Name: France Continent: Europe Population: 59,600,000 Religion: Roman Catholic 90%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim (North African workers) 3%, unaffiliated 4%

Although ultimately a victor in World Wars I and II, France suffered extensive losses in its empire, wealth, manpower, and rank as a dominant nation-state. Nevertheless, France today is one of the most modern countries in the world and is a leader among European nations. Since 1958, it has constructed a presidential democracy resistant to the instabilities experienced in earlier parliamentary democracies. In recent years, its reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of Europe, including the advent of the euro in January 1999. Presently, France is at the forefront of European states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European defense and security apparatus. Information from the CIA World Fact Book

Timeline of Events Date Event 274   274 Aurelian defeats rebels at Châlons to restore Roman authority in Gaul 473   473 King Euric of the Visigoths declares Gaul independent of Roman rule 732 11 October 732 Frankish army under Charles Martel defeats Umayyad army at the battle of Tours 911   911 Norman noble Rollo converts and pays homage to Charles III of France; Origin of the Duchy of Normandy 1208   1208 Pope Innocent III declares crusade against Albigensian heresy in Languedoc 1214 27 July 1214 Philip II of France decisively defeats Emperor Otto IV at battle of Bouvines; Confirms French conquest of Normandy and other English territories 1259   1259 Henry III of England renounces claims to Normandy and other Angevin territories in France 1295 5 July 1295 France and Scotland form alliance against England; Origin of the "Auld Alliance" 1302 18 May 1302 Fleming militiamen defeat French army at Courtrai 1309   1309 Pope Clement V moves the papacy to Avignon, France 1338  August 1338 Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV supports Edward III's claim to the French throne 1340 24 June 1340 Battle of Sluys 1346 26 July 1346 English army sacks Caen, Normandy 24 August 1346 English army under the Black Prince defeat the French at the battle of Blanchetaque 26 August 1346 English defeat French at battle of Crécy; Emergence of the English longbow  September 1346 Siege of Calais begins 4 October 1346 English capture Poitiers 1347  August 1347 Siege of Calais ends 1348   1348 Bubonic plague spreads to France and Spain 1356 19 September 1356 English longbowmen defeat French army at the Battle of Poiters; French King John II captured and held for ransom 1359 28 October 1359 English troops invade Calais 1360 24 October 1360 English and French ratify the Treaty of Brétigny; John II's ransom set at 3 million écus 1364 29 September 1364 Combined Breton-English army defeats French at the Battle of Auray 1372 22 June 1372 Combined Castilian-French fleet defeats English fleet at the battle of La Rochelle 1387 24 March 1387 English defeat Franco-Castilian fleet at the Battle of Margate 1389   1389 Truce of Leulinghen begins a 15-year interim of peace between England and France 1415 11 August 1415 Henry V invades France 22 September 1415 English army under Henry V captures Harfleur 1422 30 October 1422 The dauphin Charles VII renounces the Treaty of Troyes; War resumes in central France 1423 31 July 1423 English army defeats French army at the Battle of Cravant 1429 12 February 1429 English defeat French at battle of Rouvray 12 June 1429 French army under Joan of Arc defeats English garrison and captures Jargeau 1440 7 July 1440 English forces retake Harfleur 1608   1608 Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec 1634 6 September 1634 Catholic Imperial army defeats Swedish army at the Battle of Nördlingen 1700 1 November 1700 Charles II of Spain dies; Leaves inheritance to Dauphin of France 1715   1715 Louis XIV dies 1726   1726 Voltaire exiled from France 1763   1763 French and Indian War ends 1788   1788 Bread riots erupt in France 1792   1792 Jacobins seize power in France 1793   1793 France bans Catholicism 1796   1796 Napoleon assumes command of the Army of Italy; marries Josephine 1802   1802 French Revolutionary Wars begins 25 March 1802 Treaty of Amiens 1803   1803 Napoleonic Wars begins 30 April 1803 Louisiana Purchase Treaty signed in Paris; The United States purchases rights to 828,800 square miles of territory from France 1805 21 October 1805 Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar to maintain naval supremacy 2 December 1805 Battle of Austerlitz 1806 14 October 1806 French army destroys Prussian army at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt 1807 7 February 1807 Battle of Eylau 1811 5 March 1811 Battle of Barrosa 1812 7 September 1812 Battle of Borodino 1813 16 October 1813 The Sixth Coalition defeats Napoleon's army at the Battle of Leipzig, forcing French withdrawal from German territory 1814 7 March 1814 Battle of Caronne 20 March 1814 Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube 11 April 1814 Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to St. Elba according to the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau 1 November 1814 Representatives from Austria, Russia, Prussia, Britain, and France meet at the Congress of Vienna to discuss future of Europe 1815 26 February 1815 Napoleon escapes Elba in an attempt to reestablish his power. Coalition forces defeat him at the battle of Waterloo. 1822 27 September 1822 Jean-François Champollion announces the deciphering of the Rosetta stone 1830 27 July 1830 Bourbon monarchy overthrown during the July Revolution in France. Louis-Philippe becomes constitutional monarch of France 1831 14 January 1831 Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (or The Hunchback of Notre Dame) 1832   1832 Edouard Manet born 1834   1834 Edgar Degas born 1840   1840 Claude Monet born 1848   1848 Paul Gauguin born 1849   1849 Feminist novelist George Sand's La Petite Fadette 1856   1856 Declaration of Paris 1859   1859 Alexis de Tocqueville dies   1859 Georges Seurat born 1862 5 May 1862 Cinco de Mayo: The Mexican victory over the French at the town of Puebla is commemorated as a Mexican national holiday. 1863   1863 Lucien Pissarro born 1864   1864 Henri Toulouse-Lautrec born 1869   1869 Henri Matisse born 1870   1870 Battle of Wissembourg   1870 Battle of Worth   1870 Battle of Spicheren   1870 Battle of Colombey   1870 Battle of Mars-La-Tour   1870 Battle of Gravelotte   1870 Battle of Metz   1870 Battle of Coulmiers 19 July 1870 Franco-Prussian War begins following Spanish Succession Crisis 19 October 1870 Siege of Paris begins 1871   1871 Battle of Bapaume   1871 Battle of Le Mans 10 May 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt ends Franco-Prussian War; German Empire recognized and France loses Alsace-Lorraine 1881   1881 Edgar Degas's sculpture Little Dancer of Fourteen Years 1886 28 October 1886 Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York 1892   1892 Post-Impressionist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paints At the Moulin Rouge 1893   1893 Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne's still life Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier  June 1893 Publication of French novelist Émile Zola's Le Docteur Pascal, the final installment of his 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart 1898 10 July 1898 British and French resolve the Fashoda Incident over colonial boundaries in Africa, confirming British control over Sudan; Seen as important precursor to the Entente Cordiale 1902   1902 Auguste Rodin's sculpture The Thinker 1905 31 March 1905 The First Moroccan Crisis; Germany disputes status of French protectorate in Morocco 1907   1907 Cubist Exhibition in Paris; Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso 1914 5 September 1914 The German Schlieffen Plan fails when French forces defeat the German army at the First Battle of the Marne; Four years of trench warfare ensue on the Western Front 1926   1926 Claude Monet dies 1940 22 June 1940 France under Petain signs armistice with Germany at Rethondes 1946 19 December 1946 Viet Minh forces launch rebellion against French authority in Vietnam; Beginning of the First Indochina War 1954   1954 Henri Matisse dies 7 May 1954 French forces of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps surrender to Viet Minh forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu 1 November 1954 The Algerian War of Independence: French forces fight Algerian guerrilla forces for 8 years before granting independence to Algeria 1957 25 March 1957 The Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community; West Germany, Italy, France, and the Benelux nations are founding members 1960   1960 Chad gains independence from France 1966 11 March 1966 President Charles de Gaulle withdraws French military forces from NATO's integrated military command Go here for timeline sources.