History of Paris

You need to know about the history of Paris to see and feel the culture and heritage of the place. It was around 4200 BC that the signs of habitation had begun to show. They were the traders and the boats men who had settled in the area near the Seine. The Romans had conquered the Paris basin in 52BC and permanent settlement began to grow on the Île de la Cité Island and the Left Bank Sainte Geneviève Hill. First there was a town called the Lutetia and then later it came to be known as the Gallicised Lutèce. This was quite a prosperous city that would regain the name "Paris" at the end of the reign of the Romans.

Paris during the Medieval ages

Paris in 500 AD was made the capital of the Frank king Clovis I and he was the one who had commissioned the building of the first cathedral. Paris has witnessed the rise and the fall of many generations, powers and kings and the names of the Carolingian Dynasty, the Vikings, the Capetian Dynasty, King Philip August, the Burgundians should be mentioned.

The Nineteenth Century Paris

Paris saw the greatest development in its own history at the time of the Industrial Revolution, the Belle Epoque, the French Second Empire, but there were also the Franco- Prussian War, and the problems of the cholera epidemics.

The Twentieth Century

These were the times of the World Wars and the country seemed to reel under the pressure. But Paris was not a target for the bombers and the city went surprisingly unscathed.

There was also the phase of deindustrialization and the city was reduced to pools of unemployment and immigrants from all over the place. But now there has been great development in the city and now the per capita income is among the highest in the whole of Europe.