c. 500bce Celts settle throughout Gaul
c. 200bce–150ce Roman Warm Period
58–51bce Conquest by Julius Caesar.
52bce Julius Caesar defeats the Gauls under Vercingetorix at battle of Alésia
Late 2nd centuryce Beginning of ‘barbarian’ attacks and invasions
451 Defeat of Attila the Hun at the Catalaunian Plains
476 End of the Western Roman Empire
486 Frankish leader Clovis defeats Roman general Syagrius; Frankish expansion begins
496 Clovis baptised and anointed king of the Franks; first ruler of Merovingian dynasty (496–751)
508 Clovis chooses Paris as Frankish capital
511 Death of Clovis and subdivision of kingdom among his sons
c. 530–660 Late Antique Little Ice Age
732 Battle of Tours (or Poitiers): Charles Martel defeats Saracen army
751 Pepin III crowned first ruler of Carolingian dynasty (751–987)
771–814 Reign of Charlemagne; Carolingian cultural renaissance
800 Charlemagne crowned emperor in Rome
842 Strasbourg Oaths: French and German languages begin to diverge
843 Treaty of Verdun: tripartite division of Frankish lands
Late 8th–9th centuries Viking raids and invasions
c. 950–c. 1250 Medieval Warm Period
987 Hugh Capet made king of the West Franks; first monarch of Capetian dynasty (987–1328)
1066 Duke William of Normandy invades and becomes king of England
1095 Pope Innocent III calls for first Crusade
1159–1299 (First) Hundred Years War against England. Angevin empire extends across western and southern France
1209–29 Albigensian crusade
1214 Philip II Augustus wins significant victory at Battle of Bouvines
c. 1250 Establishment of the Sorbonne
1302 First meeting of the Estates General
1328 Death of last Capetian king, Charles IV; Philip VI founds Valois dynasty (1328–1589)
1337–1453 (Second) Hundred Years War
1338–52 Black Death
c. 1350–c. 1850 Little Ice Age
1358Jacquerie (peasant revolt) in northern France
1360 Treaty of Brétigny and English dominance of France
1394 Expulsion of Jews
1415 English victory at Battle of Agincourt
1421–36 France under English rule
1429 Siege of Orleans raised by Joan of Arc
1431 Joan of Arc burnt at the stake
1439 Estates General grants kings right to levy a national tax (thetaille) to pay for a standing army
c. 1450 Print revolution begins
1453 Battle of Castillon: end of Hundred Years War
1477 Death of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy
1492 Christopher Columbus lands in the Americas
1494 Charles VIII leads expedition into Italy; start of Italian Wars (1494–1559)
1517 Martin Luther posts 95 Theses; beginning of Reformation
1525 Battle of Pavia: King Francis I taken prisoner
c. 1530 Jean Calvin establishes Calvinist branch of Protestantism
1539 Edict of Villers-Cotterêts: French becomes language of law and administration
1559 Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis ends the Italian Wars
1561–98 Wars of Religion
1572 Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
1589 Henry of Navarre accedes to the throne as Henry IV, the first ruler of the Bourbon dynasty (1589–1792, 1814–30)
1598 Edict of Nantes: toleration for Protestants
c.1600 Beginnings of Counter-Reformation in France
1610 Assassination of Henry IV, accession of Louis XIII
1618–48 Thirty Years War
1624–42 Cardinal Richelieu chief minister of King Louis XIII
1631 Creation of theGazette, the first national newspaper
1635 Foundation of theAcadémie française
1638 Birth of Louis XIV: accedes to throne with Marie de’ Medici as regent
1642–61 Cardinal Mazarin chief minister under Louis XIII and Louis XIV
1648–52 The Fronde (civil wars)
1682 Louis XIV establishes royal court and government at Versailles
1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; introduction ofCode noir for the colonies
1701–13 War of Spanish Succession
1715 Death of Louis XIV, regency of the duke of Orleans
1723 Louis XV accedes to throne
1751–72 Publication of theEncyclopédie, the ‘Enlightenment Bible’
1756–63 Seven Years’ War
1774 Death of Louis XV, accession of Louis XVI
1778–83 French involvement in the American War of Independence
1789 Fall of Bastille, start of French Revolution; Declaration of the Rights of Man
1791 Slave revolt in Saint-Domingue
1792–1815 French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars
1792 Overthrow of the monarchy, First Republic founded
1793 Execution of Louis XVI
1793–4 The Terror
1795–9 The Directory
1798 Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign
1799Coup d’état by Napoleon, overthrow of Directory and establishment of Consulate
1804 Napoleon becomes emperor, end of First Republic; Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue) declares independence
1808–14 Spanish Peninsula War
1812 Moscow campaign
1814 Overthrow of Napoleon; Bourbon restoration under Louis XVIII
1815 Napoleon escapes; the Hundred Days, battle of Waterloo, exile; Congress of Vienna
1830 Invasion of Algeria; theTrois glorieuses revolt: end of the Bourbon regime, establishment of the July Monarchy under King Louis-Philippe
1832 Cholera epidemic
1848 Revolution, end of July Monarchy, establishment of Second Republic; abolition of slavery
1852 End of Second Republic. Louis Bonaparte becomes Emperor Napoleon III
1852–70 Urban renewal of Paris under Haussmann, Prefect of Paris
1863 Victor Hugo,Les Misérables
1870 Franco-Prussian War; loss of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany; Second Empire replaced by Third Republic
1871 The Paris Commune
1881–2 Jules Ferry’s primary education reforms
1889, 1900 Universal Expositions in Paris; Eiffel Tower erected
1894–1906 Dreyfus Affair
1905 Formal separation of church and state
1914–18 First World War
1916 Battle of Verdun
1919 Versailles peace treaties; restoration of Alsace and Lorraine
1934 Stavisky Affair
1936 Left-wing Popular Front: Matignon Agreements guarantee workers’ rights
1939–45 Second World War
1940 German Blitzkrieg; fall of France; end of Third Republic
1900–44l’État français or Vichy regime
1944 D-Day landings; liberation of Paris
1945–6 End of war; provisional government under Charles de Gaulle; establishment of Fourth Republic
1945–76 Thetrente glorieuses, record economic growth
1951 European Coal and Steel Community, precursor to the European Union
1954 Defeat at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam
1954–62 Algerian War
1957 Treaty of Rome, creation of Common Market
1958 Political and constitutional crisis over Algeria; end of Fourth Republic, foundation of Fifth with de Gaulle as President
1960 Major decolonisation agreements
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