While the first humans appeared in the area 40,000 years ago, the first records for the History of France appear in the Iron Age. What is now France made up the bulk of the region known to the Romans as Gaul. Roman writers noted the presence of three main ethno-linguistic groups in the area: the Gauls, the Aquitani, and the Belgae. The Gauls, the largest and best attested group, were a Celtic people speaking what is known as the Gaulish language. Over the course of the first millennium BC the Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians established colonies on the Mediterranean coast and the offshore islands. The Roman Republic annexed southern Gaul as the province of Gallia Narbonensis in the late 2nd century BC, and Roman forces under Julius Caesar conquered the rest of Gaul in the Gallic Wars of 58–51 BC. Afterwards a Gallo-Roman culture emerged and Gaul was increasingly integrated into the Roman Empire.
France (English i/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] (
listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
History of France : Highlights from Louis XIV to Napoleon
The French Revolution: Crash Course World History #29
The French Revolution Tearing up History BBC full Documentary 2014
France: 2000 years of history in 2 min
Popular History of France Volume 1 - FULL Audio Book - Part 1 of 2 - by Francois Guizot
France: the last 800 years
The History of..:France
The history of France
Popular History of France from the Earliest Times Vol. 1: Ch 01 Gaul
FRANCE - History and Geography
How Hitler Humiliated France
France | Flag History
All Presidents, Emperors, and Kings of France
The Seven Years War: Crash Course World History #26
History of France : Highlights from Louis XIV to Napoleon
The French Revolution: Crash Course World History #29
The French Revolution Tearing up History BBC full Documentary 2014
France: 2000 years of history in 2 min
Popular History of France Volume 1 - FULL Audio Book - Part 1 of 2 - by Francois Guizot
France: the last 800 years
The History of..:France
The history of France
Popular History of France from the Earliest Times Vol. 1: Ch 01 Gaul
FRANCE - History and Geography
How Hitler Humiliated France
France | Flag History
All Presidents, Emperors, and Kings of France
The Seven Years War: Crash Course World History #26
France Political history
History Channel Documentary | National Geographic | France in WW2
World of Tanks. History of French Tanks
ASMR - Louisiana, Quebec: History of New France
Alternate History: "No France"
The Tudors : Scandalous Women in History of France and England from 15th-18th Century
Historical France Brussels Business Documentary
Popular History of France Volume 2 - FULL Audio Book - Part 4 of 4 - Hundred Years War
France Documentary: French History Documentary, 1968 Riots in Paris, French Strikes.