French History

Europe begun to be occupied from about 200,000 BC by the Homo sapiens, but have died 30,000 years ago supposedly during a period of cold weather. Around 2500 B.C the Celts came from Central Europe and settled in Gaul. The Celts were iron workers and dominated Gaul until 125 B.C., when the Roman Empire began its reign in southern France. Greeks and Phoenicians established settlements along the Mediterranean, most notably at Marseille. Julius Caesar conquered part of Gaul in 57–52 B.C., and it remained Roman until Franks invaded in the 5th century A.D.

Gaul was divided in seven provinces. The Romans were afraid about populations become in local identities and begun to displace them so they avoided a threat to the Roman integrity. That's why many Celts were moved and enslaved out of Gaul. Many changes have occured during a cultural evolution under the Roman Empire, one of them was the change of the Gaulish language by Vulgar Latin, the similarities between one language and the other favoured the transition. Gaul was under the Romans control for centuries.

In 486, Clovis I, leader of the Salian Franks, defeated Syagrius at Soissons and then united most of northern and central Gaul under his rule. Christianity in France received a boost when in 496, Clovis adopted the Roman Catholic form of Christianity. In some ways Clovis' reign brought stability and unity to France, but in some other ways it contributed to fragmentation, because Clovis divided up the territory as gifts and rewards.

Charles Martel was the first leader of the Carolingian dynasty and is the responsible of the expansion of the Frankish kingdom and also stopped the Muslim advance. Charlemagne not only was an able military leader, but he was also a great supporter of education and the arts. During Charlemagne's period there was a Carolingian renaissance but shortly after his death the kingdom was divided. Hugh Capet was elected to the throne of France, this way the Carolingian dynasty ended and the Capetian Dynasty begun. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy invaded England and was crowned as the English king on Christmas Day, 1066. With the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was married before with king Louis VII of France and the get married with Henry II of England, there was yielded most of the western part of France to the British Wreath. 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.

France become a centralized state where was established an absolute monarchy having the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings and the explicit support of the established Church. The long Italian Wars (1494-1559) marked the beginning of early modern France. Once Francis I was captured at Pavia the French monarchy had to look for allies and founded one in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Admiral Barbarossa captured Nice on 5 August 1543 and handed it down to Francis I. During the 16th century, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs were the dominant power in Europe, they controlled some other duchies and kingdoms across Europe. Despite all of this, French became the preferred language of Europe's aristocracy.