By Tim Lambert
Ancient France
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
leads a rebellion against the Romans but is defeated
48 AD
Gauls are allowed to become Roman senators
250 AD
St Denis is beheaded
Medieval France
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
1204
The French king takes Normandy from the English
1225-1270
Louis IX rules France
1337
The Hundred Years War begins between England and France
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
Renaissance France
1523
Jean Valliere becomes the first Protestant martyr in France
1539
French is made the language of official documents instead of Latin
1562-1598
France is torn by a series of religious wars
1572
Thousands of French Protestants are murdered in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
1610
King Henry IV is assassinated
1624
Cardinal Richelieu becomes principal minister of France
1627
La Rochelle rebels
1628
La Rochelle surrenders
1642
Cardinal Richelieu 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 onward
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
The French Revolution
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 in France
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 in France
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
28 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 of France
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 Duc de Berry is assassinated
1824
Charles X becomes king
1830
A revolution takes place. Louis Philippe becomes king of France.
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
Modern France
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 in France. He draws up a new constitution.
1968
Rioting takes place across France
1969
De Gaulle resigns
1981
Francois Mitterand becomes president of France
1995
Jacques Chirac becomes president
1999
France joins the Euro
