History of France: from the Middle Ages to the 5th Republic

1. The Middle Ages

-Jeanne d'Arc

-The One Hundred Years War

-The construction of Cathedrals in France

 

2. The Renaissance in France

-The castles of the Loire Valley

-Francois the 1st

-The ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts: August 10-25, 1539 -Leonardo DeVinci -The Pléiade: Ronsard, Bellay, etc. 

 

3. From Henry IV to Louis XIV: towards royal absolutism

-Henri IV and the Edict of Nantes

-Louis XIII, Richelieu and the assertion of royal power

-Vaux-le-Vicomte and Fouquet

-Louis XIV, Versailles and his artists: the absolute monarch.

-Jean de la Fontaine

-The Classical Theater: Corneille, Racine

-The theater according to Molière

-Versailles and its celebrations

-Lully

 

4. The Age of Enlightenment

-The philosophers

- "When Europe spoke French"

- Scientific and technical progress

 

5. The French Revolution

-Its important figures.

-Its important events.

-The symbols of the French Republic

 

6. From Bonaparte to Napoleon I

-Biography of Napoleon

-The administrative and architectural achievements of Napoleon

 

7. Victor Hugo through his political struggles and his great works

-The death penalty

-The construction of Europe

-The fight against misery

-The romantic theater

-His poetry

-His great novels

 

8. 1830: The Three Glorious and the adventure of Romanticism 

-Louis Philippe

-Delacroix: Freedom guiding the people

- Romanticism in France, in arts and letters

 

9. The Second Empire (1852-1870)

-Napoleon III

-Paris rebuilt by Haussmann

-The Opera Garnier

-Festivals under the Empire

-Offenbach

 

10. Some highlights of the Third Republic (from September 4, 1870 to July 10, 1940)

- 1874: beginning of Impressionism.

-1881: Freedom of the press

-1881-1882: The Jules Ferry laws on the school

-1894-1906: The Dreyfus Affair

-1905: Law of Separation of Churches and State.

-1914-1918: The First World War.

-1936: The Popular Front: Paid holidays

 

11. "The Belle Epoque": France from 1880 to 1914

 

12. The Roaring Twenties (1920-1929): Period of intense social, cultural and artistic activity

 

13. From the French State (1940 to 1944) to the Fourth Republic (1946-1958)

-The Second World War

-The Indochina War

-The Algerian war

-The women's vote

 

14. The Fifth Republic

-Charles de Gaulle

-The different presidents of the Fifth Republic

-May 1968