The Discovery of France (54 page)

1532

Union of Brittany to France.

1539

Decree of Villers-Cottereˆts makes French the official language of all legal documents.

1589–1610

Reign of Henri IV; Basse-Navarre, Foix and Auvergne (Comte´) joined to France.

1610

Accession of Louis XIII: ruled 1624–43; Cardinal de Richelieu (d. 1642) chief minister.

1620

Be´arn joined to France.

1643

Accession of Louis XIV; ministry of Cardinal Mazarin (1643–61).

1648

Peace of Westphalia: France acquires parts of Alsace and Lorraine.

1659

Treaty of the Pyrenees: France acquires Roussillon and neighbouring regions, most of Artois and parts of Flanders.

1661–1715

Reign of Louis XIV. Conquests in Flanders, Franche-Comte´ and Alsace. Incorporation of Nivernais and the Dauphine´ d’Auvergne.

1667–82

Construction of the Canal du Midi.

1685

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

1702–10

War of the Camisards (persecution of Protestants in the Ce´vennes).

1715–23

Regency of Philippe d’Orle´ans.

1726–43

Ministry of Cardinal de Fleury.

1741

June
– Windham expedition to Chamonix.

1743–74

Reign of Louis XV.

1756–1815

Publication of the Cassini map of France.

1766

Incorporation of Lorraine.

1768

Genoa cedes Corsica to France.

1774

Accession of Louis XVI.

1775

Public coaches permitted to use staging posts.

1786

8 August
– First recorded ascent of Mont Blanc.

1789

14
July
– Fall of the Bastille.
August
– abolition of feudal rights and privileges.
November
– national sale of Church property.

1790

15
January
– France divided into eighty-three
d
e´partements
.

1790

August
– Abbe´ Gre´goire, ‘Report on the Necessity and Means of Exterminating Patois and Universalizing the Use of the French Language’.

1791

June
– Arrest of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.
August
– Jews granted full citizenship;
September
– annexation of Avignon and Comtat Venaissin (later part of Vaucluse).

1792–8

Meridian expedition of Delambre and Me´chain.

1793

21
January
– Execution of Louis XVI.
16
October
– Execution of Marie-Antoinette.

1794

28
July
– Execution of Robespierre.
September
– Rhoˆne expedition of Boissel de Monville.

1795–99

Directoire.

1799

9 November (18 Brumaire)
– Coup d’e´tat: Napoleon Bonaparte First Consul.

1801

First census of the population of France.

1804

Coronation of Napoleon I.

1814

First abdication of Napoleon; first Restoration.

1815

18
June
– Battle of Waterloo.

1815–24

Reign of Louis XVIII.

1824

Accession of Charles X.

1828

1 October
– Opening of first railway in France, from Saint-E´ tienne to Andre´zieux (opened to passengers 1832; horses replaced by steam, 1844).

1830

June
– Capture of Algiers. July Revolution. Abdication of Charles X. Coronation of Louis-Philippe.

1832

April
to
May
– Rebellion in the Vende´e led by the Duchesse de Berry.

1833

June
– Guizot’s education law: each
commune
of five hundred inhabitants or more to maintain an elementary school for boys (girls from 1836).

1834–52

Prosper Me´rime´e tours France as Inspector General of Historic Monuments.

1836

The state assumes responsibility for upkeep of minor roads (
chemins vicinaux
).

1841

First complete geological map of France.
June to September
– tax riots.

1848

February Revolution. Universal male suffrage.
June
– repression of popular revolt.

1851

2
December
– Coup d’e´tat of Louis-Napole´on Bonaparte (Emperor Napoleon III, 1852–70).

1852

Start of pe´brine epidemic (disease of silkworms).

1856

Mediterranean joined to Atlantic by the Canal Late´ral a` la Garonne.

1857–

Forestation of 2.5 million acres of the Landes.

1858

February to July
– Virgin Mary appears to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes.

1860

Savoy and Nice become part of France.

1863

Start of phylloxera epidemic (disease of vines).

1870

September
– Defeat of France by Prussia at Sedan; Siege of Paris; France loses Alsace and Lorraine. Ligue du Midi founded in Marseille. Proclamation of the Third Republic.

1871

Paris Commune elected (March) and defeated by government troops (May).

1873

Franco-Provenc¸al language identified by G.-I. Ascoli.

1874

Club Alpin Franc¸ais founded.

1879

Government funding of local railways and canals (Freycinet Plan): 696 stations or halts in 1854; 4,801 in 1885 (6,516 in 2006).

1882

Ethnographic Museum opens at the Palais du Trocade´ro in Paris.

1882

April
– Law for the Restoration of Mountain Terrains.

1881–82

Free, compulsory, secular education for boys and girls from six to thirteen (Jules Ferry laws).

1888–1913

Underground explorations of E´ douard-Alfred Martel.

1889

Universal Exhibition and inauguration of Eiffel Tower.

1893

August
– Massacre of Italian immigrant workers at Aigues-Mortes.

1898

13 January
– ‘
J’Accuse!
’: Zola’s letter on the Dreyfus Affair.

1900

19 July
– Opening of first Me´tro line in Paris.

1901–4

Anticlerical measures (governments of Rene´ Waldeck-Rousseau and E´ mile Combes).

1903

1–19
July
– First Tour de France bicycle race (six stages, 1,518 miles).

1904

8
April
– ‘Entente Cordiale’ agreements between France and Britain.

1905

August
– Exploration of Gorges du Verdon.

1909

April
– Beatification of Jeanne d’Arc.

1911

French protectorate in Morocco.

1914

1 August
– France orders general mobilization.

1918

11 November
– Armistice.