France History

France - national flag

France's tricolor was created during the French Revolution in 1789 and first hoisted in 1794. The model is said to be the Dutch flag, but the flag can also be seen as a combination of Paris' coat of arms, red and blue, with the white color of the bourbons.. The colors stand for "Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood". The tricolor has been a model for a number of national flags.

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France - prehistory

From the Grotte du Vallonet near Nice derives the oldest known traces of people in Europe; a few rough tools have been excavated here, almost 1 million. years old. For approximately ¹/₂ million. years ago, the acheuléen culture with its characteristic hand wedges spread across Europe. The early, coarse hand wedges have been found at Terra Amata in Nice, where Europe's oldest huts with fireplace and oval floor plan have been excavated, approximately 14 m × 5 m and approximately 400,000 years old. At the entrance to the cave Grotte du Lazaret near Nice are traces of a 150,000-year-old hut. From here are known the oldest sleeping places, which were seaweed mattresses covered with leather blankets. From the cave Montmaurin in the south of France originates a lower jaw from Homo erectusor archaic Homo sapiens, approximately 400,000 years old, which is France's oldest human find. Several skeletal parts of pre-sapiens humans are known from the Arago Cave in the Pyrenees, and they are more than 250,000 years old. Between 100,000 and 35,000 years ago, the moustérien culture associated with Neanderthal man flourished. Several Neanderthal funerals are known, including in the cave La Ferrassie in the Dordogne, which contained eight individuals in their respective tombs with a small stone mound above. For approximately 35,000 years ago, the younger Paleolithic era began in France with the cultures of Aurignacia, Solutréen and Magdalénia, which was associated with modern man, the Cro-Magnon man. The younger Paleolithic is characterized by a number of technical advances, including a fine splitting technique, bone-thanking tools, and jewelry. From that period, a rich art is known in the form of carved objects found in settlements, as well as the well-known paintings and engravings of the animal world in caves.

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In the Mesolithic period, approximately 9300-5000 BC, lived a hunter-gatherer population whose settlements are found along the rivers, by inland lakes and by the coasts. On the islands of Theviec and Hoëdic off Brittany, burial sites are known from approximately 6000 BC Agriculture was introduced in the south of France around 5000 BC. at the same time as the use of earthenware, the so-called impression ceramics.

In central and northern France, the first peasant villages emerged in the first half of 4000 BC. There are known up to 45 m long houses arranged in parallel rows. They belong to the ribbon ceramic culture, which is considered to reflect an immigration from the east. Quickly, local Neolithic cultural groups developed, and megalithic tombs began to be erected. From Brittany are known the oldest long mounds and megalithic tombs in Europe; Among other things, the Barnenez long mound near Morlaix with stone-built chambers can be dated to 4000-tfKr., and during 3000-tfKr. developed the megalithic tombs of Brittany; in the second half of the millennium, giant tombs like Gavrinis were built with an exquisite decoration carved on the stones. The building block rows at Carnac and the giant building block, which was recycled in the megalithic tombs, also belongs to this time. From around 3000 BC. known for mining sites, exchange of stone axes and long-distance trade in jade from northern Italy. Megalithic tombs were built all over France; especially in the south are also known rock tombs.

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In the early Bronze Age, approximately 2000 BC, there was in Brittany a culture with rich tombs, a parallel to the English Wessex culture. The entire Bronze Age is characterized by regional differences. Especially in eastern France, moats with weapons and jewelry were common 1500-1200 BC, after which they went over to urn graves in larger burial sites. The Urnemarks culture between 1200 and 700 BC, which is characterized by many fortifications, is rich in bronze finds, especially dismantled as depots. A full body armor in bronze from Marmesse in the East of France shows how the warrior aristocracy behaved.

From the beginning of the Iron Age in the Halstatt culture (approximately 750-450 BC), Celtic princes with very rich tombs are known, The Vixgrave near Châtillon-sur-Seine in eastern France with excellent Greek imported objects brought up via the Rhône from the Greek colony of Massalia (now Marseille). From the early part of the La Tène period (approximately 500 BC), rich Celtic princely tombs with tanks have been found in northern France. In the last centuries before the birth of Christ, Gallic tribes gathered around heavily fortified cities, oppida, with artisanal neighborhoods where trade flourished and where coins were minted. Shrines were located in or near these cities. The development of oppida was interrupted by Roman expansion, first with the conquest of southern France in 121-118 BC, later with Caesar's Gallic Wars 58-51 BC. and the final conquest.

France - history

With Caesar's conquest of the area in 51 BC. all of later France became part of the Roman Empire, and an influence of Roman culture began. The central city became Lugdunum (now Lyon). For developments in the area under Roman rule, see Gaul.

During the 400-h. the Romans lost control of Gaul. In 418, they concluded an agreement with the Goths, who were allowed to settle within the borders of the Roman Empire in the province of Aquitaine. In 475, the Goth king Euric recognized his kingdom, which included all of western Gaul south of the Loire, as an independent state, and the following year he incorporated Provence into his kingdom. The area east of the Goths was dominated by the Burgundians, who had lived here since 442 with Lyon as their capital. North of Lyon there is greater uncertainty about the distribution of power, but in each case refugees from Britain ruled Brittany, Frankish tribes ruled the country around the Lower Rhine, and to the east lived the Alemanni. In addition, there were certain Roman enclaves under the leadership of Syagrius.

Merovingian period (approximately 450-751)

The following period was marked by the violent expansion of the Franks in Gaul, led by Chlodovech. He belonged to the Merovingian family, who came to hold the throne until 751. He succeeded in becoming king of all Franks as well as eliminating Syagrius and the Alemanni. He defeated the Visigoths at the Battle of Vouillé in 507 and was then able to incorporate their lands into the Frankish Empire, with the exception of Septimania, which they retained, and Provence, which the Goth king of Italy, Theoderic the Great, annexed. The Franks thus made up only a small part of the population, but Chlodovech understood to attach to the country's indigenous population, the Gallo-Romans, to him, by accepting their faith, being baptized by a Catholic bishop, and giving a law to the whole kingdom,Lex Salica. Clodovech is therefore considered the creator of the Frankish Empire, not France, and it is still debated whether the Gallo-Romans or the Franks are the ancestors of the French.

When Chlodovech died in 511, the kingdom was divided between his four sons. The idea of ​​the unity of the Frankish kingdom was maintained, however, as the longest-lived of them finally in 558 took over total power. In 534 Burgundy was conquered, and in 536 Provence was ceded to the Franks. Thus, these had finally gained access to the Mediterranean, and Marseille came to play a significant role in the development of trade. During the same period, expansion into present-day Germany began, and the Frankish Empire had become a Western European superpower.

However, the empire was again divided in 561, and rivalry between the kings weakened the power of the Franks. At the end of the 500-t. there was actually a threefold division of the empire: Austrasia, which included the northeastern part of Gaul, as well as parts of present-day Germany, Neustria, which formed the northern and western part, and Burgundy, which was the southeastern part. Admittedly, the three kingdoms were at times united in different combinations, but as the interests of the great men in the parts of the kingdom were different, the development also became different; the Merovingians were gradually reduced to shadow kings. The actual management of the parts of the kingdom lay with the majores domus ('the house masters '), and only after the Battle of Tertry in 687 couldPippin II, who had been major domus in Austrasia from 680, again united the Frankish Empire under his leadership. He belonged to the Carolingians, as they were later called, and that family dominated the Frankish Empire for the next 300 years, first as majores domus and later as kings and emperors.

His successor, Karl Martel, succeeded in seizing power in the three parts of the kingdom. He later in history became best known for in the Battle of Poitiers in 732 having halted the expansion of the Arabs to the north from Spain, where they had subjugated the Goths in 711.

The Carolingian era

France under Charlemagne.

John Fowlie.

License: Limited use

Karl Martel's son Pippin III the Little deposed in 751 the Merovingian king and took over the office himself.

During the reign of Charlemagne 768-814, the Frankish Empire experienced its culmination. In the long term, Karl carried out a reorganization of the administration so that it was based on a strong central government, which in principle was to regulate all matters in the kingdom. Royal envoys, missi dominici, were to check that the local administration under counts and bishops complied with the royal laws or capitulars. He tried to make agriculture more efficient by giving directions to the operation of his land holdings. He linked a number of scholars of the time to his court in Aachen, and through their studies of the writers, artists and architects of the past, the ideals of antiquity were revived (see Carolingian Renaissance). He also arranged the affairs of the church after the decay of the previous centuries. In the context of foreign policy, he waged a series of bloody wars against the Saxons in 772-804, which were eventually defeated and forcibly baptized. In Central Europe, he again brought to justice the people who had liberated themselves under the Merovingians, and he created a buffer zone in northern Spain against the Arabs. He also became involved in conditions in Italy, 774 defeating the Lombards and incorporating northern Italy into his empire, and he maintained his father, Pippins, donation to the Roman bishop of Patrimonium Petri('Peter's inheritance'), which became one of the preconditions for the medieval papacy. The culmination of Charles' formal position of power took place on Christmas Day 800 in Rome, when the pope crowned him emperor, but the political game behind it seems so speculated that it is not clear today which of the two was the initiator.

It was not until the Treaty of Aachen in 812 that the Byzantine Empire recognized Charles' new dignity. Charles the Great thus came to occupy a strong position of territorial power, and it is therefore natural that he is involved in the past of both France and Germany as a precondition for their national histories.

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