History of France

Historical overview

Prehistory
Main article: Prehistoric France
The Neanderthals, the earliest Homo sapiens, began to occupy Europe from about 200,000 BC. but seem to have died out by about 30,000 years ago, presumably out-competed by the modern humans during a period of cold weather. The earliest modern humans — Homo sapiens sapiens — entered Europe (including France) around 50,000 years ago (the Upper Palaeolithic).
From the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, Indo-European and Proto-Celtic peoples spread across Western Europe. During the final stages of the Iron Age the La Tène culture gradually transformed into the explicitly Celtic culture of early historical times.

Gaul
Main article: Gaul
Gaul covered large parts of modern day France, Belgium and Northwest Germany. Gaul was a land inhabited by many Celtic tribes Romans referred to as Gauls who spoke the Gaulish language. On the southwestern part of the Garonne the people spoke an archaic language related to Basque, the Aquitanian language. The Celts founded cities such as Lutetia Parisiorum and Burdigala while the Aquitanians founded Tolosa.
Long before any Roman settlements, Greek navigators settled in what would become Provence. The Phoceans founded important cities such as Massalia and Nicaea which brought them in to conflict with the neighboring Celts and Ligurians. The Celts themselves were often fighting against Aquitanians and Germans while a Gaulish war band led by Brennus invaded Rome circa 300BC following the Battle of the Allia.
When he fought the Romans Hannibal Barca recruited several Gaulish mercenaries against Rome, it was this Gaulish participation that caused Provence to be annexed by the Roman Republic. Then the Consul of Gaul -Julius Caesar- conquered all of Gaul.
Despite Gaulish opposition led by Vercingetorix, the Overking of the Warriors, Gauls succumbed to Roman onslaught, the Gauls had some success at first at Gergovia yet they would be ultimately defeated at Alesia. The Romans founded cities such as Lugdunum and Narbonensis.

Roman Gaul
Main article: Roman Gaul

Vercingetorix surrenders to Julius Caesar after Alesia. Painting by Lionel-Noël Royer, 1899.
Gaul was divided into several different provinces. The Romans displaced populations in order to prevent local identities to become a threat to the Roman integrity. Thus, many Celts were displaced in Aquitania or were enslaved and moved out of Gaul. There was a strong cultural evolution in Gaul under the Roman Empire, the most obvious one being the replacement of the Gaulish language by Vulgar Latin. It has been argued the similarities between the Gaulish and Latin languages favoured the transition. Gaul remained under Roman control for centuries.
Following Nero’s suicide the Roman Empire was hit by civil unrest. The man that took Rome and installed Vespasian as Emperor, namely Marcus Antonius Primus, was born in Palladia Tolosa and Gauls became better integrated with the Empire with the passage of time. In the decade following Valerian’s capture by the Persians there was a short lived Gallic Empire established by Postumus. This loose Empire included the Iberian Peninsula and Britannia in addition to Gaul itself. Germanic tribes entered Gaul at this time; they were the Franks and the Alamanni. Emperor Aurelian recaptured Gaul in 274 at Chalons thus ending the Gallic Empire.

Gaul soldiers.
A migration of Celts appeared in the 4th century in Armorica. They were led by the legendary king Conan Meriadoc and came from Britain. They spoke the now extinct British language which evolved into the Breton, Cornish and Welsh languages. In 418 the Aquitanian province was given to the Goths in exchange for their support against the Vandals. Those Goths had previously sacked Rome in 410 and established a capital in Toulouse. The Roman Empire had difficulty responding to all the barbarian raids, and Flavius Aëtius had to use these tribes against each other in order to maintain some Roman control. He first used Huns against Burgundians and these mercenaries destroyed Worms, killed king Gunther, and pushed the Burgundians westward. The Burgundians were resettled by Aëtius near Lugdunum in 443. The Huns, united by Attila became a greater threat, and Aëtius used the Visigoths against the Huns. The conflict climaxed in 451 at the Battle of Chalons, in which the Romans and Goths defeated Attila.
The Roman Empire was on the verge of collapsing. Aquitania was definitely abandoned to the Visigoths who would soon conquer a significant part of southern Gaul as well as most of the Iberian Peninsula. The Burgundians claimed their own kingdom, and northern Gaul was practically abandoned to the Franks.

Frankish kingdoms (486-987)
Main article: Frankish Empire

The Battle of Poitiers. This battle is often considered of macro-importance in European and islamic history.
In 486,Clovis I, leader of the Salian Franks, defeated Syagrius at Soissons and subsequently united most of northern and central Gaul under his rule. Clovis then recorded a succession of victories against other Germanic tribes such as the Alamanni at Tolbiac. In 496, he adopted the Roman Catholic form of Christianity. This gave him greater legitimacy and power over his Christian subjects and granted him clerical support against the Visigoths. He defeated Alaric II at Vouillé in 507 and annexed Aquitaine, and thus Toulouse, into his Frankish kingdom. The Goths retired to Toledo in what would become Spain. Clovis made Paris his capital but his kingdom would not survive his death. The Franks treated land purely as a private possession and divided it among heirs, so four kingdoms emerged: Paris, Orleans, Soissons, and Rheims. The Merovingian dynasty eventually lost effective power to their successive mayors of the palace, the founders of what was to become the Carolingian dynasty. Muslims invaders had conquered Hispania and were threatening the Frankish kingdoms. Duke Odo the Great defeated a major invading force at Toulouse in 721 but failed to repel a raiding party in 732. The mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, defeated that raiding party at the Battle of Tours (actually the Battle of Poitiers) and earned respect and power within the Frankish Kingdom. The assumption of the crown in 751 by Pippin the Short (son of Charles Martel) established the Carolingian dynasty.

The coronation of Charlemagne
The new rulers' power reached its fullest extent under Pippin's son Charlemagne, who in 771 reunited the Frankish domains after a further period of division, subsequently conquering the Lombards under Desiderius in what is now northern Italy (774), incorporating Bavaria (788) into his realm, defeating the Avars of the Danubian plain (796), advancing the frontier with Islamic Spain as far south as Barcelona (801), and subjugating Lower Saxony (804) after prolonged campaigning.
In recognition of his successes and his political support for the Papacy, Charlemagne was in 800 crowned Emperor of the Romans, or Roman Emperor in the West, by Pope Leo III. On the death of Charlemagne's son Louis I (emperor 814-840), Charles the Bald, and Louis the German swore allegiance to each other against their brother in the Oath of Strasbourg, and the empire was divided among Louis's three sons (Treaty of Verdun, 843). After a last brief reunification (884-887), the imperial title ceased to be held in the western realm which was to form the basis of the future French kingdom. The eastern realm, which would become Germany, elected the Saxon dynasty of Henry the Fowler.
Under the Carolingians, the kingdom was ravaged by Viking raiders. In this struggle some important figures such as Count Odo of Paris and his brother King Robert rose to fame and became kings. This emerging dynasty, called the Robertines, was the predecessor of the Capetian Dynasty, who were descended from the Robertines. Led by Rollo, the Vikings had settled in Normandy and were granted the land first as counts and then as dukes by King Charles the Simple. The people that emerged from the interactions between Vikings and the mix of Franks and Gallo-Romans became known as the Normans.
See also:
List of Frankish Kings
Merovingians
Carolingians
Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Renaissance
Early Middle Ages

France in the Middle-Ages (987-1453)
Main article: France in the Middle Ages
Hugh Capet was elected by an assembly summoned in Reims on 1 June 987. Capet was previously "Duke of the Franks" (Dux Francorum), and then became "King of the Franks" (Rex Francorum). He was recorded to be recognised king by the Gauls, Bretons, Danes, Aquitanians, Goths, Spanish and Gascons.[1] The Danes here are certainly the Normans (of Normandy), and the Spanish entry probably refers to the Carolingian Spanish marches. Hugh Capet's reign was marked by the loss of the Spanish marches as they grew more and more independant, Count Borell of Barcelona called for Hugh's help against islamic raids. If Hugh intended to help Borell he was occupied fighting Charles of Lorraine. Spanish principalities then followed their way. His son -Robert the Pious- met the Emperor in 1023 on the borderline. They agreed to end all claims over each other's realm, setting a new stage of Capetian and Ottonian relationships.
The French kingdom was a very decentralised kingdom. If the king ventured outside of his own small personal possessions, he risked being captured by his own vassals. This is especially true for the early Capetians, but from Louis VI onward, royal authority became more accepted. Even more powerful vassals such as Henry Plantagenet did homage to the French kings.[2] Louis VII was well served by a competent advisor, Abbot Suger, who helped him gain the respect of the nobles. Suger's vision of construction became known as the Gothic Architecture during the later renaissance. This style became standard for most French cathedrals built in the late middle-age. Some of these vassals would grow so powerful that they would be among the strongest rulers of western Europe. The Normans, the Plantagenets, the Lusignans, the Hautevilles, the Ramnulfids, and the House of Toulouse successfully carved lands outside of France for themselves. The most important of these conquests for the French history was the Norman Conquest of England following the Battle of Hastings by William the Conqueror because it linked England to France through Normandy. The Norman nobles then commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry. These lords created an "Old French"–speaking diaspora across Europe and the Holy Land.

Philip II victorious at Bouvines and thus annexing Normandy and Anjou into his royal domains.
Most remarkable was the Angevin Empire which was probably the greatest threat to the King of France, resulting from both the Norman Conquest of England and The Anarchy. The Battle of Bouvines was probably the most important event in the collapse of this so-called empire. In addition to defeating John of England, Philip Augustus founded the Sorbonne and made Paris a city of scholars. His grandson Saint Louis inflicted further defeats on the Angevins during the Saintonge War and also supported new forms of art such as Gothic architecture and his Sainte-Chapelle became a very famous gothic building, he is also credited for the Morgan Bible. While the French kings were struggling against the Plantagenets the Church called for the Albigensian Crusade. Southern France was then largely absorbed in the royal domains.

Saint Louis. He saw France's cultural expansion in the Western Christian world.
It can be said that France became a truly centralised kingdom under Saint Louis, who initiated several administrative reforms. More administrative reforms were made by Philip the Fair. This king was responsible for the end of the Templars, signed the Auld Alliance, and established the Parlement of Paris. Philip IV was so powerful that he could name popes and emperors, unlike the early Capetians. The papacy was moved to Avignon and all the contemporary popes were French such as Philip IV's puppet: Bertrand de Goth.
The tensions between the Houses of Anjou and Capet climaxed during the so-called Hundred Years' War (actually several distinct wars) when the English descendants of the former claimed the throne of France from the Valois. This was also the time of the Black Death as well as several civil wars. The French population suffered very much from these wars. It has been argued that the difficult conditions the French population suffered during the Hundred Years' War awakened French nationalism, a nationalism represented by Joan of Arc. Although this is debatable, the Hundred Years War is remembered more as a Franco-English war than as a succession of feudal struggles. During this war, France evolved politically and militarily. Although a Franco-Scottish army was successful at Baugé, the humiliating defeats of Poitiers and Agincourt forced the French nobility to realise they could not stand just as armoured knights without an organised army. Charles VII established the first French standing army, the Compagnies d'ordonnance, and defeated the English once at Patay and again, using canons, at Formigny. The Battle of Châtillon was regarded as the last engagement of this "war", yet Calais remained under English and French control.

Early Modern France (1453-1789)
Main article: Early Modern France
France evolved from a feudal country to an increasingly centralized state (albeit with many regional differences) organized around a powerful absolute monarchy that relied on the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings and the explicit support of the established Church. France engaged in the long Italian Wars (1494-1559), which marked the beginning of early modern France. Francis I faced powerful foes, and he was captured at Pavia. The French monarchy then sought for allies and found one in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Admiral Barbarossa captured Nice on 5 August 1543 and handed it down to Francis I. These times also gave birth to the Protestant Reformation, and John Calvin and his reformed doctrine challenged the power of the Catholic Church in France. During the 16th century, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs were the dominant power in Europe. In addition to Spain and Austria, they controlled a number of kingdoms and duchies across Europe. Charles Quint, as Count of Burgundy, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Aragon, Castile and Germany (among many other titles) encircled France. The Spanish Tercio was used with great success against French knights and remained undefeated for a long time. Finally on January 7, 1558 the Duke of Guise seized Calais from the English.
Despite the challenge to French power posed by the Habsburgs, French became the preferred language of Europe's aristocracy. Charles Quint (born in 1500) said this about languages:
“
I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.
”
Because of its international status, there was a desire to regulate the French language. Several reforms of the French language worked to uniformise it. The Renaissance writer François Rabelais (probably born in 1494) helped to shape the French language as a literary language, Rabelais' French is characterised by the re-introduction of Latin and Greek words. Jacques Peletier du Mans (born 1517) was one of the scholars that reformed the French language. He improved Nicolas Chuquet's long scale system by adding names for intermediate numbers (milliards instead of thousand million, etc...). During the 16th century the French kingdom also established colonies began to claim North American territories. Jacques Cartier was one of the great explorers who ventured deep into American territories during the 16th century. The largest group of French colonies became known as New France, and several cities such as Quebec City, Montreal, Detroit and New Orleans were founded by the French.

Religious conflicts
Main article: Wars of Religionand
Main article: Thirty Years War

Henry IV of France, King of France and Navarre, was the first French Bourbon king.
Renewed Catholic reaction headed by the powerful dukes of Guise culminated in a massacre of Huguenots (1562), starting the first of the French Wars of Religion, during which English, German, and Spanish forces intervened on the side of rival Protestant and Catholic forces. The War of Religions culminated in the War of the Three Henrys in which Henry III assassinated Henry de Guise, leader of the Spanish-backed Catholic league, and the king was murdered in return. Following this war Henry III of Navarre became king of France as Henry IV and enforced the Edict of Nantes (1598). Religious conflicts resumed under Louis XIII when Cardinal de Richelieu forced the Protestants to disarm their army and fortresses. This conflict ended in the Siege of La Rochelle (1627-1628), in which Protestants and their English supporters were defeated. The following Peace of Alais confirmed religious freedom yet dismantled the Protestant defences. This was also a time of philosophy. René Descartes sought answers to philosophical questions through the use of logic and reason and formulated what would be called Cartesian Dualism in 1641.
The religious conflicts that plagued France also ravaged the Habsburg-led Holy Roman Empire. The Thirty Years' War eroded the power of the Catholic Habsburgs. Although Cardinal Richelieu, the powerful chief minister of France, had previously mauled the Protestants, he joined this war on their side in 1636. Imperial Habsburg forces invaded France, ravaged Champagne, and nearly threatened Paris. Richelieu died in 1642 and was replaced by Mazarin, while Louis XIII died one year later and was succeeded by Louis XIV. France was served by some very efficient commanders such as Louis II de Bourbon and Henry de la Tour d'Auvergne. The French forces won a decisive victory at Rocroi (1643), and the Spanish army was decimated; the Tercio was broken. The Truce of Ulm (1647) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648) brought an end to the war. But some challenges remained. France was hit by civil unrest known as the Fronde which in turn evolved into the Franco-Spanish War in 1653. Louis II de Bourbon joined the Spanish army this time but was inflicted a severe defeat at Dunkirk (1658) by Henry de la Tour d'Auvergne. The terms for the peace inflicted upon the Spanish kingdoms in the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) were harsh, as France annexed Northern Catalonia.

Louis XIV

Louis XIV, the "Sun King"
The Sun King wanted to be remembered as a patron of the arts, like his ancestor Louis IX. He invited Jean-Baptiste Lully to establish the French opera. A tumultuous friendship was established between Lully and Molière. Jules Hardouin Mansart became France's most important architect of the time. Louis XIV's long reign saw France involved in many wars that drained its treasury. His reign began during the Thirty Years' War and during the Franco-Spanish war. His military architect, Vauban, became famous for his pentagonal fortresses, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert supported the royal spending as much as possible. France fought the War of Devolution against Spain in 1667. France's defeat Spain and invasion of the Spanish Netherlands alarmed England and Sweden. With the Dutch Republic they formed the Triple Alliance to check Louis XIV's expansion. Louis II de Bourbon had captured Franche-Comté, but in face of an indefensible position, Louis XIV agreed to a peace at Aachen. Under its terms, Louis XIV did not annex Franche-Comté but did gain Lille.
Peace was fragile, and war broke out again between France and the Dutch Republic in the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678). Louis XIV asked for the Dutch Republic to resume war against the Spanish Netherlands, but the republic refused. France attacked the Dutch Republic and was joined by England in this conflict. Through deliberate floods, the French invasion of the Dutch Republic was brought to a halt. The Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter inflicted a few strategic defeats on the Anglo-French naval alliance and forced England to retire from the war in (1674). Because the Netherlands could not resist eternally, it agreed to peace in the Treaties of Nijmegen, according to which France would annex France-Comté and acquired further concessions in the Spanish Netherlands. On 6 May 1682, the royal court moved to the Palace of Versailles, which Louis XIV had greatly expanded. Peace, once again, did not last, and war between France and Spain resumed once again. The War of the Reunions broke out (1683-1684), and once again Spain, with its ally the Holy Roman Empire, was easily defeated. Meanwhile, in October 1685 Louis signed the Edict of Fontainebleau ordering the destruction of all Protestant churches and schools in France. Its immediate consequence was a large Protestant exodus from France.
France would soon be involved into another war, the War of the Grand Alliance. This time the threatre was not only in Europe but also in North America. Although the war was long and difficult, its results were inconclusive. The Treaty of Ryswick confirmed French sovereignty over Alsace yet rejected its claims to Luxembourg. Louis also had to evacuate Catalonia and the Palatinate. This peace was considered a truce by all sides, thus war was to start again. In 1701 the War of the Spanish Succession began. The Bourbon Philip of Anjou was designated heir to the throne of Spain. The Habsburg Emperor Leopold opposed a Bourbon succession, because of the power that such a succession would bring to the Bourbon rulers of France. England and the Dutch Republic joined Leopold against Louis XIV and Philip of Anjou. The allied forces were led by John Churchill and by Prince Eugene of Savoy. They achieved resounding defeats of the French army, yet after Malplaquet, a Pyrrhic victory, they had lost too many men to continue the war. Led by Villars the French forces recovered much of the ground they had lost in battles such as Denain. Finally, a compromise was agreed on at Ultrecht in 1713. Philip of Anjou was confirmed as Philip V, king of Spain, but he was barred from inheriting France.

Colonial struggles and the dawn of the revolution
Louis XIV died in 1714 of gangrene. In 1718 France was, once again, at war as Philip II of Orleans's regency joined the War of the Quadruple Alliance against Spain. King Philip V of Spain had to withdraw from the conflict confronted with the reality that Spain was no longer a great power of Europe. Under Fleury's administration, peace was maintained as much as possible. However, in 1733 another war broke in central Europe, this time about the Polish succession, and France joined the war against the Austrian Empire. This time there was no invasion of the Netherlands, and Britain remained neutral. As a consequence, Austria was left alone against a Franco-Spanish alliance and faced a military disaster. Peace was setted in the Treaty of Vienna (1738), according to which France would annex, through inheritance, the Duchy of Lorraine. Two years later war broke out over the Austrian succession, and France seized the opportunity to join the conflict. The war played out in North America and India as well as Europe, and inconclusive terms were agreed to in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Once again, no one regarded this as a peace but rather as a mere truce. Prussia was then becoming a new threat as it had gained substantial territory from Austria. This led to the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, in which the alliances seen during the previous war were mostly inverted. France was now allied to Austria and Russia while Britain was now allied to Prussia. In the North American theatre, France was allied with various Indian peoples during the Seven Years War and, despite a temporary success at the battles of the Great Meadows and Monongahela, French forces were defeated at the disastrous Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. In Europe, Russia was on the verge of crushing Prussia, and the Anglo-Prussian alliance was saved by The miracle of the House of Brandenburg, while the French suffered naval defeats against British fleets at Lagos and Quiberon Bay. Finally peace was concluded in the Treaty of Paris (1763), and France lost most of its North American empire. In 1768 the French Kingdom bought Corsica from Genoa.

Lord Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown to American and French allies.
Having lost its colonial empire, France saw a good opportunity for revenge against Britain during the American Revolutionary War. Spain also joined the war on the American side but suffered a strong naval defeat at Cape St. Vincent. Admiral de Grasse defeated a British fleet at Chesapeake Bay while Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur and Gilbert du Motier joined American forces in defeating the British at Yorktown. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Paris (1783), under which and Britain lost its former American colonies.
While the state was expanded yet broke new ideas on the role of the king and the powers of the state, Charles de Secondat described the separation of powers. Many philosophers became well influential among the French intellectual class such as: Voltaire, Denis Diderot and most importantly Jean-Jacques Rousseau with The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right. Louis XVI commissioned a unified system of units for his kingdom, French scientists such as Antoine Lavoisier then worked on create a scientific system to replace the anarchic ones used previously. Lavoisier also worked on the Conservation of mass and recognised Oxygen and Hydrogen.

The Revolution
Main article: French Revolution

Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789
On May 28, 1789, the Abbot Sieyès moved that the Third Estate proceed with verification of its own powers and invite the other two estates to take part, but not to wait for them. They proceeded to do so, and then voted a measure far more radical, declaring themselves the National Assembly. Tensions finally caused the Third Estate to pronounce the Tennis Court Oath on June 20 1789 after finding the door to their chamber locked and guarded. They were joined by some members of the second and first estates in the conflict against the king. On July 14, 1789, after four hours of combat, the insurgents seized the Bastille prison, killing the governor and several of his guards. Gilbert du Motier, hero of the American independence, took command of the national guard and the king was forced to recognise the Tricolour Cockade. Although peace was found several nobles did not regard the new order as acceptable and migrated to push neighbouring kingdoms to war against the new rule. Because of this new period of unstability the state was struck by the Great Fear, the two classes were scared of each other. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen tried to give everyone egual rights and France's administrative map was totally changed, moving from provinces to départements. Rising conflicts between two factions brought even more unstability to the already weak regime as some wanted a constitutional monarchy and some wanted a republic. During riots Gilbert du Motier ordered the National Guard to open fire on the protesting crowd. Republican publications were censored afterward. In the Declaration of Pillnitz outsiders such as: Emperor Leopold II, Count Charles of Artois and King William II of Prussia made Louis XVI's cause theirs. These noblemen also required the assembly to be dissolved through threats of war but instead of cowing the French institutions this infuriated them. The borderlines were militarised as a consequence. Under the Constitution of 1791 the solution of a constitutional monarchy was adopted and the king supported a war against Austria in order to increase his popularity starting the long French Revolutionary Wars. On the night of the 10th of August the Jacobins, who had mainly opposed the war, suspended the monarchy. With the Prussian army entering France more doubts raised against the aristocracy, these tensions climaxed during the September Massacres. After the first great victory of the French revolutionary troops at the battle of Valmy on 1792 September 20 the French First Republic was proclaimed the day after on 1792 September 21. The French Republican Calendar was enforced. The Brunswick Manifesto threatened once more the French population from Austrian (Imperial) and Prussian attacks if royalist advance in France was still opposed, following this threat Louis XVI was suspected of treason and was guillotined on 21 January 1793. Spain, Naples, Great-Britain and The Netherlands joined Austria and Prussia in their war against France. The Republican government was radicalised after a diplomatic coup from the Jacobins and the Reign of Terror was now reality. Royalist invading forces were defeated at Toulon in 1793, leaving the French republican forces in an offensive position and granting a young officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, a certain fame. Following their victory at Fleurus the Republicans occupied Belgium and the Rhineland. An invasion of the Netherlands established the puppet Batavian Republic. Finally a peace agreement was found between France, Spain and Prussia in 1795 at Basel, while France withdrew its forces from occupied parts of the eastern Rhine and Northern Spain it remained in control of all the western bank of the Rhine. Sardinia, Austria and Britain were still at war against France and General Napoleon Bonaparte was highly successful against them as he captured Milan and defeated several Austrian armies sent to relieve Mantua from a siege he led. Finally Mantua fell and Napoleon invaded Tyrol while General Hoche was invading Germany, Austria was compelled to sign the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 losing Belgium to France. The republican government also enforced the Système International d'Unités, commissioned by Louis XVI, and which became known as the Metric System. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb and André-Marie Ampère's works on electricity and electromagnetism were also recognised and their units are integrated in the Metric System.

The Napoleonic Era

Napoleon on his Imperial throne, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
During the War of the First Coalition the Directoire had replaced the National Convention. Five directors then ruled France. As Great-Britain was still at war with France a plan was made to take Egypt from the Ottoman Empire, allied to Great-Britain. This was Napoleon's idea and the Directoire agreed to the plan in order to send the popular general away from the mainland. Napoleon captured Malta from the Knights of Saint John on the way to Egypt. The French army met Ottoman forces during the Battle of the Pyramids and defeated them. While the land campaign was so far a success, the British fleet, led by Admiral Nelson, managed to destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile. Hearing of the destruction of the French fleet, the Ottoman Empire gathered armies to attack Napoleon in Egypt, and Napoleon adopted a policy of attack again. An invasion of Syria was planned but failed during the Siege of Acre. Napoleon had to come back to the mainland leaving a significant part of his army behind. These men were supposed to be given honourable term by the British forces yet Admiral Keith decided to attack them anyway with a Mameluk force, although this force was defeated at Heliopolis in March 1800. Disease had hit the French troops to such a point they had to surrender. The Rosetta Stone was discovered during this campaign and Champollion translated it.
When Napoleon came back to France the Directoire was threatened by the Second Coalition. Royalists and their allies still dreamed of putting back the monarchy to power while the Prussian and Austrian crowns did not accept their territorial losses during the previous war. The Russian army expelled the French one from Italy in battles such as Cassano while the Austrian army defeated the French one in Switzerland at Stockach and Zurich. Napoleon then seized power through a coup and established the Consulate in 1799. The Austrian army was defeated at Marengo in 1800 and again at Hohenlinden. While on sea Admiral Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville had some success at Boulogne against a British fleet, Admiral Nelson would destroy an anchored Danish fleet at Copenhagen. The Second Coalition was beaten and peace was settled in two distinct treaties: The Treaty of Lunéville and the Treaty of Amiens. In 1803 Napoleon sold French Louisiana to the American government, a territory he considered indefensible.
On 21 March 1804 the Napoleonic Code was applied over all the territory and on may 18 Napoleon was titled Emperor by the senate thus founding the French Empire. Technically Napoleon's rule was constitutional, although autocratic it was much more advanced than other European monarchies of the time. The proclamation of the French Empire was met by the Third Coalition. The French army was renamed the Grande Armée in 1805 and Napoleon used propaganda and nationalism to control the French population. The French army achieved a resounding victory at Ulm where an entire Austrian army was captured. A Franco-Spanish fleet was defeated at Trafalgar and all plan to invade Britain were then made impossible. Despite this naval defeat it was on ground battle that this war would be won, Napoleon inflicted the Austrian and Russian Empires one of their greatest defeat at Austerlitz destroying the third coalition. The peace was settled in the Treaty of Pressburg, the Austrian Empire lost the title of Holy Roman Emperor and the Confederation of the Rhine was created by Napoleon over former Austrian territories.
The destruction of the Holy Roman Empire and the dramatic Austrian defeat caused Prussia to join Great-Britain and Russia. Thus forming the Fourth Coalition. They were joined by other allies but then again the French Empire was not alone since it now had a complex network of allies and submitted states. Largely outnumbered the Prussian army was crushed at Jena-Auerstedt in 1806, Napoleon captured Berlin and went as far as Eastern Prussia. There the Russian Empire was defeated at the Battle of Friedland. Peace was dictated in the Treaties of Tilsit in which Russia had to join the Continental System and Prussia handed down half of its territories to France.
Freed from his obligation to the east Napoleon then went back to the west as the French Empire was still at war with Britain. Only two countries remained neutral in the war: Sweden and Portugal, and Napoleon then looked toward the latter. In the Treaty of Fontainebleau a Franco-Spanish alliance against Portugal was sealed as Spain eyed Portuguese territories. French armies entering Spain in order to attack Portugal but then seized Spanish forteresses and took over the kingdom by surprise, Joseph Bonaparte was made King of Spain after Charles IV's abdication. This occupation of the Iberian peninsula fueled nationalism and soon Spanish and Portuguese would fight the French using guerillas and defeated the French forces at the Battle of Bailén. Great-Britain send a short lived ground support to Portugal and French forces evacuated Portugal as defined in the Convention of Sintra follow the Battle of Vimeiro. France was only controlling Catalonia and Navarre and could have been definitely expelled from the Iberian peninsula had the Spanish armies attacked again but it did not. Another attack was launched on Spain, led by Napoleon himself, and was described as "an avalanche of fire and steel." Although the French Empire was no longer regarded as invincible by European powers. In 1808 Austria formed the War of the Fifth Coalition in order to break down the French Empire. The Austrian Empire defeated the French one at Aspern-Essling yet was beaten at Wagram while the Polish allies defeated the Austrian Empire at Raszyn. Although not as decisive as the previous Austrian defeats the peace treaty caused Austria to lose a large amount of territories, reducing it even more.

Napoleon Bonaparte leaving Russia after a disastrous campaign.
In 1812 it was with Russia that war broke, engaging Napoleon in the disastrous Patriotic War. Napoleon assembled the largest army Europe had ever seen, including toops from all submitted states, to invade Russia who just left the continental system and was gathering an army on the Polish frontier. Following the Battle of Borodino the Grande Armée entered and captured Moscow, just to find it burned to the ground by a scorched earth Russian warfare. Although there still were battles such as Maloyaroslavets the Napoleonic army left Russia decimated by the Russian winter and scorched earth warfare. On the Spanish front the French troops were defeated at Vitoria and than at the Battle of the Pyrenees. While facing a bigger and bigger guerilla the French troops definitely evacuated Spain. Being defeated on these two fronts gave all states controlled and previously defeated by Napoleon a good opportunity to strike him back. The Sixth Coalition was formed and the German states of the Confederation of the Rhine switched side, finally opposing Napoleon. Napoleon was largely defeated in the Battle of the Nations and was overwhelmed by much larger armies during the Six Days Campaign, although because of the much larger amount of casualties suffered by the allies in the campaign the Six Days are often considered a tactical masterpiece.
Napoleon abdicated on April 6 1814, Napoleon was exiled to Elba. The Congress of Vienna, due to a Conservative Order, tried to undo the political changes from to the wars thus attempting to save peace. The last parts of the Napoleonic Wars were the Hundred Days ending by his final defeat at Waterloo. The monarchy was subsequently restored and Louis XVIII became king.

The Restored Monarchy and the Second Empire

Napoleon III, Emperor of the French
This period of time is called the Bourbon Restoration and was marked by conflicts between reactionaries Ultra-royalists and more liberal movements. On 12 June 1830 Polignac, King Charles X's minister, took profit of the Algerian Dey's weakness to invade Algeria and establish a French rule in Algeria. The news of the fall of Algiers had barely reached Paris that Charles X was deposed for King Louis-Philippe during the July Revolution. Louis-Philippe's "July Monarchy" (1830–1848) is generally seen as a period during which the haute bourgeoisie was dominant. Anarchism began to take roots in France and that was represented by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. To honour the victim of the July Revolution Hector Berlioz composed a Requiem, he also worked on the French anthem La Marseillaise. In 1838 the French government declared war on Mexico after a French pastry cook in Mexico accused Mexican officers of looting his shop. The Mexican government was defeated in that short Pastry War. Finally the last King of France abdicated and the French Second Republic was proclaimed, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected president and proclaimed himself President for Life following a coup that was confirmed and accepted in a dubious referendum. Napoleon III of France took the imperial title from 1852 to 1870. The era saw great industrialization, urbanization (including the massive rebuilding of Paris by Baron Haussmann) and economic growth, but Napoleon III's foreign policies would not be so successful. In 1859 the Second Italian War of Independence broke between Italian states and Austria, the Second French Empire joined the war on the Italian side which was concluded by an Austrian defeat at Solferino. In return of this intervention the French government acquired definitely the city of Nice while on March 1860 Savoy was annexed through similar means. In 1861 Napoleon III largely supported Maxililian in his claim over Mexico, a move that was also supported by Britain and Spain but condemned by the USA. This led to the French intervention in Mexico which turned out to be a failure. While France was negotiating with The Netherlands about purchasing Luxembourg the Prussian Kingdom threatened the French government with war. This came as a shock to French diplomats as there previously was an agreement between the Prussian and French governments about Luxembourg. Napoleon III suffered stronger and stronger criticism from Republicans like Jules Favre and his position seemed more fragile with the passage of time. The Second Empire joined the Crimean War which opposed France and Britain to the Russian Empire and the Russian forces were decisively defeated at Sevastopol in 1855 and at Inkerman. In 1856 France joined the Second Opium War on the British side against China, a missionary's murder was used as a pretext to take interests in southwest Asia in the Treaty of Tientsin.
Rising tensions about a possible Prussian succession in Spain raised the scale of animosity between the two states and finally the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) broke. German Nationalism united the German states against Napoleon III with the exception of Austria. Overwhelmed, the French Empire was defeated decisively at Metz and Sedan. The last straw was the Siege of Paris and the newly formed German Empire subsequently annexed Alsace-Lorraine in the Treaty of Frankfurt.

The Third Republic and the Belle Epoque
Main article: French Third Republic
The French legislature established the Third Republic which was to last until the military defeat of 1940 (longer than any government in France since the Revolution). The birth of the republic saw France occupied by foreign troops, the capital in a popular socialist insurection — the Paris Commune (which was violently repressed by Adolphe Thiers) — and two provinces (Alsace-Lorraine) annexed to Germany. Feelings of national guilt and a desire for vengeance ("revanchism") would be major preoccupations of the French throughout the next half century. The repression of the commune was bloody. Hundreds were executed in front of the Communards' Wall in the Père Lachaise cemetery, while thousands of others were marched to Versailles for trials. The number killed during La Semaine Sanglante (The Bloody Week) can never be established for certain but the best estimates are 30,000 dead, many more wounded, and perhaps as many as 50,000 later executed or imprisoned; 7,000 were exiled to New Caledonia. Thousands of them fled to Belgium, England, Italy, Spain and the United States.
Beside this defeat, the Republican movement also had to confront the counterrevolutionaries who rejected the legacy of the 1789 Revolution. Both the Legitimist and the Orleanist royalists rejected republicanism, which they saw as an extension of modernity and atheism, breaking with France's traditions. This lasted until at least the 16 May 1877 crisis, which finally led to the resignation of royalist Marshal MacMahon in January 1879. The death of Henri, comte de Chambord in 1883, who, as the grandson of Charles X, had refused to abandon the fleur-de-lys and the white flag, thus jeopardizing the alliance between Legitimists and Orleanists, convinced many of the remaining Orleanists to rally themselves to the Republic, as Adolphe Thiers had already done. The vast majority of the Legitimists abandoned the political arena or became marginalised. Some of them founded Action Française in 1898, during the Dreyfus Affair, which became an influent movement through-out the 1930s, in particular among the intellectuals of Paris' Quartier Latin. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII's encyclic Rerum Novarum legitimised to the Social Catholic movement, which in France could be traced back to Hughes Felicité Robert de Lamennais' efforts under the July Monarchy.
The initial republic was in effect led by pro-royalists, but republicans (the "Radicals") and bonapartists scrambled for power. The period from 1879–1899 saw power come into the hands of moderate republicans and former "radicals" (around Léon Gambetta); these were called the "Opportunists". The newly found Republican control on the Republic allowed the vote of the 1881 and 1882 Jules Ferry laws on a free, mandatory and laic public education.
The moderates however became deeply divided over the Dreyfus Affair, and this allowed the Radicals to eventually gain power from 1899 until the Great War. During this period, crises like the potential "Boulangist" coup d'état (see Georges Boulanger) in 1889, showed the fragility of the republic. The Radicals' policies on education (suppression of local languages, compulsory education), mandatory military service, and control of the working classes eliminated internal dissent and regionalisms, while their participation in the Scramble for Africa and in the acquiring of overseas possessions (such as French Indochina) created myths of French greatness. Both of these processes transformed a country of regionalisms into a modern nation state. Conflicts between the Chinese Emperor and the French Republic over Indochina climaxed during the Sino-French War, Admiral Courbet destroyed the Chinese fleet anchored at Foochow. French sovereignty over Tonkin and Annam was confirmed.
In an effort to isolate Germany, France went to great pains to woo Russia and the United Kingdom to its side, first by means of the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, then the 1904 Entente Cordiale with the U.K, and finally, with the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907 this became the Triple Entente, which eventually led Russia and the UK to enter World War I as Allies.
Distrust of Germany, faith in the army and native French anti-semitism combined to make the Dreyfus Affair (the unjust trial and condemnation of a Jewish military officer for treason) a political scandal of the utmost gravity. The nation was divided between "dreyfusards" and "anti-dreyfusards" and far-right Catholic agitators inflamed the situation even when proofs of Dreyfus' innocence came to light. The writer Emile Zola published an impassioned editorial on the injustice, and was himself condemned by the government for libel. Once Dreyfus was finally pardoned, the progressive legislature enacted the 1905 laws on laïcité which created a complete separation of church and state and stripped churches of most of their property rights.

Eiffel Tower under construction in July 1888.
The period and the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century is often termed the belle époque. Although associated with cultural innovations and popular amusements (cabaret, cancan, the cinema, new art forms such as Impressionism and Art Nouveau), France was nevertheless a nation divided internally on notions of religion, class, regionalisms and money, and on the international front France came repeatedly to the brink of war with the other imperial powers, including Great Britain (the Fashoda Incident). World War I was inevitable, but its human and financial costs would be catastrophic for the French.
In 1889 the Exposition Universelle took place in Paris and the Eiffel Tower was built as a temporary gate to the fair. Meant to last only a few decades the tower was never removed and became France's most iconic landmark.