Paris History
Paris is an ancient city, scarred by old wounds and altered through brilliance. Its history not only describes the destiny of France and development of France culture, but the fortunes of Western Europe, as well. So, if you intend to travel to Paris or in order to increase your IQ, the Paris information below may seem interesting and new to you. It will definitely help you while Paris sightseeing.
Paris, France is more than 2,000 years old. Paris history started when Gauls of the Parisii tribe marked Paris location settling there between 250 and 200 BC and founded a fishing village on an island in the river that is the present-day Ile de la Cité – the center around which the City of France developed.
The timeline of Paris history:
Gallic Origins Gallic Origins
253 B.C. The Parisii, a Gallic tribe, make the Ile de la Cite their fortified capital.
250 A.D. St. Denis introduces Christianity.
Changing Dynasties
508 King Clovis of the Frankish Merovingian line makes Paris his capital.
751 A new dynasty, the Carolingians, is created when Pepin the Short, father of Charlemagne, deposes the king.
887 Norman pirates, invaders for decades, are defeated by Count Eudes. He is subsequently proclaimed King of France.
987 Capetian dynasty begins with Hugues Capet, and continues for 350 years.
1180-1223 King Philippe August erects the fortress of the Louvre, Paris and the University of Paris is founded.
1328 Death of King Charles IV ends the Capetian dynasty.
1337 Hundred Years’ War begins with the English dispute of the Valois claim to the French throne.
1420 Paris captured by the English.
1453 England withdraws from all of France except Calais.
1500 Italian renaissance influences France culture.
1589 Bourbons emerge as the new dynastic line.
1598 Edict of Nantes, granting freedom of worship for Protestants, is issued by King Henry IV.
Grand
Grand Siecle
1600 Paris grows as a city of the arts; period known as the grand siecle.
1661 Louis XIV becomes king. France reaches its height of power.
1685 Edict of Nantes is revoked by Louis XIV; thousands of Protestants flee.
Revolution
1700 Ineffectual and unpopular leadership by Louis XV and Louis XVI.
1758-1780 Construction of Pantheon, Paris
1789 Storming of the Paris Bastille and the beginning of the revolution.
1792 Execution of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Robespierre creates the two-year Reign of Terror.
1799 Revolution ends when Napoleon Bonaparte appoints himself First Consul, or dictator of France.
1804 Napoleon has himself crowned Emperor in Notre-Dame.
1814 Paris falls to the Allied forces.
Restoration
1815 The Bourbon line is restored and Louis XVIII is crowned King.
1848 Louis-Philippe is ousted and a Second Republic is declared.
1852 Republic falters; Napoleon III is proclaimed Emperor.
Third Republic
1870 Third Republic declared.
1871 Franco-Prussian War begins.
1944 General de Gaulle leads the new provisional
government after liberation from the Germans.
New Paris
1946 Inauguration of the Fourth Republic and a new constitution.
1958 Fourth Republic falters and de Gaulle forms Fifth Republic.
1959 European Economic Community (Common Market) is founded.
1962 Algeria granted independence.
1977 Election of Jacques Chirac as the first mayor of Paris since 1871.
1997 Election of Jacques Chirac as President
1999 Official opening of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France François Mitterrand. This National Library on the eastern side of the city contains 12 million books.
2001 In order to repair the damage caused by the storm at the end of 1999, nine new parks and gardens have been laid out. The TGV connection Méditerranée Paris-Marseille is opened.
2001 Paris elected its first openly gay mayor, Bertrand Delanoe. He was stabbed in a hate crime in October 2002, but recovered successfully.
Early Paris History
Julius Caesar conquered Paris in 52 B.C. It was then a fishing village, called Lutetia Parisiorum (the Parisii were a Gallic tribe), on the Île de la Cité. Under the Romans the town spread to the left bank and acquired considerable importance under the later emperors. The vast Paris catacombs under Montparnasse and the baths (now in the Cluny Mus.) remain from the Roman period. Legend says that St. Denis, first bishop of Paris, was martyred on Montmartre (hence the name) and that in the 5th cent. St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, preserved the city from destruction by the Huns. On several occasions in its early history Paris was threatened by barbarian and Norman invasions, which at times drove the inhabitants back to the Île de la Cité.
Clovis I and several other Merovingian kings made Paris their capital; under Charlemagne it became a center of learning. In 987, Hugh Capet, count of Paris, became king of France. The Capetians firmly established Paris as the French capital. The city of France grew as the power of the French kings increased. In the 11th cent. the city spread to the right bank. During the next two centuries-the reign of Philip Augustus (1180-1223) is especially notable for the growth of Paris-streets were paved and the city walls enlarged; the first Louvre (a fortress) and several churches, including Notre Dame, were constructed or begun; and the schools on the left bank were organized into the Universities. One of them, the Sorbonne, Paris became a fountainhead of theological learning with Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas among its scholars. The university community constituted an autonomous borough; another was formed on the right bank by merchants ruled by their own provost. In 1358, under the leadership of the merchant provost Étienne Marcel, Paris first assumed the role of an independent commune and rebelled against the dauphin (later Charles V). During the period of the Hundred Years War the city suffered civil strife, occupation by the English (1419-36), famine, and the Black Death.
During the Renaissance
The Renaissance reached Paris in the 16th cent. during the reign of Francis I (1515-47), which obviously influenced France art and France culture. At this time the Louvre was transformed from a fortress to a Renaissance palace. In the Wars of France Religion (1562-98), Parisian Catholics, who were in the great majority, took part in the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day (1572), forced Henry III to leave the city on the Day of Barricades (1588), and accepted Henry IV only after his conversion (1593) to Catholicism. Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII’s minister, established the French Academy and built the Palais Royal and the Luxembourg Palace. During the Fronde, Paris once again defied the royal authority. Louis XIV, distrustful of the Parisians, transferred (1682) his court to Versailles. Parisian industries profited from the lavishness of Versailles ; the specialization in luxury goods dates from that time. J. H. Mansart under Louis XIV and François Mansart, J. G. Soufflot, and J. A. Gabriel under Louis XV created some of the most majestic prospects of modern Paris.
The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Paris History
During the late 17th and the 18th cent. Paris acquired further glory as the scene of many of France ‘s greatest cultural achievements: the plays of Molière, Racine, and Corneille; the music of Lully, Rameau, and Gluck; the paintings of Watteau, Fragonard, and Boucher; and the salons where many of the philosophers of the Enlightenment gathered. At the same time, growing industries had resulted in the creation of new classes-the bourgeoisie and proletariat-concentrated in such suburbs ( faubourgs ) as Saint-Antoine and Saint-Denis ; in the opening events of the French Revolution, city mobs stormed the Bastille (July, 1789) and hauled the royal family from Versailles to Paris (October, 1789). Throughout the turbulent period of the Revolution the city played a central role.
The French Revolution
Revolution quickly spread throughout France during 1789 as a direct result of decades of political decline and widespread discontent. Thinkers of the Enlightenment argued that governments should promote complete freedom and equality, as opposed to the narrow interests of the social elite. Their solutions to Frances problems were diverse, ranging from pure democracy to a more a limited monarchy, but they all agreed on the necessity of having greater religious and cultural freedom, some type of representative government, and greater equality under the law. Enlightenment writings became very popular and were spread throughout the urban areas of France and neighboring countries. The monarchy was already in a state of complete decline aside from these fresh challenges to its rule. Due to the wars of the mid-18th century and French involvement against Britain during the American Revolution Frances economy was in depression. The aristocracy effectively opposed many moves by the monarchy to reform the taxation system to alleviate the depression. Finally, various groups in France were affected and influenced by economic and social change. The nobility wanted wider reaching political rights against royal power. Middle-class people sought a way to have a say in the government to match their newly developed commercial role. Due to the declining economic and social conditions the peasant majority was faced with severe poverty, starvation and disease. They sought access to the massive estates of the aristocracy and the church, but even more importantly, an end to feudal due and services.
Napoleon to the Commune
Napoleon (emperor, 1804-15) began a large construction program (including the building of the Arc de Triomphe, the Vendôme Column, and the arcaded Rue de Rivoli) and enriched the city’s museums with artworks removed from conquered cities. In the course of his downfall Paris was occupied twice by enemy armies (1814, 1815). In the first half of the 19th cent. Paris grew rapidly. In 1801 it had 547,000 people; in 1817, 714,000; in 1841, 935,000; and in 1861, 1,696,000. The revolutions of July, 1830, and February, 1848, both essentially Parisian events, had repercussions throughout Europe. Culturally, the city was at various times the home or host of most of the great European figures of the age. Balzac, Hugo, Chopin, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, Delacroix, Ingres, and Daumier were a few of the outstanding personalities. The grand outline of modern Paris was the work of Baron Georges Haussmann, who was appointed prefect by Napoleon III. The great avenues, boulevards, and parks are his work. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Paris was besieged for four months by the Germans and then surrendered. After the Germans withdrew, Parisian workers rebelled against the French government and established the Commune of Paris, which was bloodily suppressed.
Under the Third Republic
With the establishment of the Third French Republic and relative stability, Paris became the great industrial and transportation center it is today. Two epochal events in modern cultural history that took place in Paris were the first exhibition of impressionist painting (1874) and the premiere of Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps (1913). In World War I the Germans failed to reach Paris. After 1919 the outermost city fortifications were replaced by housing developments, including the Cité Universitaire, which houses thousands of students. During the 1920s, Paris was home to many disillusioned artists and writers from the United States and elsewhere. German troops occupied Paris during World War II from June 14, 1940, to Aug. 25, 1944. The city was not seriously damaged by the war.
Contemporary Paris
Paris was the headquarters of NATO from 1950 to 1967; it is the headquarters of UNESCO. A program of cleaning the city’s major buildings and monuments was completed in the 1960s. The city was the scene in May, 1968, of serious disorders, beginning with a student strike, that nearly toppled the Fifth Republic. In 1971, Les Halles, Paris ‘s famous central market, called by Zola the “belly” of Paris, was dismantled. Construction began immediately on Chatelet Les-Halles, Paris ‘s new metro hub, which was completed in 1977. The Forum des Halles, a partially underground multiple story commercial and shopping center, opened in 1979. Other developments include the Georges Pompidou National Center for Art and Culture, built in 1977, which includes the National Museum of Modern Art The Louvre underwent extensive renovation, and
Disneyland, Paris, a multi-billion dollar theme and amusement park, opened in the Parisian suburbs in 1992.
Paris today maintains its importance, character, and charm, though its appearance is being transformed by structures such as the BEAUBOURG and by the ambitious grands projets building program carried out under the presidency of François Mitterrand. In addition to the La Défense arch and the Paris Bastille Opéra, Mitterrand’s projects have included the renovation of the Louvre by architect I. M. Pei, the La Villette complex on the northeastern edge of the city, and, in the southeast, the Bibliothèque de France, a great computer-age library.