Date |
Event |
58 - 51 B.C. |
Julius Caesar conquered Gaul |
A.D. 486 |
Clovis, a king of the Franks, defeated the Roman governor of Gaul |
800 |
Charlemagne became emperor of the Romans |
987 |
Hugh Capet was crowned King of France |
1302 |
Philip IV called together the first Estates-General, the ancestor of the French Parliament |
1309 - 1377 |
The popes lived in Avignon |
1337 - 1453 |
France defeated England during the Hundred Years' War |
1598 |
Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes, which gave limited religious freedom to Protestants |
1643- 1715 |
Louis XIV ruled France, and consolidated the absolute authority of the French king |
1789 - 1799 |
The French Revolution took place. It ended absolute rule by the French kings |
1792 |
The First Republic was established |
1799 |
Napoleon seized control of France |
1804 |
Napoleon founded the First Empire |
1814 |
Napoleon was exiled; Louis XVIII came to power |
1815 |
Napoleon returned to power, but was defeated at Waterloo. Louis XVIII regained the throne |
1848 |
Revolutionaries established the Second Republic |
1852 |
Napoleon III founded the Second Empire |
1870 - 1871 |
Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War. The Third Republic was begun |
1914 - 1918 |
France fought on the Allied side in World War I |
1939 - 1940 |
France fought on the Allied side in World War II, until defeated by Germany |
1940 - 1942 |
Germany occupied northern France |
1942 - 1944 |
The Germans occupied all of France |
1946 |
France adopted a new constitution, establishing the Fourth Republic |
1946 - 1954 |
A revolution in French Indochina resulted in France's giving up the colony |
1949 |
France joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) |
1954 |
Revolution broke out in the French territory of Algeria |
1957 |
France joined the European Community (EC), also called the European Common Market |
1958 |
A new constitution was adopted, marking the beginning of the Fifth Republic. Charles de Gaulle was elected president |
1962 |
France granted independence to Algeria |
1966 |
Charles de Gaulle withdrew French troops from NATO |
1969 |
De Gaulle resigned as president |
1981 |
Socialist victories in presidential and parliamentary elections resulted in France's first leftist government since 1958 |
1987 |
Construction of a railway tunnel under the English Channel (The Channel Tunnel) between France and Great Britain began |
