| | Bronze Age, Iron Age and Dark Ages - The ancient culture of the Celts had settled in many European countries including France
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| 768 | 768-814 - Charlemagne rules as King of the Franks and is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor |
| 987 | Hugh Capet founds the Capetian dynasty |
| 1066 | William, Duke of Normandy, invades England and wins the Battle of Hastings defeating King Harold |
| 1099 | First Crusade ( The People's Crusade). Jerusalem is re-taken from the Muslims on the urging of Pope Urban II. 1st Crusade led by Count Raymond IV of Toulouse and proclaimed by many wandering preachers, notably Peter the Hermit
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| 1118 | The Knights Templar founded to protect Jerusalem and European pilgrims on their journey to the city |
| 1147 | Second Crusade led by Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III and by King Louis VII of France |
| 1190 | Third Crusade 3rd Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. Saladin manages to unite the Muslim world and recapture Jerusalem, sparking the fourth Crusade
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| 1200 | Fourth Crusade and the French/Flemish advanced on Constantinople but the Christians fail to recapture Jerusalem
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| 1212 | The Children's Crusade led by a French peasant boy, Stephen of Cloyes |
| 1270 | Other crusades follow including the eighth crusade led by Louis IX of France - but the armies still fail to capture Jerusalem
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| 1337 | 1337 - 1443 - Hundred Years' War with England |
| 1337 | 1337 - 1443 - Hundred Years' War with England |
| 1346 | The French are defeated at the Battle of Crecy |
| 1348 | The Black Death ravages Europe for the first of many times. An estimated one third of the population is thought to have perished within the first year
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| 1356 | The French are defeated at the Battle of Poitiers |
| 1415 | Battle of Agincourt |
| 1429 | Joan of Arc lifts the siege of Orleans for the Dauphin of France, enabling him to eventually be crowned at Reims
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| 1430 | Capture, trial, and execution of Joan of Arc |
| 1434 | The Medici family rises to prominence in Florence |
| 1453 | The Hundred Years War ends. Calais is the only English possession on Continental Europe |
| 1494 | 1494 - 1559 - Italian Wars- France and Austria fight over Italian lands |
| 1515 | François I crowned French King |
| 1534 | Jacques Cartier discovers the Great Lakes and the the St. Lawrence River |
| 1547 | 1547 - 1559: Reign of Henry II |
| 1572 | Massacre of Protestants in Paris on St. Bartholomew's Eve by Catholics. 200,000 Huguenots fled France
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| 1589 | 1589 - 1593 - Henri IV becomes 1st French Catholic Bourbon King |
| 1603 | March 15: Samuel de Champlain set sail for Quebec from Honfleur, France following in the path of Jacques Cartier to the St Lawrence River and Tadoussac
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| 1605 | Samuel de Champlain establishes the first successful New France Colony at Port Royal |
| 1608 | Founding of Quebec |
| 1672 | New France expansion into Canada under Louis de Frontenac |
| 1758 | French power in Canada declines as the British capture Ft. Louisburg |
| 1617 | Louis XIII crowned at the age of 17 |
| 1624 | Cardinal Richelieu becomes French principal minister |
| 1643 | 1643 - 1715 - Louis XIV becomes king
Mazarin becomes French Prime Minister
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| 1715 | Louis XV accedes the throne on 5 May 1789 King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates-General at Versailles to obtain support for new taxes sewing the seeds of the French Revolution as the nobles and church were not subject to taxes
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| 1789 | June 1789 The commoners declared themselves a National Assembly giving themselves the power to write a new French constitution
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| 1789 | 14 July: The Bastille stormed by the people of Paris |
| 1792 | King Louis and Queen Marie-Antoinette are executed and a republic set up in France |
| 1793 | Napoleon Bonaparte promoted to general during the war with Prussia and Austria |
| 1799 | 1799 - 1814: Napoleon seizes control of France and begins building a French empire |
| 1815 | Napoleon defeated at Waterloo by the British and exiled. The Bourbons were returned to the French throne
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| 1824 | Charles X becomes king |
| 1830 | July: Charles X overthrown during the July Revolution of 1830 |
| 1848 | Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon, was elected to a four-year term as French president
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| 1815 | Louis Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power |
| 1852 | Louis Napoleon Bonaparte declares himself Emperor Napoleon III of France |
| 1870 | France declares war on Prussia and Emperor Napoleon III is overthrown |
| 1914 | 1914-1918 World War I - Germany invades France |
| 1939 | 3 September: France and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany starting World War 2 |
| 1940 | 14 June: German troops enter Paris |
| 1944 | 25 August: Allied troops regain Paris and Charles De Gaulle becomes head of a provisional French government
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| 1945 | August: The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki |
| 1956 | Morocco and Tunisia granted their independence from France |
| 1962 | 3 July: Algeria becomes independent. |
