Allied victory and Fourth Republic led by de Gaulle
1946-54: War in Indochina
1954-58: War of Algeria
1958: De Gaulle initiates
5th Republic
1968: General strikes
and students' riots in Paris
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Versailles
