History of Paris, France

The Gallic oppidum Lutetia (Lutecia) on the Île de la Cité, also called Lutetia Parisiorum as the capital of the Celtic Parisii, was founded in 52 BC. Conquered by the Romans. Then the Roman city was built on the left bank of the Seine, which is safe from flooding. The remains of the thermal baths (at the Hôtel de Cluny) and an amphitheater (Arènes de Lutèce) have been preserved. After the destruction by Franks and Alemanni in the 3rd century, the Île de la Cité was fortified; the Roman city was abandoned. As a strategically important place, Paris was temporarily the residence of the Caesars Julian (356-360) and Valentinian (365 and 366) in the 4th century. Since 461 Paris belonged to an independent Roman rulership in Gaul.

In 486 Paris was conquered by the Merovingian king Clovis I and after his victory over the Visigoths in 508 it was capital of the Frankish Empire. Under the Carolingians it sank again to the seat of the counts. In 885/886 Count Odo defendedParis against the Normans and was elected King of West Franconia in 888. With the Capetians, the city became the center of the French Empire at the end of the 10th century, but had to maintain this position against Orléans in the 11th century. Paris developed differently on both sides of the Seine, starting from Île de la Cité with the bishopric in the east and the royal palace in the west. On the left bank, the area of ​​the Roman southern city around today’s Panthéon, numerous monasteries were built in Franconian times around which small village settlements developed (“bourg”, later called “faubourg”). Numerous scholars emerged from these monasteries. Teachers and students joined forces in the 12th century to form a »Universitas« and thus laid the foundation for the oldest university in the country. the Sorbonne. In addition, many other colleges and teaching institutions were created. Since the lessons were predominantly held in Latin, the name “Quartier Latin” became common. A craftsmen’s and traders’ settlement had already been built on the right bank in Carolingian times and was also walled in (“ville”). It was not until the 11th century that a more dynamic development began here.

Philip II Augustus united the three parts of the city with a wall ring from 1190 to 1220. Paris then had about 100,000 residents. The rapidly growing city had to get a new wall by Charles V as early as 1370. In the 13th century there were approaches to urban self-government. But it was only through the weakening of the central power in the Hundred Years War that the board of the merchants’ guild (“prévôt des marchands”) gained greater influence. In this position, É leaned . Marcel against the Dauphin in 1358. 1420–36 Paris was in English hands.

In the wars of religion, the city, whose citizens were in favor of the Catholic party, played a key role; In 1572 it was the scene of the Bartholomew Night. In 1648 the Fronde rebellion broke out in Paris. Louis XIV was able to return in 1652, but withdrew from the Palais-Royal to the Tuileries and later to Versailles. Louis XIII. had expanded the city fortifications, Louis XIV had the walls laid down in the mid-1670s and the “Great Boulevards” built in their place. In 1684 the city had grown to 425,000 residents. 1784–91, Louis XVI. build another wall ring (“Enceinte des fermiers généraux”), which was a purely fiscal limit and was supposed to increase customs revenue. Even after the relocation of the royal residence, Paris retained the leading political role because of its population and its economic importance. At the time of the French Revolution it already had over half a million residents. Under the consulate and the First Empire (1799–1814 / 15) Paris received many of its representative buildings, such as the Arc de Triomphe, numerous bridges and the stock exchange.

In 1837 the Paris – Saint-Germain railway was opened. Another walling (»Enceinte de Thiers«), built 1841–45, 39 km long, with 94 bastions and 16 forts as well as a ring railway, which was subsequently expanded, made Paris the largest city fortress in the world at the time. In 1859 the eleven suburbs located within this wall were incorporated; In 1859, 526,000 residents lived on 7,800 hectares. The growing number of residents required social measures early on, but these were mostly inadequate. The inadequate housing conditions contributed to the development of epidemics (1832 cholera). When the rural exodus to Paris began in 1846, the living conditions in the slums in the east of the city became completely unbearable.

According to zipcodesexplorer, Paris became a modern metropolis under G. E. Baron Haussmann, 1853–70 Prefect of the Département Seine: He had ten bridges built, road openings to create space for traffic (including the Place de l’Étoile, now Place Charles de Gaulle) and parks. The sewer network was renovated over a length of 570 km and the drinking water supply expanded. In addition to purely humanitarian considerations, political motives always played a major role in the urban redevelopment. So it was important to prevent the emergence of unrest through social and structural policy measures. The new, wide boulevards were intended to prevent roadblocks in the event of civil revolts. After the collapse of the Second Empire, the enclosure and bombardment (from January 5, 1871) of the city by German troops, the citizens of Paris tried to against the conservative provisional government of the republic to build a community based on democratic, partly socialist ideals; the ” Paris Commune “was bloody ended by the government troops on May 28, 1871 with the capture of the city.

The cultural charisma that has emanated from Paris for centuries has also been expressed since the 19th century in the world exhibitions that took place there in 1855, 1867, 1878, 1889, 1900 and 1937.

After the First World War, the bastions and fortifications of Paris were leveled and replaced by spacious boulevards, and in 1930 the military glacis area was incorporated. Paris had now reached an area of ​​10,402 hectares. During the Second World War, the city was occupied by German troops from 1940–44.

Islamist terror 2015: 17 people were killed in January 2015 in connection with a terrorist attack by Islamist bombers on the editorial staff of the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” and a hostage-taking in a Jewish supermarket. On January 11, 2015, around 1.5 million people, including numerous heads of state and government from all over the world, commemorated the 17 victims during a “Republican March”. On November 13, 2015, 130 people were killed in a series of attacks in six locations in Paris, and over 350 people were injured. The “Islamic State” claimed responsibility on the Internetto the attacks. Three assassins blew themselves up near the “Stade de France”, where an international soccer match between France and Germany was taking place. An uninvolved passer-by was killed. 89 people alone died at a rock concert in the “Bataclan” concert hall on Boulevard Voltaire, where heavily armed terrorists shot into the crowd. An assassin was shot by the police here and two others blew themselves up. The other victims died when a group of terrorists randomly shot at visitors to various restaurants in the Place de la République and Place de la Bastille area. An assassin blew himself up in front of a café.

History of Paris, France