France History Outline

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France History Outline

• National motto Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
  (Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood)

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• Gaul
• Franks
• Middle Ages
• Ancien Régime
• Valois, Bourbon dynasties (socio-political
  system)- ½ way between feudalism modernity with
  absolute monarchy
• French Renaissance
• First estate clergy, Second estate nobility,
  Third estate rest of population
• Taille, Gabelle, Seigneurial system

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• French Revolution (1789-1815)
• Reasons
• Royal absolutism, resentment of seigneurial
  system , the enlightenment, national debt,
  taxation, food scarcity
• Reign of terror
• National Convention, Directory, Consulate

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• First Empire (1802) Napoleon I emperor
• Prefects, conseil de etat, Napoleonic codes of
  law
• Restoration 1814 Bourbon dynasty restored
• Sharp conservative, reestablishment Roman
  Catholic Church
• Louis XVII, Charles X, Louis-Philippe I
• Second Republic
• Republican regime Feb. 25, 1848 Dec. 2, 1852
• Second Empire
• Imperial Bonapartist regime Napoleon III
  1852-1870
• Crimean War
• Franco-Prussian War

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• Third Republic (1870-1940)
• 1870 defeat to Germany in WWII 1940
• Parliamentary regime 2 legislative bodies
  (Chamber of Deputies and Senate)
• N. France German occupation, S. Puppet regime
  Vichy
• Charles de Gaulle
• Forth Republic (1946-1958)
• Vincent Auriol (SFIO), 1947-1954
• René Coty, 1954-1959
• Republican constitution
• Parliamentary rule and weak executive
• National assemble
• Political stalemate nothing gets done
• Frequent changes in government
• First Indochina War defeat at battle of Dien
  Bien Phu
• Leads to Vietnam war
• Algerian War (1954-62)
• De Gaulle ( WWII hero) solves the Algerian problem

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• Fifth Republic (1958-present)
• Constructed by de Gaulle gave more power to the
  president and 7 yr. term (now 5)
• Republican constitution
• Strengthened executive, week parliament, and
  centralized democracy
• Algeria lost in 1962
• 1960s and 70s constant student protest which
  lead to police interference. Labor strikes that
  halt economy
• Georges Pompidou (19691974), Valéry Giscard
  d'Estaing (19741981), François Mitterrand
  (19811995), and Jacques Chirac (since 1995).

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