The Entire History of France in 23 Minutes

upon the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD the Germanic people known as the Franks came to inhabit the region that's today the country of France the entire area had been virtually abandoned which saw the rise of several tribal Frankish kingdoms after some time these kingdoms became united as one under the Merovingian dynasty and even expanded far beyond its origins drilling for some 300 years the kingdom of the Franks became too large a communication became impossible no ruled by the Carolingian dynasty the kingdom was divided into three with west francia being the one we're going to focus on per house it was well known King this early in history is Charlemagne who became king of the Franks in 768 and became unquestionably the most powerful man in Europe at a time when on Christmas Day 800 AD he was crowned emperor of the Romans after the death of Charlemagne the Carolingian dynasty was weak and finally came to an end in 87 when Hugh caffee was elected by the Lords of France as king he actually had very little power his authority barely extended beyond Paris and oily arms his power came from the influential electors have boasted them into the possession and more importantly the clergy in 1066 the Normans invaded England which resulted in on-and-off fighting between France and England starting a rivalry that would last for centuries eventually culminating in the Hundred Years War oh and they also played a huge part in the Crusades to recover the Holy Land from Muslim rule which was initially very successful and then now horrible failure after the death of Charles the fourth the throne of France was cleaned by both Philip of Valois an ad with the third King of England after some disagreements the French declared a state of war in 1337 the English showed their military superiority over France winning several victories in battle and even capturing the French King at one point a truce was signed in 1360 as Edward renounced his claim to the French throne an England were awarded substantial French land land which would almost entirely be recovered by France in the next half-century in 1393 our Regency was put into place for the French King Charles the sect who was kewal ruling due to his mental illness so the Queen ruled on his behalf a power struggle between burgundy and oil yarns resulted in a civil war when John the fearless had Louie of allianz assassinated in 1407 and the infamous Battle of Agincourt the burgundians did nothing to try and stall the English who were once again heavily defeating the French John the fearless captured Paris and 1418 and declared himself the region of Charles LaMotte but John was later murdered by a friend of the King seeking revenge John's son Philip the good saw an alliance with England as the English King was recognized as the heir to the French throne both Charles the sex and Henry the faith died in 1422 the name month old hen with the sex was crowned king of France and Paris having already been crowned King of England while Charles the seventh was crowned in Reims hostility started up again and the French morale was boosted by the emergence of a sixteen-year-old girl named Joan of Arc who claimed to have heard voices from God to drive the English out of France the French did indeed turn things around I'm going to ventually win the war unfortunately for Joan herself she was captured by the burgundians and later burned the state by the English burgundy made peace with France on the last major battle took place in 1453 with a decisive French victory effectively ending the war and English claims to the French throne [Music] towards the end of the 15th century France had themselves a problem a rapidly growing rival ray at their doorstep the Austrian House of Habsburg through various political managers over the years began to encircle France in 1477 with the death of Charles the bold the last meal heir of Burgundy his daughter married the Archduke of Austria Maximilian the first giving the has Berg huge amounts of land on the French border this coupled with the fact that various French kings had claims to various parts of Italy most notably Naples and Milan resulted in over 65 years of wars between the French and the Habsburgs in a rivalry that would last for centuries when Charles efest became Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 having previously become king of Spain the French were completely surrounded by lands that were directly or indirectly under his control this resulted in yet more Wars and SLE overall the house birds Kimura head and France would continue to be surrounded during this time was when France experienced that golden age of our and culture known as the Renaissance and was also when France began to explore the new world in the 16th century the Protestant Reformation caused many countries in Europe to turn their back on the teachings of the Catholic Church and the Pope although France remained mostly Catholic Protestants made out a substantial minority causing tensions where she eventually led to an all-out Civil War the tensions began with a persecution of French Protestants also known as hue nose under the reign of Francis the first merely being Protestant was punishable by imprisonment or even execution the war broke out in 1562 when Francis of DS who briefly ruled France as Regent the young francis ii massacred 60 Huguenots Francis himself was assassinated the very next year after a brief period of uneasy peace the Hyuga nose hatched a plan to capture the king and the Queen Mother but when this failed they massacred 24 Catholic priests and monks starting the civil war up again attempting to ease tensions King Charles the 9th arranged for the marriage of his sister to the Protestant Henry of Navarre less delighted Protestants but horrified Catholics the king ordered the killings of some of the hyuna leaders but spiraled way out of control and turned into a 3d massacre of about 30,000 heroes the massacre was organized by the eases and was Whaley suspected to have been assisted by the Queen Mother Charleston Ames died in 1570 for making Henry the third King with the death of their younger brother Francis and the fight the hen noobs and his 30s and yet produce an heir the next and length of the throne became quite unbelievably the Kings named cousin and also brother-in-law Henry of Navarre this period of the war is some things are fair to us the war of three Henry's Henry the third Henry of gi's and Henry of Navarre King had Henry of Keys assassinated and fled from Paris enter hating but he himself was assassinated by a knife to the abdomen as he was dying he instructed his senior officers to be loyal to Henry of Navarre who became King Henry the fourth and converted to Catholicism famously stating that Paris is worth a mass the King passed the Edict of Nantes which granted some raise to Huguenots which pleased neither Sade and tensions remained high Henry the fourth was assassinated in 1610 before his death colonization of the new world began under his rule and continued for several decades afterwards the 30 Years War started between various Protestant and Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire and was mostly a religious war but later escalated entire continent weighed power struggle becoming less about religion and more about politics France although a Catholic nation sated with the Protestants the reason for this the house Burks countering their long-term rival was more important the 30 Years War was one of the most destructive Wars Europe had ever seen with approximately 8 million deaths and the result of the war was inconclusive the peace of westphalia granted some territory to France Switzerland became independent from the Empire and the Independence of the Dutch Republic was recognised more than just a territorial changes though the 30 Years War was a real turning point in European history both in terms of religion and politics it put an end to the violence of the Protestant Reformation and more generally was the beginning of freedom of religion politically it was arguably the first war that really highlighted the importance of the balance of power the necessity of ensuring that one nation doesn't become too powerful to dominate all the others after 23 years of marriage and forced oberth's the queen of France finally gave birth to the nation's future king louis xiv who wrote france for 72 years a longest reigning monarch of european history this impressive feat was held by the fact that his father died just a few years after his birth as he King of France at just four years old during his minority the country was ruled by his mother Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin the country's chief minister and 1648 Paris rose up and revolt because the country was sick of being ruled by a Spaniard and an Italian as well as increased taxes to pay for the debt of several decades of war the revolt was suppressed and didn't really achieve much however it had a huge impact on an O ten-year-old King Louie he vowed to be a king that would never be revolted against Louie the 14th became known for being an absolute monarch and was the most powerful King in all of French history he is often quoted as saying Letta simois I am the state Louie the fourteenth was a devout Catholic and believed in his policy of one King one law one faith and to that end he revoked the Edict of Nantes issued by his grandfather Henry the fourth causing a mass exodus of over 400,000 Huguenots and major economic problems Louie the 14th was involved in several Wars during his long reign which expanded Frances borders to the near modern-day extent first there's a war against Spain then against Dutch a war against basically all of Europe and most importantly of all the war of the Spanish Succession the Spanish king died in 1700 without any ears to succeed him probably due to several generations of inbreeding anyway he left in his well the entire Spanish Empire to Philip of Anjou grandson of louis xiv having a Jew monarchy of France and Spain would seriously upset the balance of power so the grand alliance had been formed against France in the nine years war regrouped in support of their candidate for the Spanish throne the Archduke of Austria Charles of the House Burke House now despite the oils being severely stat against them and a spate suffering some heavy defeats early on France actually managed to hold their own and after nearly a decade of war fighting had basically become deadlocked in 1711 the situation completely changed the holy roman emperor joseph the first unexpectedly died of smallpox at the age of 32 and the Archduke Charles became the new Holy Roman Emperor Great Britain immediately backed out of the war against France the whole reason they were fighting against France was to prevent one monarch becoming too strong and disrupting the balance of power but never the Habsburgs had the potential to become even more powerful than France could have ever been negotiations had to be made an agreement was made where Philip would become king of Spain but had to renounce his claim to the throne of France for himself and his ancestors one year after the war ended louis xiv died at the age of 76 and having outlived his son grandson and even his first great grandson was succeeded by his second great grandson Louis the 15th now that's been no longer had a house burg monarch they sought to retake lands that they had lost and the Treaty of Utrecht and France actually joined an alliance against Spain under fail of bourbon monarch the Spanish were decisively defeated Spain was no longer the great power it once was yet another war succession broke out best aim in Poland although very little the faking actually took place in Poland it was primarily fought between France and Austria and the respective allies the Austrian bat Augustus the third took the throne but French bagged Stanislav was made Duke of Lorraine which would be inherited by France on his death France once again was at war with Austria the staying the Austrians themselves had a succession crisis Charles the safe was the last male heir of the Hasbrouck house to ensure the inheritance of their land they passed the pragmatic sanction in 1713 allowing their daughters to inherit their vast possessions while most initially accepted this when maria theresa ascended to the throne in 1740 a war ensued between all major European powers the French led the alliance against Maria in favor of the new Holy Roman Emperor Charles the seventh Prince elector of bavaria after seven years of war maria successfully defended her house berg inheritance speaking of wars that lasted seven years there was also the Seven Years War in 1756 long-term rival Austria was actually allied with France while the British and Prussians allied with each other the Seven Years War was a truly global the war has even been described by some as world war zero although some minor skirmishes happened in North America between the French and British colonies the war really took off between Austria and Prussia over Silesia unfortunately for the French the war was lost and Britain begins superior colonial power as France was forced to cede the majority of the colonial possessions to Britain and Spain although the British won the war it was financially devastating for them the increase in taxes on the colonial subjects soon became one of the factors that led to the American Revolution keen for revenge against Britain France was more than happy to help for centuries France had been ruled by a political and social system known as the ancien régime in which the power was concentrated with the wealthy and privileged the people were divided into three estates the clergy the nobility and everyone else the first two estates made up about 3% of the population and had huge tax exemptions was the Third Estate paying most of the taxes taxes were should be increased due to their support of the American Revolution the Age of Enlightenment caused many people to question the Kings right to rule the church's influence and politics and the entire nature of the hierarchical structure of French society attempting to solve the country's financial crisis the king gathered the estates-general the Kings advisory board which hadn't met since 1614 which consisted of representative from all three states disagreements however caused the Third Estate to leave and form their own government declaring themselves the National Assembly and vowed to not give up until France had a constitution shortly afterwards the king dismissed as financial minister Jacques Necker which caused riots in Paris and three days later the storming of the Bastille in August of 1789 feudalism was abolished and the Assembly adopted the declaration of race of man and of the citizen the King beginning to fear for his life attempted to flee the country but was discovered and captured this outraged the people and a petition drive to depose the king was organized but things got out of hand and fifty people were shot dead as the revolutionaries but can't the split into various factions Austria and Prussia vowed to help the king by invading France if his life was threatened so France just went ahead and invaded Austria because why not in 1792 the monarchy was abolished and France was declared a republic King Louie the sixteenth was found guilty of high treason and was executed by guillotine this is when things took a turn for the worse when the radical revolutionaries known as Jacobins seized power and began to execute just about anybody in a period known as the terror led by the ironically named Committee of Public Safety hated by maximilien robespierre a process of decolonization began even creating a new calendar and new days of the week desk led to counter revolutions and eventually on the 9th of Thermidor year - Robespierre was the nones by his own people and later he himself was executed ending the reign of terror outside of France the French army were actually having great success despite a large coalition of nations fighting against them largely due to the leadership of a certain military commander known as Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon went on to take control of France and a coup d'etat declaring himself first Consul of France the French Revolution sought to stop one man from having absolute power but he had effectively just swat one for another Napoleon's rule of France was very much a military dictatorship he was king in all but name five years after seizing power Napoleon assumed the imperial title being crowned emperor of France during his rule he was almost constantly at war with most of Europe has no less than seven coalition's formed against him as the various monarchies of Europe fought to protect the status quo Napoleon was initially incredibly successful and for a long time undefeated in battle he moved across Europe creating puppet States and installing his family members as royalty of the countries he conquered his greatest victory was in the battle of Austerlitz which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire securing victories against Austria Prussia and Russia the only real threat to Napoleon was Great Britain a planned invasion of the British Isles had to be called off after the entire French fleet was destroyed at the Bass laughter fogger France instead opted for economic warfare with the introduction of the Continental System which forbade European countries from trading with the British in 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia for refusing to adhere to the blockade on trade with Great Britain this turned out to be a fatal mistake as Napoleon lost half a million men in the brutal campaign encouraged by his defeat the countries of Europe once again foreign the coalition against them and decisively defeated the French Army in the Battle of Leipzig eventually leading to the surrender of Napoleon the monarchy was restored with louis xviii being crowned king and napoleon was exiled to the a land of Elba however he managed to escape less than one year later gained support in Paris overthrew the monarchy and raised an army but the coalition formed against him and he was defeated at Waterloo by Britain and Prussia Napoleon abdicated for the second time and he was exiled to even more and more Island a st. Helena where he died at the age of 51 after decades of unrest France once again had a monarchy but the French Revolution on Napoleon had such a profound impact on not only France but Europe as a whole in 1815 the monarchies of Europe convened at Vienna to restore the pre-revolution borders as base likud France was to remain a great power France soon had another revolution as the people were once again SEC of being ruled by the absolute monarchy of Charles the 10th the king was overthrown and what became known as the July revolution and he was replaced by the citizen King Louis Philippe a distant cousin of Charles the tenth almost simultaneously France invaded Algeria which became an incredibly important part of the colonial empire and within a few decades ruled huge parts of Africa throughout the July monarchy there was a distinct atmosphere of revolt and protest in the air so to protect the monarchy political meetings were banned in 1848 coinciding with many revolutions throughout Europe the king was forced to abdicate and France once again became a republic Louie Napoleon the other Napoleon's nephew was elected president in 1851 unable to run for reelection he organized the coup and declared himself president for life and a rare random of questionable integrity France briefly became an empire again when Napoleon the third took the Imperial title in 1852 Napoleon the third was nothing like his uncle when it came to war and diplomacy / decisions and humiliating defeats culminated in a war with Prussia and 1870 which ultimately led to the unification of Germany who became the dominant power on the continent the second French Empire quickly collapsed and France became a republic for the third time ever since the unification Germany had been a major rival of France in order to try and isolate them France signed an alliance with Britain and Russia the triple entendre is joined the first world war in 1914 when Germany declared war on them for mobilizing their army in support of Russia who mobilized their army in support of Serbia who had been declared war on by Austria Germany's plan was to quickly defeat the French and they actually did get close to Paris but the Allied powers were able to hold them off and the Western Front quickly became a stalemate in trench warfare despite winning in the Eastern Front against Russia in 1917 the tens of thousands of American reinforcements became too much for Germany who were slowly pushed back eventually resulting in factory for the Allies with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 French marshal Ferdinand force said this is not a peace it is an armistice for 20 years if only he knew just how true his words would be a 1939 France declared war and Nazi Germany after Hitler's invasion of Poland however they initially took a defensive possession and therefore were unable to prevent Poland from being conquered France itself was invaded in 1940 as the Nazis bypassed the French defensive fortifications known as the marginal Lane by simply going around it via Belgium unable to deal with the German blitzkrieg tactics Paris soon fell and most of France would be under Nazi occupation for the next four years General Charles de Gaulle declared himself head of the government in exile in London and when Nazi power began to decline the resistance was formed and Paris was liberated in 1944 as the Allies were ultimately victorious in the 1950s France began the process of decolonization starting with Libya when it came to Algeria though things were a little more complicated Algeria was considered an integral part of the French Republic and with France indecisive about what to do a war for independence began in 1954 the crisis in Algeria caused the French force Republic to collapse and Charles de Gaulle who previously resigned from politics returned and proclaimed a new constitution Algeria officially gained their independence in 1962 with the establishment of a new constitution the French very public was founded the country that France is today and so that's where I'm going to leave things because in the words of historian John Julius knowledge all history books must have a clearly defined stop in place if they don't the dragged on until they become works on current affairs and for me 1958 is where I've decided to draw the line thank you so much for watching I really hope you enjoyed this video which is sponsored by audible doing my research last video I listened to three audio books and in particular I thoroughly enjoy living the French Revolution on the age of Napoleon such an important period in French history which unfortunately I was only able to scratch the surface in this video you can get this audiobook right now for free if you sign up for a 30-day free trial over at audible.com forward slash wonder-why or taped wonder why to five hundred five hundred members get one credit per month for a free audiobook credit roll over to the next month audiobooks can be exchanged no questions asked and they're yours to keep even if you cancel your membership so go to audible.com slash wonder why or taste wonder why the five hundred five hundred to get started now thanks to audible for sponsoring this video and thanks to each and every one of you for watching

Channel: WonderWhy

Views: 1,898,609

Keywords: France, history, Napoleon, Louis XIV, French Revolution, French Wars of Religion, Hundred Years War, Charles de Gaulle

Id: 7FpeWSFTFRk

Length: 23min 51sec (1431 seconds)

Published: Thu May 31 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/youcanreachardy]

I was really hoping this was another Bill Wurtz video, like History of Japan