A TIMELINE OF FRANCE
By Tim Lambert
6,000 BC Farming begins in France
c. 4,500 BC Menhirs (standing stones are erected in France)
2,000 BC Bronze is used in France
900 BC Celtic people migrate to France
600 BC The Greeks found Marseilles
121 BC The Romans conquer Provence
58 BC Julius Caesar begins to conquer the rest of France (Gaul)
52 BC Vercingetorix leads a rebellion against the Romans but is defeated
48 AD Gauls are allowed to become Roman senators
250 AD St Denis is beheaded
406 Germanic tribes invade France
481-511 Clovis rules the Franks
507 Clovis makes Paris his capital
732 Charles Martel wins the battle of Tours
751 Pepin the Short becomes king
800 Charlemagne is crowned emperor
838-877 Charles the Bald is king
911 Charles the Simple grants Normandy to the Viking chief, Rollo
987 Hugh Capet becomes king of France
1150 Paris University is founded
1206 The French king takes Normandy, Maine, Anjou and Touraine from the English
1225-1270 Louis IX rules France
1337 The Hundred Years War begins
1340 The English win the battle of Sluys
1346 The English win the battle of Crecy
1348 The Black Death reaches France
1356 The English win the battle of Poitiers
1358 French peasants rebel but are defeated
1396 Charles VI becomes insane
1415 The English win the battle of Agincourt
1429 The French win the battle of Orleans
1453 The English are driven out of France apart from Calais
1482 Provence is absorbed into France
1523 The first Protestants are burned in France
1539 The French is made the language of official documents instead of Latin
1562-1598 France is torn by a series of religious wars
1610 King Henry IV is assassinated
1624 Cardinal Richlieu becomes principal minister of France
1627 La Rochelle rebels
1628 La Rochelle surrenders
1642 Cardinal Richlieu dies
1635 France enters the Thirty Years War
1643 Louis XIV becomes king of France
1648-1652 A series of uprisings called the Fronde take place in France
1661 An academy of dance is founded
1666 An academy of sciences is founded
1682 Louis XIV moves to a new palace at Versailles
1685 Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, which gave Protestants toleration
1693-94 France suffers famine
1707-1710 Famine strikes again
1715 Louis XIV dies
1720 onwards Trade in France grows rapidly. The middle class increase in numbers and wealth.
1763 After the Seven Years War France loses Canada and India
1778 France goes to war with Britain to support the American colonies who are rebelling
1788 The king calls the Estates-General
5 May 1789 The Estates-General meets
20 May 1789 Members take the tennis court oath
14 July 1789 The Bastille falls
4 August 1789 The feudal privileges of the nobility are abolished
26 August 1789 The declaration of the rights of man.
6 October 1789 The king moves from Versailles to Paris
June 1791 The king attempts to flee from France
September 1791 A new constitution is introduced
April 1792 France goes to war with Austria
May 1792 France goes to war with Prussia
September 1792 A new government, the National Convention meets
January 1793 The king is beheaded
February 1793 Conscription is introduced
March 1793 The Vendee rises in revolt
April 1793 The Committee for Public Safety is formed
September 1793 The Great Terror begins. Thousands are executed over the next 9 months.
October 1793 Marie Antoinette is beheaded
December 1793 Captain Napoleon Bonaparte recaptures Toulon from the British
June 1794 The French defeat the Austrians at Fleurus
29 July 1794 Robespierre is arrested
30 July 1794 Robespierre is executed
August 1794 A new constitution is drawn up
1795 Napoleon gives the Paris mob a 'whiff of grapeshot'
1799 Napoleon becomes first consul
1804 Napoleon becomes Emperor of France
1807 Napoleon is at his peak
1813 Napoleon is defeated at the battle of Leipzig
1815 Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo
1820 The Duck de Berry is assassinated
1824 Charles X becomes king
1830 A revolution takes place. Louis Philippe becomes king.
1848 Another revolution takes place and Louis Philippe abdicates. France becomes a republic. In December Louis Napoleon is elected president.
1851 Louis Napoleon stages a coup. He becomes Napoleon III
1854-56 France fights Russia
1859 France fights Austria
1867 Napoleon makes his regime more liberal
1870 France is defeated by Prussia and Napoleon is forced to abdicate
1871 Paris rebels but the army crushes the revolt.
1875 The Third Republic is created
1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus is convicted to treason
1906 Dreyfus is exonerated
1918 The First World War leaves France exhausted
1932 The Depression begins to affect France
1936 The left-wing Popular Front government is formed
1940 France surrenders to Germany
1944 France is liberated
1947 A new constitution is drawn up
1957 France helps to found the EU
1958 De Gaulle takes power. He draws up a new constitution.
1968 Rioting across France
1969 De Gaulle resigns
1981 Francois Mattered becomes president
1995 Jacques Chirac becomes president
1999 France joins the Euro
2005 Riots take place in France