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Many flint tools later, the Celtic Gauls arrived between 1500 and 500 BC. After several centuries of conflict between the Gauls and Rome, Julius Caesar took control of the territory in 52 BC, and by the 2nd century AD the region had been partly Christianised. The area remained under Roman rule until the 5th century, when the Franks (thus `France') and other Germanic groups overran the country.
The Middle Ages were marked by a succession of power struggles between the warring Frankish dynasties. Charlemagne, who ruled from 768 to 814, stopped the rot by significantly extending the boundaries of his kingdom, claiming the crown of Holy Roman Emperor in 800. His reign was followed by the Capetian Dynasty, a time of prosperity and scholarly revivalism in France despite the country's continued battles with England over feudal rights. During this period, the country was also embroiled in the Crusades, a holy war instigated by the Church to quell non-Christians.
The Capetian Dynasty had waned by the early 15th century as France continued to labour against England in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). National morale was significantly boosted by a 17-year-old stripling known as Jeanne d'Arc who surfaced in 1429 and rallied the French troops to defeat the English at Orléans. The unfortunate Joan was soon captured, turned over to the English and convicted of heresy. She was later burned at the stake in Rouen. The English were expelled from all of French territory (excepting Calais) in 1453.
Religious and political persecution, culminating in the Wars of Religion (1562-98), continued to threaten France's stability during the 16th century. In 1572, some 3000 Protestant Huguenots were slaughtered at the Saint Bartholemew's Day Massacre in Paris. The Huguenots were later guaranteed religious, civil and political rights as France slowly clawed its way out of war. By the early 17th century the country was held in thrall by the notorious Cardinal Richelieu, who moved to establish an absolute monarchy and increase French power in Europe.
Louis XIV (the Sun King) ascended the throne in 1643 at the age of five and ruled until 1715. Throughout his long reign, he hounded the Protestant minority (later revoking their rights), quashed the feuding aristocracy and created the first centralised French state. But as the 18th century progressed, the old order (ancien régime) was rendered dangerously out of synch with the social and economic needs of the country. The regime was further weakened by the anti-Establishment and anticlerical ideas of the Enlightenment. Perhaps more telling was France's involvement in the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and the American War of Independence (1776-83), both financially ruinous for the monarchy. The latter also provided ample ammunition for opponents of French absolutism.
By the late 1780s, the peasants, the urban poor, the bougeoisie, the nobles, the upper aristocracy, reformists and reactionaries all had strong (if contradictory) reasons for being fed up with Louis XVI and his snobbish queen, Marie-Antoinette. When the king tried to neutralise the power of reform-minded economists, the urban masses took to the streets. On 14 July 1789, a Parisian mob attacked the Invalides, where they seized weapons, and then stormed the Bastille Prison, the ultimate symbol of the despotism of the ancien régime. At first, the Revolution was in the hands of relative moderates but from this milieu emerged the radical Jacobins, led by Robespierre, Danton and Marat. They established the First Republic in 1792, holding virtual dictatorial control over the country during the Reign of Terror (1793-4) which saw mass executions, religious freedoms curtailed, and churches closed. In the end the Revolution turned on its own and many of its leaders, including Robespierre and Danton, were pruned by Madame la Guillotine.
From amidst the chaos emerged the mercurial Napoleon Bonaparte. Buoyed by a series of military victories abroad, Napoleon assumed domestic power in 1799. So began a seemingly endless series of wars in which France came to control most of Europe. Ultimately, it was a disastrous campaign against Russia in 1812 which led to Bony's downfall and banishment to the tiny Mediterranean island of Elba. His escape and re-installation as Emperor lasted a mere hundred days before his forces were defeated by the English at Waterloo. The English exiled him to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821. Despite reactionary tendencies, Napoleon is remembered as a great hero not so much for his military gusto but for his preservation of the bulk of changes wrought by the Revolution and the promulgation of the Code Civil (or Napoleonic Code) which forms the basis of the French legal system to this day.
France during the 19th century was characterised by inept government, quixotic wars, and the founding of the Third Republic (1870), which finally established the country in a republican tradition. France prospered during this period but was scandalised by the Dreyfus Affair. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, was framed and convicted in 1894 of betraying military secrets to Germany. Despite bitter opposition from the army command and Catholic groups defending the army's honour, the case was reopened when significant evidence of Dreyfus' innocence came to light. By the time Dreyfus was vindicated in 1906, the army and the Catholic Church had already been greatly discredited, leading to a marked legal separation of church and state in 1905. A year earlier the Entente Cordiale ended colonial rivalry between France and Britain in Africa, beginning a period of cooperation that has, more or less, continued to this day.
France's involvement in WWI came at high cost: over a millions troops were killed, large parts of the country were devastated, industrial production dropped, and the value of the franc was seriously undermined. The country fared little better during WWII when it capitulated to Germany and the lackey Vichy government was installed. General Charles de Gaulle, France's under-secretary of war, fled to London where he set up a government-in-exile and established an underground resistance dedicated to continuing the fight against Germany. France was eventually liberated by Allied forces in mid-1944.
De Gaulle returned to Paris and set up a provisional government, but he resigned as president in 1946 before the adoption of the Fourth Republic. Emboldened by massive American aid, the French re-asserted colonial control in Indochina but their forces were defeated by Ho Chi Minh's cadres at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. France also tried to suppress Algerian independence, which spelt the demise of the Fourth Republic, ushering in the Fifth Republic and the return of De Gaulle to power in 1958. He negotiated an end to the war in Algeria four years later; in the meantime, almost all of the other French colonies and protectorates in Africa had demanded and achieved independence.
In May 1968 student protesters and striking workers, surprised themselves and the world at large by bringing the country to a standstill. Just as anarchy seemed about to engulf France, De Gaulle went on national television and told everybody to calm down, go home and leave the running of the country to him. And they did. The government then announced a raft of important changes, including a reform of the higher education system, which was decentralised. De Gaulle resigned as president the following year.
France's president from 1981 to 1995 was the resilient François Mitterand (who died in January 1996). Mitterand's moderate socialism was tempered by forced cohabitation with a lower house dominated by right wing parties, including the Rassemblement pour la Republique (RPR; Rally for the Republic) under Prime Minister Jacques Chirac. Chirac was elected president in May 1995, heading off the demoralised socialists and Jean-Marie Le Pen's anti-immigrant Front National (FN) (who gained an alarming 20% of the first round of votes). A series of bombings in Paris and Lyon from July 1995 by terrorists protesting French support of the Algerian government have contributed to anti-foreigner sentiment and lent a false legitimacy to the FN's odious racist stance.
Once president, Chirac initially received high marks for his stance on the European Union (EU), which he strongly endorses, and the war in former Yugoslavia. But the president's decision to conduct nuclear tests on the Polynesian island of Mururoa and a nearby atoll in late 1995 was met with outrage both in France and abroad. The tests, which Chirac claims were `the final ones', have had adverse effects on France's diplomatic relations with countries of the Pacific rim. France's Pacific and Caribbean colonies have beefed up their rumblings on the independence drum, with Tahiti a recent site of particular agitation. On the home front, Chirac's moves to restrict welfare payments led to the largest protests since 1968. For three weeks in late 1995 Paris was crippled by public sector strikes, leaving the economy battered and increasing the uncertainty about France's likelihood of qualifying for scheduled European economic and monetary union.
Probably suffering from a belief he was Superman, Chirac called a snap election early in 1997, under the pretence of seeking a mandate for the final push towards meeting economic monetary union (EMU) controls. However, he did not count on the fickleness of the French people and his RPR party were ousted from government by an unlikely alliance between the Socialists, Communists and Greens. Now Chirac, who remains as president, is forced to do the governmental tango with Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. The EMU is hanging in the balance.
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