Introduction to history of France
It is located in the western part of the European continent, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and is the third largest country in Europe. In 987, the Frankish Kingdom fell and the first nation was formed with the founding of the Capetian Dynasty. It went through repeated periods of absolute monarchy, imperial rule, and republican government until it reached today after the establishment of the republican government in 1871. The national flag consists of a tricolor flag of blue, white, and red, symbolizing freedom, equality, and fraternity, respectively. It is one of the countries that has played the most important role in Western Europe, both historically and culturally. It is also a leading agricultural producer in Europe.
The official name is the French Republic (la République française). It borders Italy, Switzerland, and Germany to the east, Luxembourg and Belgium to the northeast, faces Britain across the English Channel to the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea and Spain to the south. In addition to the hexagon-shaped mainland (métropole), French overseas territories include overseas territories (départements d’outre-mer et régions d’outre-mer, DOM-ROM), overseas autonomous regions (collectivités d’outre-mer, COM), and special autonomy. It is divided into regions (collectivité sui generis). Overseas territories include Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea of Central America, Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean in southeastern Africa, Mayotte Island in the Mozambique Strait in eastern Africa, and French Guiana in northeastern South America. The overseas autonomous regions include Saint-Pierre-Miquelon, Wallis-et-Futuna, French Polynesia, Saint-Barthélemy, and Saint-Martin. and New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie) is a special autonomous region. Central Africa, Congo, Gabon, Senegal, and Chad constitute the French community. The administrative district consists of 18 regions at the state level, including 5 overseas territories, 101 departments under each state, and communes, which are local administrative units referring to large cities and small towns.
Beginning of history
Beginning in 58 BC, Caesar’s Roman army began to conquer the Gallic region, and despite the rebellion of the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix in 52 BC, Gaul was Romanized and the Gallo-Roman culture was born. From around 150, Christianity spread widely in the south, and there was persecution in Lyon. In the mid-3rd century, the Franks, one of the Germanic tribes, began to invade Gaul. In the 5th century, various tribes, including the Vandal, Suebi, and Alan, immigrated, the Visigoths established a kingdom in Toulouse, and the Burgundians also advanced into the Rhone and Saone river basins from Alsace. In 427, the Frankish Sali tribe invaded the northeast and increased their power as allies of Rome.
The allied forces of Rome and Germany repulsed the invasion of Attila, King of the Huns, in 451 (Battle of Catalaunum), but Western Rome was soon destroyed. In 481, Clovis of the Sali tribe established the Frankish kingdom of the Merovingian dynasty, defeated Siagryus, the last ruler of Gaul under the Roman regime, and Athanasius, a Christian recognized as orthodox after escaping Roman rule. He converted to Christianity (Athanasius) and joined hands with the Roman Church. However, after his death, the kingdom was divided due to the split inheritance system, and from the end of the 7th century, incompetent kings emerged one after another, and real power passed into the hands of the Major Domus (the highest court position in the Western Middle Ages).
The position of palace became a monopoly of the Pippin family, and it was under Carl Martell that he defeated the Muslim army invading Spain at the Battle of Tours-Poitier (732), thereby establishing the Islamic power in Europe. The invasion was thwarted. His son, Pippin III, took the throne in a coup in 751, founding the Carolingian dynasty. Unlike the Merovingian dynasty, which depended on ancient commerce, the Carolingian dynasty was based on land and agricultural economy, forming the basis of the closed natural economic society of the Middle Ages.
Pepin’s son, Charlemagne, established a great empire, partnered with the Pope, and greatly improved culture. His era was called the ‘Carolingian Renaissance.’ In 843, Charlemagne’s three grandsons signed the Treaty of Verdun, dividing the country into three kingdoms. King Ludwig took the East Frankish kingdom, which later became Germany, and Charles II took the West Frankish kingdom, including the Rhone and Saone rivers. did. Lothar gets the central part of the empire. Due to this treaty, Charles the Great’s great empire began to disintegrate. The division of these three regions became the basis of current Italy, Germany, and France, of which West Frankish (Frank Occidentalis), occupied by Charles II, is the basis of current France.
Birth of france
From the 9th century, Norman invasions became more active, and at one time, Paris fell into a dangerous situation. Around this time, feudal decentralism by local nobles gradually advanced, leading to the decline of the Carolingian dynasty, and Euod the Parisbaek (reigned 888-898) ascended the throne in place of Charles III, establishing the Robert dynasty (Eud). (derived from the name of his father, Robert Le Paul) was established. Until the end of the 10th century, Roberto and the Carolingian dynasty continued to fight over control of Northern France. Hugh Capet, the grandson of Eudes’s brother, finally founded the Capet Dynasty in 987 and became king of France. Here, the Frankish Kingdom falls and the history of France begins.
The only area that the kings of the early Capetian Dynasty actually ruled was the area around Paris. In each place, nobles competed for power and even opposed the royal authority. Because of this, a feudal society was established in France, and at the same time, Christianity developed dramatically. The monastic reform movement (10th to 11th centuries) that started in Cluny expanded throughout France, and with the Council of Clermont (1095), a crusade was formed, and Gothic churches, following Romanesque ones, took on a solemn appearance. The First Crusade (1096-99), led mainly by French princes and knights, established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Second Crusade (1147-49) was under Louis VII, and the Third Crusade (1189-92) was under Philip II. Three (reigned 1180-1223) participated. Philip II also fought against the Plantagenet family in England and recovered Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Poitou from King John.
Philip II’s grandson, Louis IX, was called Saint Louis (reigned 1226-70). His policy was to perfect ‘royal authority under the feudal system’ based on ‘peace by law’ and to enforce the Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of Amiens. Through his mediation, he resolved the age-old dispute between Britain and France, while also working on legal administration and cultural development, making Paris the center of Western European culture. He organized the 7th (1248-54) and 8th (1270) crusades, but died in the Tunisian camp during the expedition.
The heyday of the Cape Dynasty was during the reign of Philip IV (reigned 1285-1314). He started a dispute with Pope Boniface VIII, forced the Pope into submission and moved the Holy See to Avignon, placing it under his control. This is the so-called ‘Pope’s Captivity in Avignon’ (1309-77). At that time, Philip IV convened representatives of monks, nobles, and commoners and held the ‘Estate of Estates’ to gain support from his subjects. . With the death of Charles IV in 1328, the direct Capetian dynasty was cut off, and Philip IV’s nephew, Philip VI of Valois, founded the Valois dynasty. However, the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) began when King Edward III of England (son of Philip IV’s daughter Isabella and Edward II) invaded France, claiming the right to succession to the throne.
Revolutionary era
In 1789, various feudal privileges were abolished and the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’ was announced. The king’s family, who were taken to Paris, attempted to flee abroad, but failed (Barennes flight incident), further losing the public’s trust. The Constitutional Assembly promulgated the Constitution in September 1791, and the Legislative Assembly was established. However, as the war against Austria against the revolution began at the same time as the establishment of the Girondist government in 1792, the Tuileries Palace was stormed on August 10, and the king’s family was imprisoned in Temple Prison. The National Convention abolished the ‘Constitution of 1791’ and royal authority and declared a republic.
In the National Assembly, the Girondist Party and the Jacobin Party were at odds, but the revolutionary army defeated the Allied forces in various places. In 1793, the king was executed by guillotine on charges of attempting a counterrevolution, the Girondists were expelled from the National Assembly, and Robespierre’s Committee of Public Safety assumed full power. This was the beginning of the famous Reign of Terror, in which opponents including the queen, Danton, and Hébert were executed one after another. However, when Robespierre fell from power due to the Thermidor reaction in July 1794, the Jacobin Club was closed, and the following year, a government based on the propertied class and landed farmers was established. Directoire was established.
Napoleon Bonaparte, who gained fame for his victory on the Italian front (1796-97), suddenly returned home from an expedition to Egypt in 1799 when a crisis arose in the Directory, and staged the ‘Coup of the 18th of Brumaire’ in November 1799. He rose up and organized the Consulate government (November 1799 to May 1804). Napoleon, who became First Consul, enacted a constitution for the 8th year of the Republican calendar and implemented financial and administrative reforms. Napoleon became president for life in 1802, promulgated the ‘Napoleonic Code’ in March 1804, and ascended the throne as emperor in May.
The First Empire (1804-14) built a great empire based on military power. Napoleon’s invasion of the British mainland was thwarted by his defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), but he won the battles of Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, and Auershitep, defeating Austria and Prussia to form the Rhine Confederation (1806-13). After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, he installed his relatives as kings of various regions. Britain and Austria formed the Grand Alliance against France seven times. Napoleon countered this with the Continental Blockade (1806), but was at a disadvantage in the Spanish Anti-French War (1808-14), the defeat in the Russian Expedition (1812), and the German War of Liberation (1813). In addition, in 1814, when the Allied forces entered Paris, he was kicked out of his position as emperor and exiled to the island of Elba.
Napoleon escaped Elba Island in February 1815 after the restoration of Louis European empires held the Congress of Vienna and established Metternich’s conservatism, and in France, the Bourbon dynasty was revived based on the orthodoxy advocated by Talleyrand, with Louis Reigns 24 to 30) ascended to the throne one after another. In the early days of the Restoration Period (15-30), extreme royalists attempted to revive the old system, but they were unable to overthrow the already established bourgeois system, and moderates such as Richelieu and DeCaz The constitutional monarchy progressed, led by the royal party (doctorinaire). However, when Artois Baek, the leader of the radical royalists, inherited the throne as Charles
The ‘July Revolution’ took place in 1830 with the ‘July Edict’ attempting to control the press. July 27-29 was called the ‘Three Days of Glory,’ and the king fled to England and Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, ascended the throne. The impact of the revolution was very great, and the spirit of liberalism and nationalism spread widely throughout many European countries. Like the Restoration, the July Monarchy (1830-48) was a ‘limited election monarchy.’ At that time, it was the advanced stage of the Industrial Revolution, and the power of the commercial and financial bourgeoisie grew. In the field of art, romanticism reached its heyday, and in the world of thought, utopian socialism appeared.
Politically, bankers and the shareholder bourgeoisie occupied a dominant position, and the opposing citizen class came to demand universal suffrage and improvements in working conditions. Finally, in 1848, the Gizo cabinet stepped down and the February Revolution broke out. As a result, Louis Philippe fled to England, the Second Republic was established, and the Vienna regime collapsed. As a result, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected president with the support of the peasants, following a provisional government that included the poet Lamartine and socialist theorist Louis Blanc.