France

First form of French Art:
over 12,000 years old!

The first humans found in France, known as Homo Erectus, are believed to have lived around 950,000 B.C. They evolved slowly, through four glaciations, discovered fire in the process (around 400,000 B.C.) to become Homo Sapiens. One of them, Cro-Magnon man, found in Dordogne (South West of France) in 1868 used to live circa 25,000. His physiognomy differed only slightly from ours. At the end of the ice age, around 10,000 B.C., Neanderthal men evolved slowly towards the more settled Neolithic civilizations (4,000-2,500 B.C.). People began to cultivate crops and settle herds, villages started to appear (many villages of today still occupy the same locations as those started then). The Celts, emerging from Central Europe, settled in Germany and Gaul as early as 2500 B.C. They started to work with iron to make tools and weapons, and lived in well organized societies until 125 B.C., when the Roman Empire began its in the South of France.

The Greeks first tried to settle in Celtic Gaul and managed to establish a small colony in Marseille in 600 BC. Then it was the turn of the Romans, lead by Julius Caesar, who entirely invaded Gaul during the Gallic Wars (58-51 BC). The Romans brought unity and peace for two centuries of Pax Romana during which agriculture, cattle-breeding and urban development were greatly improved. During the 2nd century AC, Romans brought Christianity into Gaul and by the third century, the power of the Roman Empire had begun its decline. The 4th century started with Barbarian invaders from the East such as the Franks, the Vandals and the Visigoths. Clovis, King of the Franks, converted to christianity and his power brought unity to Gaul, starting the Merovingian dynasty.

The Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct built in 19 BC in Provence

Charles Martel, the first leader of the Carolingian dynasty, initiated the expansion of the Franks' kingdom and stopped the Muslim advance from Spain in 732. Charlemagne (742-814) continued this expansion and conquered most of Germany and Italy to reunite most of the former Roman Empire. Shortly after his death, however, his kingdom was divided under the pressure of invaders such as the Normans (Vikings) and the Magyars (Hungarians). Towards the end of the first millenium, France consisted of numerous feudal Lordships. The Carolingian dynasty died out in 987 when Hugues Capet was elected to the throne of France by the Lords, starting the Capetian Dynasty. The early Capetian kings had very limited power over the independent Lords. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy invaded England while the first Crusades started in 1095. Despite the mariage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II of England which yielded most of the western part of France to the British Crown, the Capetians continued to centralize the Lordships under their control. Philippe IV (the Fair), even pressured sucessors of Pope Boniface VIII to move the papal court to Avignon in 1309. 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. Thanks to the courage of a French peasant girl, Joan of Arc, Charles VIII emerged victorious in the war and drove the English back to Calais.

Hugues Capet

In the early 16th century, after a series of Italian wars, Francois I strengthened the French Crown and welcomed to France many Italian artists and designers such as Leonardo da Vinci. Their influence assured the success of the Renaissance style characterized by enlarged doors and windows, the great sophistications of the interiors. The Loire Valley Chateaus (Chambord) and Francois I's Chateau of Fontainebleau are perfect examples of the Renaissance style, which combined defensive fortresses with luxurious palaces. Between 1562 and 1598, the increasse in the number of the Huguenots (Protestants) led to the Wars of Religion. Catherine de Medici ordered the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of hundreds of Protestants. In 1589, Henri IV, a target of the massacre, becomes the first Bourbon king of France and astutely converted to Catholism. He ended the Wars of Religion by enacting the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious and political rights to the Huguenots.

Francois I

The 17th century was marked by a period of exeptional power and glamour for the French Monarchy. Starting with King Louis XIII and the Cardinal Richelieu who together transformed the feudal French Monarchy to an Absolute Monarchy, by controlling the opposition of the "Grands" (the Lords) and the growing power of the Protestant (siege of La Rochelle, 1628). Mazarin, Louis XIV's regent, ended the popular revolts of La Fronde. Louis XIV, in turn, managed to keep all the Princes and Lords at his court in Versailles, to better control and display his glorious power. da Vinci's Mona Lisa Diane de Poitier, "Favorite" of Henri II

	Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, was the most powerful and opulent monarch Europe had seen since the Roman Empire. Political brillance in this period was matched only by the genius of the writers, architects and musicians generously promoted by the royal court. Alas, all of this exuberance, including Louis XIV's endless wars, had a cost which was to be paid by the entire nation, largely impoverished towards the end of his reign. The growing resentment of the Bourgeoisie, who demanded political rights more in keeping with their expanding power and wealth, would prove to be a political challenge to the king's successors.
Versailles, Louis XIV Royal Residence

Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, was the most powerful and opulent monarch Europe had seen since the Roman Empire. Political brillance in this period was matched only by the genius of the writers, architects and musicians generously promoted by the royal court. Alas, all of this exuberance, including Louis XIV's endless wars, had a cost which was to be paid by the entire nation, largely impoverished towards the end of his reign. The growing resentment of the Bourgeoisie, who demanded political rights more in keeping with their expanding power and wealth, would prove to be a political challenge to the king's successors.

The 18th century's Enlightment brought thinkers such as Voltaire and Rousseau to struggle against the principles of the old regime and absolutism. In 1789, the state's financial crisis brought social turmoil, triggering the Revolution. On July 14th, a Parisian mob revolted and stormed the Bastille prison, symbol of the old regime. A few weeks later, the revolutionaries enacted the Declaration of the Rights of Man which embodied the principles of Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité (Freedom, Equality, Fraternity) and had far reaching consequences for all the other European monarchies.

During the following decade France saw a succession of rivaling regimes which guillotined Louis XVI and scores of moderates as well as radicals at the Place de la Revolution, now known as Place de la Concorde. The Terror regime of Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety brought turmoil, confusion and anarchy in France.

The Revolution ends in 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris and was crowned First Consul at the age of thirty. A brilliant politician and a military genius, he took the title of emperor Napoleon I in 1804. After establishing a powerful central administration and a strong code of law, he started numerous military campaigns which almost gave him the control of the entire European continent. First defeated in Russia in 1812 and then in Waterloo in 1815, he was replaced by Louis XVIII. Louis XVIII's constitutional monarchy was overthrown under Charles X, whose conservatism was a reminiscence of the old regime and lead to the July Revolution of 1830. The following July Monarchy, had an elected King, Louis Philippe, (the Duke of Orleans). He ruled France for 18 years of stable prosperity.

Napoleon I

In 1848, Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon I, was elected the first president of the Second Republic. In 1852, he was proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III by national plebiscite. It was he who commissioned Baron Haussman to redesign Paris and started the French industrial revolution. In 1870, the Franco-Prussian war erupted, Paris fell to the Germans and France lost the Alsace and Lorraine regions. Following the defeat, Napoleon III was exiled and France's Third Republic marked the definite end of centuries of monarchy.

Napoleon III

The industrial expansion was not slowed by the war and continued at a fast pace. To commemorate the centenial of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower was constructed during the Universal Exhibition of 1889. Simultaneously, the cultural and artistic scene thrived and evolved with the Impressionists, the Art Nouveau style, the novelist Flaubert and the satirist Zola. The First World War erupted in 1914 in northeast France and after two years of German victories, fell into the horrors of trench warfare. The United States entered the war in 1917 and helped France to victory. The Allies demanded generous restitutions and payments from the Germans, who resented the humiliation for years, and was one of the factors which sparked WWII. Despite the devastation of the war, the Entre Guerres (Between Wars) period allowed France to hold a leading role in the avant garde movement. From Paris to the Riviera, France attracted experimental artists, musicians, filmmakers and musicians from all over the world.

Eiffel's controversial structure at the Universal Exhibition of 1889

In 1940, the Germans invaded Paris and occupied the north and west parts of France until 1944. The rest of the country was under the authority of the puppet Government of Vichy led by Marshal Petain. Simultaneously, General Charles de Gaulle was organizing the Resistance movement of the Free France from London. Soon after the American, British and Canadian military invasion on the Normandy Beaches on June 6, 1944, de Gaulle entered Paris to head the new government of the Fourth Republic.

The postwar years deeply changed French society: consumerism was born, the service sector rapidly expanded, and high-tech national projects were successfully launched (Concorde, TGV...). Meanwhile, in the 50's and 60's, France had difficulty in coping with the claim to independence of its African and Asian colonies and with the liberalization of its society, leading to wars in Algeria, Indochina (Vietnam) and the violent student revolts of 1968.

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