Events or men who wrote the History of France:
- Charlemagne invents school, Louis XIV the Sun-King, the Bastille in 1789, Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, La liberté guidant le peuple (painting from Delacroix), the Poilus during World War I and the General De Gaulle and his Appel from London, in June of 1940
- Paris was founded towards the end of the Third Century BC, by a tribe of Celtic Gauls known as the Parisii. Many centuries of conflict between the Gauls and the Romans then followed, ending only in 52 BC when the land was finally conquered by the Roman General Julius Caesar. Gaul - or the area which we now call France - was to remain part of the Roman Empire for over 500 years.
- The 2nd Century AD saw the introduction of Christianity, and by the 5 Century AD the Romans had been conquered by the Franks. This resulted in the formation of the kingdom Gaul under the Frankish King, Clovis I, with Paris as its capital. Throughout the years of the Middle Ages which followed, Frankish dynasties fought with one another, with Charlemagne extending the boundaries of his kingdom to become Holy Roman Emperor in 800AD.
France was a fervent participant of the Crusades - holy wars instigated by the Christians against non-Christian populations. Throughout the late Middle Ages France was at war with England, which subsequently led to the Hundred Years War (1337 to 1453). In 1429, the 17-year-old Joan of Arc rallied the French soldiers to defeat the English at the Battle of Orleans. She was later captured and burnt at the stake by the English, who were, in turn, finally expelled from France in 1453. By the middle of the 16th Century, France was yet again plunged into war - this time a civil war of religion between Protestants and Catholics, which was to last thirty years. - France continued to prosper under its kings, but the wars it was constantly fighting with neighbouring countries were expensive, and resentment and anger grew for the Monarchy. It lead to the French Revolution in 1789, which resulted in the execution of King Louis XVI and the emergence of France as a republic
- The early 1800's saw the succession of the Emperor Napoleon. France undertook several invasions, although the lands gained were later relinquished as the French army suffered defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
- France suffered heavily during the First World War: over a million troops were killed, industrial production dropped, and large areas of the country were devastated. France became German-occupied during the Second World War, until it was liberated by Allied Forces in 1944. Each town and village in France now has a monument to honour their residents and those who were killed fighting for their country.
- Modern French politics have been characterised by a left wing/right wing division, which has, more recently, become increasingly blurred.
- In France, the State and the Church are two completely separate institutions, meaning that aspects of State or Government control have no religious content - for example, religion is not taught in State-run schools
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