A Concise History of France
France’s story stretches from Paleolithic caves to a nuclear-armed democracy at the heart of the European Union. Its past is not a straight line but a braid of languages, faiths, dynasties, revolutions, and ideas that have radiated outward—law, literature, cuisine, philosophy, and the modern notions of citizenship and rights. What follows is an overview of the history of France, from early settlements to the Fifth Republic.
From Prehistory to Roman Gaul
Long before “France” existed, humans left traces in the southwest: the painted caves of Lascaux (c. 17,000 BCE) testify to complex symbolic life. By the first millennium BCE, Celtic-speaking peoples—whom Romans later called Gauls—lived in fortified hill towns (oppida), traded Mediterranean wine for northern metals and furs, and practiced syncretic religions alongside druids and local cults. Greek colonists founded Massalia (Marseille) around 600 BCE, linking the region to Mediterranean trade and ideas.
In the mid-1st century BCE, Julius Caesar conquered Gaul after long campaigns against tribal coalitions, notably the Arverni leader Vercingetorix, who surrendered at Alesia (52 BCE). Under Rome, Gallia prospered. Roads, aqueducts, and cities like Lyon (Lugdunum) embedded Roman law and Latin speech, while rural life blended Roman customs with local traditions. Christianity spread during late antiquity; bishops became pillars of urban life as imperial institutions waned.
The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Birth of a Kingdom
As the Western Roman Empire fractured in the 5th century CE, Germanic groups established successor states. The Franks, under Clovis of the Merovingian dynasty, consolidated much of Gaul, converted to Roman Christianity (c. 496), and secured the support of the Gallo-Roman clergy and aristocracy. After Merovingian decline, the Carolingiansrose; Charlemagne (r. 768–814) forged a vast empire across western and central Europe, crowned “Emperor of the Romans” in 800. Carolingian rule encouraged monastic learning and legal order, yet after Charlemagne the empire splintered. The Treaty of Verdun (843) divided the realm among his grandsons; West Francia, roughly the nucleus of modern France, went to Charles the Bald.
