+The History of Paris Summed Up by Everything BelowEra/TimeYear(s)Parisian EventsMesolithic Eraca. 8000 BCFirst traces of human occupation in Paris.The Parisii settementca. 250-225 BCThe Parisii settled on the banks of the Seine.Roman Invasionca. 52 BCA Roman army led by Titus Labienus defeats the Parisii and establishs Lutetia.Christianisationca. 200 ADParis was Christianised.The Franks Capital508 ADParis was made the capital of the Franks.Founding of First Universitiesca. 1250The University of Paris was founded, being one of Europe's oldest universities.Bubonic Plagueca. 1400The Bubonic Plague strikes Paris.Occupation1418-1436The Burgundians and English occupy Paris.Hundred's Year Warca. 1500The Bubonic Plague strikes again.French Revolution1789The French revolt against the monarchy.Napoleonca. 1800Napoleon brought Paris to glory.Rebuilding1852-1870The French rebuild the center of Paris.Highest Pop.1921Paris hit a high of 2.1 million residents, then declined.Occupation II1940-1944France is occupied by Germany during the Third Reich.
Introduction
The oldest traces of human occupation in Paris date from about 8000 BC, during the Mesolithic period. Between 250 and 225 BC, the Parisii settled on the banks of the Seine, built bridges and a fort, minted coins, and began to trade with other river settlements in Europe.Combeau, Yvan, Histoire de Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1999, p. 6. In 52 BC, a Roman army led by Titus Labienus defeated the Parisii and established a Gallo-Roman garrison town called Lutetia.Schmidt, Lutèce, Paris des origines à Clovis (2009), pp. 88–104. The town was Christianised in the 3rd century AD, and after the collapse of the Roman Empire, it was occupied by Clovis I, the King of the Franks, who made it his capital in 508.
During the Middle Ages, Paris was the largest city in Europe, an important religious and commercial centre, and the birthplace of the Gothic style of architecture. The University of Paris on the Left Bank, organised in the mid-13th century, was one of the first in Europe. It suffered from the Bubonic Plague in the 14th century and the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century, with recurrence of the plague. Between 1418 and 1436, the city was occupied by the Burgundians and English.
The French War of Religion and Enlightenment In the 16th century, Paris became the book-publishing capital of Europe, though it was shaken by the French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants. In the 18th century, Paris was the centre of the intellectual ferment known as the Enlightenment, and the main stage of the French Revolution from 1789. In the 19th century, Napoleon embellished the city with monuments to military glory. It became the European capital of fashion and the scene of two more revolutions (in 1830 and 1848).
The centre of Paris was rebuilt between 1852 and 1870 with wide new avenues, squares and new parks, and the city was expanded to its present limits in 1860. In the latter part of the century, millions of tourists came to see the Paris International Expositions and the new Eiffel Tower.
History of Population In the 20th century, Paris suffered bombardment in World War I and German occupation from 1940 until 1944 in World War II. Between the two wars, Paris was the capital of modern art and a magnet for intellectuals, writers and artists from around the world. The population reached its historic high of 2.1 million in 1921, but declined for the rest of the century. New museums (The Centre Pompidou, Musée Marmottan Monet and Musée d'Orsay) were opened, and the Louvre given its glass pyramid. In the 21st century, Paris added new museums and a new concert hall, but in 2005 it also experienced violent unrest in the housing projects in the surrounding banlieues (suburbs), inhabited largely by immigrants from France's former colonies in the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, two deadly terrorist attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists. The population of the city declined steadily from 1921 until 2004, due to a decrease in family size and an exodus of the middle class to the suburbs; but it is increasing slowly once again, as young people and immigrants move into the city.
Prehistory
In 2008, archaeologists of the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) digging in the 15th arrondissement, not far from the Left Bank of the Seine, discovered the oldest human (found as of the time of this writing) remains and traces of a hunter-gatherer settlement in Paris, dating to about 8000 BC, during the Mesolithic period.
Other more recent traces of temporary settlements had been found at Bercy in 1991, dating from around 4500–4200 BC. The excavations at Bercy found the fragments of three wooden canoes used by fishermen on the Seine, the oldest dating to 4800–4300 BC. They are now on display at the Carnavalet Museum. vidéo, radio, audio et publicité - Actualités, archives de la radio et de la télévision en ligne - Archives vidéo et radio. Ina.fr. Retrieved on 2013-07-12. vidéo, radio, audio et publicité - Actualités, archives de la radio et de la télévision en ligne - Archives vidéo et radio. Ina.fr. Retrieved on 2013-07-12. Excavations at the 15th arrondissement site found traces of settlements from the middle Neolithic period (4200–3500 BC); the early Bronze Age (3500–1500 BC); and the first Iron Age (800–500 BC).Dictionnaire historique de Paris (2013), Le Livre de Poche, p. 608. Hatchets made in eastern Europe were found at the Neolithic site in Bercy, showing that first Parisians were already trading with other parts of Europe.
Parisii and the Roman conquest (250–52 BC)
Between 250 and 225 BC, during the Iron Age, the Parisii settled on the banks of the Seine. At the beginning of the 2nd century BC, they built an oppidum, a walled fort, whose location is disputed. It may have been on the Île de la Cité, where bridges of an important trading route crossed the Seine. In his account of the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar recorded meeting with the leaders of the Parisii on an island in the Seine. Other historians cite an absence of traces of an early Gallic settlement on the island, and believe the oppidum was actually in Nanterre, in the Paris suburbs, where vestiges of a large settlement were discovered during construction of a highway in the 1980s.Nanterre et les Parisii : Une capitale au temps des Gaulois ?, Antide Viand, Sarmant, Thierry, Histoire de Paris, p. 10
The settlement was called "Lucotocia" (according to the ancient Greek geographer Strabo) or "Leucotecia" (according to Roman geographer Ptolemy), and may have taken its name from the Celtic word lugo or luco, for a marsh or swamp.Schmidt, Lutèce,- Paris, des origines à Clovis (2009), pp. 28–29. It had a strategic position on the main trade route, via the Seine and Rhône rivers, between Britain and to the Roman colony of Provence and the Mediterranean Sea. The location and the fees for crossing the bridge and passing along the river made the town prosperous, so much so that it was able to mint its own gold coins.
Julius Caesar and his Roman army campaigned in Gaul between 58 and 53 BC under the pretext of protecting the territory from Germanic invaders, but in reality to conquer it and annex it to the Roman Republic.Schmidt, Lutèce, Paris des origines à Clovis (2009), pp. 74-76. The Parisii formed a secret alliance with the other Gallic tribes, under the leadership of Vercingetorix, and launched an uprising against the Romans in January 52 BC.Schmidt, Lutèce, Paris des origines à Clovis (2009), pp. 80–81. The Parisii fought bravely and desperately in what became known as the Battle of Lutetia. The Commander of the Parisii, Camulogene, was killed and his soldiers were cut down by the disciplined Romans. Despite the defeat, the Parisii continued to resist the Romans. They sent eight thousand men to fight with Vercingetorix in his last stand against the Romans at the Battle of Alesia.
Roman Lutetia (52 BC – AD 486)
The Romans built an entirely new city as a base for their soldiers and the Gallic auxiliaries intended to keep an eye on the rebellious province. The new city was called Lutetia (Lutèce) or "Lutetia Parisiorum" ("Lutèce of the Parisii"), probably from the Latin word luta, meaning mud or swamp.Dictionnaire historique de Paris (2013), p. 41 The major part of the city was on the left bank of the Seine, which was higher and less prone to flood. It was laid out following the traditional Roman town design along a north–south axis.Dictionnaire historique de Paris (2013), p. 412.
The city was centered on the forum atop the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève. The main building of the forum was one hundred meters long and contained a temple, a basilica used for civic functions and a square portico which covered shops. Nearby was an enormous amphitheatre built in the 1st century AD, which could seat ten to fifteen thousand spectators, though the population of the city was only six to eight thousand.Sarmant, Thierry, Histoire de Paris: Politique, urbanisme, civilisation (2012), p. 12. Fresh drinking water was supplied to the city by an aqueduct sixteen kilometres long from the basin of Rungis and Wissous. The aqueduct also supplied water to the famous baths, or Thermes de Cluny, built near the forum at the end of the 2nd century or beginning of the 3rd century. Under Roman rule, the town was thoroughly Romanised and grew considerably.
Besides the Roman architecture and city design, the newcomers imported Roman cuisine: modern excavations have found amphorae of Italian wine and olive oil, shellfish, and a popular Roman sauce called garum. Despite its commercial importance, Lutetia was only a medium-sized Roman city, considerably smaller than Lugdunum (Lyon) or Agedincum (Sens), which was the capital of the Roman province of Lugdunensis Quarta, in which Lutetia was located.Combeau, Yvan, Histoire de Paris (2013), p. 11.
Christianity was introduced into Paris in the middle of the 3rd century AD. According to tradition, it was brought by Saint Denis, the Bishop of the Parisii, who was beheaded on Mount Mercury when he refused to renounce his faith. According to the tradition, Saint Denis picked up his head and carried it to a secret Christian cemetery of Vicus Cattulliacus about six miles away. A different version of the legend says that a devout Christian woman, Catula, came at night to the site of the execution and took his remains to the cemetery. The hill where he was executed, Mount Mercury, later became the Mountain of Martyrs ("Mons Martyrum"), eventually Montmartre.Schmidt, Joël, Lutèce: Paris, des origines à Clovis (2009), pp. 210–211. A church was built on the site of the grave of St. Denis, which later became the Basilica of Saint-Denis. By the 4th century, the city had its first recognized bishop, Victorinus (346). By 392, it had a cathedral.Sarmant, Thierry, Histoire de Paris: Politique, urbanisme, civilisation (2012), pp. 16–18.
Late in the 3rd century AD, the invasion of Germanic tribes, beginning with the Alamans in 275, caused many of the residents of the Left Bank to leave that part of the city and move to the safety of the Île de la Cité. Many of the monuments on the Left Bank were abandoned, and the stones used to build a wall around the Île de la Cité, the first city wall of Paris. A new basilica and baths were built on the island; their ruins were found beneath the square in front of the cathedral of Notre Dame.Sarmant, Thierry, Histoire de Paris: Politique, urbanisme, civilisation (2012), p. 14. Beginning in 305, the name Lutetia was replaced on milestones by Civitas Parisiorum, or "City of the Parisii". By the period of the Late Roman Empire (the 3rd–5th centuries AD), it was known simply as "Parisius" in Latin and "Paris" in French.Meunier, Florian, Le Paris du Moyen Âge (2014), Éditions Ouest-France. p. 12.