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190-593: Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch ( / b l ɒ k / ; French: [maʁk leɔpɔld bɛ̃ʒamɛ̃ blɔk] ; 6 July 1886 – 16 June 1944) was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France over the course of his career. As an academic, he worked at the University of Strasbourg (1920 to 1936 and 1940 to 1941),

380-711: A histoire totale , or histoire tout court , a complete study of a historic problem. Bloch was shot by the Gestapo during the German occupation of France in World War II for his active membership of the French Resistance , and Febvre carried on the Annales approach in the 1940s and 1950s. It was during this time that he mentored Braudel, who would become one of the best-known exponents of this school. Braudel's work came to define

570-514: A "second" era of Annales historiography and was influential throughout the 1960s and 1970s, especially for his work on the Mediterranean region in the era of Philip II of Spain . Braudel developed the idea, often associated with Annalistes, of different modes of historical time: l'histoire quasi immobile (the quasi motionless history) of historical geography, the history of social, political and economic structures ( la longue durée ), and

760-526: A "witness and narrator" to events and wanted as detailed a basis for his historiographical understanding as possible. The historian Rees Davies notes that although Bloch served in the war with "considerable distinction", it had come at the worst possible time both for his intellectual development and his study of medieval society. For the first time in his life, Bloch later wrote, he worked and lived alongside people he had never had close contact with before, such as shop workers and labourers, with whom he developed

950-814: A Christian in the event of victory against the Visigothic Kingdom , which was said to have guaranteed the battle. Clovis regained the southwest from the Visigoths and was baptised in 508. Clovis I was the first Germanic conqueror after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire to convert to Catholic Christianity; thus France was given the title "Eldest daughter of the Church" by the papacy, and French kings called "the Most Christian Kings of France". The Franks embraced

1140-425: A European counterweight between American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe , favouring sovereign nations . The revolt of May 1968 had an enormous social impact; it was a watershed moment when a conservative moral ideal (religion, patriotism, respect for authority) shifted to a more liberal moral ideal (secularism, individualism, sexual revolution). Although

1330-431: A captain in the fuel service , ( Service des essences) before the war ended. He was clearly, says Loyn, both a good and a brave soldier; he later wrote, "I know only one way to persuade a troop to brave danger: brave it yourself". While on front-line service, Bloch contracted severe arthritis which required him to retire regularly to the thermal baths of Aix-les-Bains for treatment. He later remembered very little of

1520-504: A career in professional French society. Bloch's later close collaborator, Lucien Febvre , visited the Bloch family at home in 1902; although the reason for Febvre's visit is now unknown, he later wrote of Bloch that "from this fleeting meeting, I have kept the memory of a slender adolescent with eyes brilliant with intelligence and timid cheeks—a little lost then in the radiance of his older brother, future doctor of great prestige". Bloch's biographer Katherine Stirling ascribed significance to

1710-704: A closer affinity with academic life in England than that of France. For example, in comparing the Bibliothèque Nationale with the British Museum , he said that A few hours work in the British [Museum] inspire the irresistible desire to build in the Square Louvois a vast pyre of all the B.N.'s regulations and to burn on it, in splendid auto-de-fé , Julian Cain [the director], his librarians and his staff...[and] also

1900-728: A combination of social, political and economic factors, which the Ancien Régime proved unable to manage. A financial crisis and social distress led in May 1789 to the convocation of the Estates General , which was converted into a National Assembly in June. The Storming of the Bastille on 14 July led to a series of radical measures by the Assembly, among them the abolition of feudalism , state control over

2090-559: A coup and civil war. During the May 1958 crisis , the weak Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic , which included a strengthened presidency. The war concluded with the Évian Accords in 1962 which led to Algerian independence , at a high price: between half a million and one million deaths and over 2 million internally-displaced Algerians. Around one million Pied-Noirs and Harkis fled from Algeria to France. A vestige of empire

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2280-410: A few malodorous readers, if you like, and no doubt also the architect ... after which we could work and invite the foreigners to come and work". Isolated, each [historian] will understand only by halves, even within his own field of study, for the only true history, which can advance only through mutual aid, is universal history'. Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft During this period he supported

2470-415: A global centre of art , science , and philosophy . It hosts the fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world's leading tourist destination , receiving 100 million foreign visitors in 2023 . A developed country , France has a high nominal per capita income globally , and its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world . It is a great power , being one of

2660-427: A great camaraderie . It was a completely different world to the one he was used to, being "a world where differences were settled not by words but by bullets". His experiences made him rethink his views on history, and influenced his subsequent approach to the world in general. He was particularly moved by the collective psychology he witnessed in the trenches . He later declared he knew of no better men than "the men of

2850-677: A habit of noting the different coloured smoke that different shells made — percussion bombs had black smoke, timed bombs were brown. He also remembered both the "friends killed at our side ... of the intoxication which had taken hold of us when we saw the enemy in flight". He also considered it to have been "four years of fighting idleness". Following the Armistice in November 1918 , Bloch was demobilised on 13 March 1919. "Must I say historical or indeed sociological? Let us more simply say, in order to avoid any discussion of method, human studies. Durkheim

3040-829: A maritime border with the United Kingdom . Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea . Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined 643,801 km (248,573 sq mi) and have a total population of 68.4 million as of January 2024 . France is a semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris ,

3230-452: A medievalist like Bloch should have been named to such a chair with so little previous preparation. In France it was only to be expected: no one else was better qualified". His first lecture was on the theme of never-ending history, a process, a never-to-be-finished thing. Davies says his years at the Sorbonne were to be "the most fruitful" of Bloch's career, and according to Epstein he was by now

3420-549: A new independent foundation, the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH), which Braudel directed from 1970 until his death. In 1970, the 6th Section and the Annales relocated to the FMSH building. FMSH set up elaborate international networks to spread the Annales gospel across Europe and the world. In 2013, it began publication of an English language edition, with all the articles translated. The scope of topics covered by

3610-861: A permit to work despite being Jewish. This was probably due to Bloch's pre-eminence in the field of history. He worked again at the University of Strasbourg, now relocated to Clermont-Ferrand , for one academic year before moving to Montpellier. In Clermont-Ferrand, his two older sons were involved with the Christian - conservative Gaullist Resistance organisation Combat . In November 1940 he received an offer of employment from The New School in New York , but he delayed his decision due to his reluctance to leave family members behind; it expired in July 1941 before he could obtain visas for his adult children. Montpellier, further south,

3800-431: A preconceived methodological perspective. Neither Bloch nor Febvre wanted to present a neutral facade. During the decade it was published it maintained a staunchly left-wing position. Henri Pirenne , a Belgian historian who wrote comparative history , closely supported the new journal. Before the war he had acted in an unofficial capacity as a conduit between French and German schools of historiography. Fernand Braudel —who

3990-498: A public position when France occupied the Ruhr in 1923 over Germany's perceived failure to pay war reparations . Bloch began working energetically, and later said that the most productive years of his life were spent at Strasbourg. In his teaching, his delivery was halting. His approach sometimes appeared cold and distant—caustic enough to be upsetting—but conversely, he could be also both charismatic and forceful. Durkheim died in 1917, but

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4180-664: A review of Febvre's first book, Histoire de Franche-Comté . Bloch intended to turn his thesis into a book, but the First World War intervened. Both Marc and Louis Bloch volunteered for service in the French Army. Although the Dreyfus Affair had soured Bloch's views of the French Army, he later wrote that his criticisms were only of the officers; he "had respect only for the men". Bloch was one of over 800 ÉNS students who enlisted; 239 were to be killed in action . On 2 August 1914 he

4370-399: A single body of thought, and to promote the acceptance of all other schools of thought into historiography. As a result, the Annales often contained commentary on contemporary, rather than exclusively historical, events. Editing the journal led to Bloch forming close professional relationships with scholars in different fields across Europe. The Annales was the only academic journal to boast

4560-514: A study of long-term historical structures ( la longue durée ) over events and political transformations. Geography, material culture, and what later Annalistes called mentalités , or the psychology of the epoch, are also characteristic areas of study. The goal of the Annales was to undo the work of the Sorbonnistes, to turn French historians away from the narrowly political and diplomatic toward

4750-464: A thousand years, downplaying short-term events. Bloch's revolutionary charting of mentalities, or mentalités , resonated with scholars who were reading Freud and Proust . In the 1960s, Robert Mandrou and Georges Duby harmonized the concept of mentalité history with Fernand Braudel 's structures of historical time and linked mentalities with changing social conditions. A flood of mentalité studies based on these approaches appeared during

4940-520: A vehicle for the exchange of information to different areas of scholarship. By early 1939, war was known to be imminent. Bloch, in spite of his age, which automatically exempted him, had a reserve commission for the army holding the rank of captain. He had already been mobilised twice in false alarms. In August 1939, he and his wife Simonne intended to travel to the ICHS in Bucharest . In autumn 1939, just before

5130-446: A whole and literature (particularly theatrical plays) for France, England and Spain. His work in this specific field (based on the criss-crossing between literary criticism, bibliography, and sociocultural history) is connected to broader historiographical and methodological interests which deal with the relation between history and other disciplines: philosophy, sociology, anthropology. Chartier's typical undergraduate course focuses upon

5320-472: A year to be attacked by a ruthless, stronger force. Carole Fink On 24 August 1939, at the age of 53, Bloch was mobilised for a third time. He was responsible for the mobilisation of the French Army's massive motorised units which involved him undertaking such a detailed assessment of the French fuel supply that he later wrote he was able to "count petrol tins and ration every drop" of fuel he obtained. During

5510-581: Is preserved. In 1934, Bloch was invited to speak at the London School of Economics . There he met Eileen Power , R. H. Tawney and Michael Postan , among others. While in London, he was asked to write a section of the Cambridge Economic History of Europe; at the same time, he also attempted to foster interest in the Annales among British historians. He later told Febvre in some ways he felt he had

5700-558: Is the French overseas departments and territories . During the Cold War , de Gaulle pursued a policy of "national independence" towards the Western and Eastern blocs . He withdrew from NATO's military-integrated command (while remaining within the alliance), launched a nuclear development programme and made France the fourth nuclear power . He restored cordial Franco-German relations to create

5890-476: The mentalités approach, replaced by the cultural and linguistic turn , which emphasizes the social history of cultural practices. The main scholarly outlet has been the journal Annales d'Histoire Economique et Sociale ("Annals of Economic and Social History"), founded in 1929 by Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, which broke radically with traditional historiography by insisting on the importance of taking all levels of society into consideration and emphasized

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6080-560: The 1995 public transport bombings , France has been targeted by Islamist organisations, notably the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015 which provoked the largest public rallies in French history, gathering 4.4 million people, the November 2015 Paris attacks which resulted in 130 deaths, the deadliest attack on French soil since World War II and the deadliest in the European Union since

6270-468: The 46th Infantry Regiment based at Pithiviers from 1905 to 1906. By this time, changes were taking place in French academia. In Bloch's own speciality of history, attempts were being made at instilling a more scientific methodology. In other, newer departments such a sociology, efforts were made at establishing an independent identity. Bloch graduated in 1908 with degrees in both geography and history (Davies notes, given Bloch's later divergent interests,

6460-465: The Annales and Polish scholars continued until the early 1980s. The reciprocal influence between the French school and Polish historiography was particularly evident in studies on the Middle Ages and the early modern era studied by Braudel. In South America the Annales approach became popular. From the 1950s Federico Brito Figueroa was the founder of a new Venezuelan historiography based largely on

6650-462: The Annales focused attention on the synthesizing of historical patterns identified from social, economic, and cultural history, statistics, medical reports, family studies, and even psychoanalysis. The Annales was founded and edited by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre in 1929, while they were teaching at the University of Strasbourg and later in Paris. These authors, the former a medieval historian and

6840-418: The Annales over to the sole editorship of Febvre, who then changed the journal's name to Mélanges d'Histoire Sociale . Bloch was forced to write for it under the pseudonym Marc Fougères. The Annalist historian André Burguière suggests Febvre did not really understand the position Bloch, or any French Jew, was in. Already damaged by this disagreement, Bloch's and Febvre's relationship declined further when

7030-481: The Annales school was Hugh Trevor-Roper . American, German, Indian, Russian and Japanese scholars generally ignored the school. The Americans developed their own form of "new social history" from entirely different roots. Both the American and the Annales historians picked up important family reconstitution techniques from French demographer Louis Henry . The Wageningen school centered on Bernard Slicher van Bath

7220-886: The Aquitaine Basin in the southwest and the Paris Basin in the north. Various routes of natural passage, such as the Rhône Valley , allow easy communication. The Alpine, Pyrenean and Jura mountains are much younger and have less eroded forms. At 4,810.45 metres (15,782 ft) above sea level, Mont Blanc , located in the Alps on the France–Italy border , is the highest point in Western Europe. Although 60% of municipalities are classified as having seismic risks (though moderate). The coastlines offer contrasting landscapes: mountain ranges along

7410-642: The Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror added "King of England" to his titles, becoming vassal and the equal of the king of France, creating recurring tensions. The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet was crowned king of the Franks . His descendants unified the country through wars and inheritance. From 1190, the Capetian rulers began to be referred as "kings of France" rather than "kings of

7600-840: The Bible , translations of Ovid, Hamlet , Don Quixote , Montaigne's essays, Pepys's diary, Richardson's Pamela , and Franklin's autobiography. French Republic – in Europe  (green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (green) France , officially the French Republic , is a country located primarily in Western Europe , though it also has extensive overseas regions and territories . Metropolitan France borders Belgium , Luxembourg , Germany , Switzerland , Italy , Monaco , Andorra , and Spain . It shares

7790-574: The British Isles and Switzerland . The wars were ended by Henry IV 's Edict of Nantes , which granted some freedom of religion to the Huguenots. Spanish troops, assisted the Catholics from 1589 to 1594 and invaded France in 1597. Spain and France returned to all-out war between 1635 and 1659. The war cost France 300,000 casualties. Under Louis XIII , Cardinal Richelieu promoted centralisation of

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7980-753: The Catholic Church in France , and a declaration of rights . The next three years were dominated by struggle for political control, exacerbated by economic depression . Military defeats following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in April 1792 resulted in the insurrection of 10 August 1792 . The monarchy was abolished and replaced by the French First Republic in September, while Louis XVI

8170-588: The Collège de France , and Annenberg Visiting professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania . He frequently lectures and teaches in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. His work in Early Modern European History focuses on the history of education, the history of the book and the history of reading. Recently, he has been concerned with the relationship between written culture as

8360-592: The Consulate seized power in a coup led by Napoleon . Napoleon became First Consul in 1799 and later Emperor of the French Empire (1804–1814; 1815). Changing sets of European coalitions declared wars on Napoleon's empire . His armies conquered most of continental Europe with swift victories such as the battles of Jena-Auerstadt and Austerlitz . Members of the Bonaparte family were appointed monarchs in some of

8550-784: The Dreyfus affair . During the First World War , he served in the French Army and fought at the First Battle of the Marne and the Somme . After the war, he was awarded his doctorate in 1918 and became a lecturer at the University of Strasbourg. There, he formed an intellectual partnership with modern historian Lucien Febvre . Together they founded the Annales School and began publishing the journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale in 1929. Bloch

8740-447: The Dreyfusard movement and his son agreed with the cause. Bloch was educated at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand for three years, where he was consistently head of his class and won prizes in French, history, Latin, and natural history. He passed his baccalauréat , in Letters and Philosophy, in July 1903, being graded trés bien (very good). The following year, he received a scholarship and undertook postgraduate study there for

8930-456: The First Battle of the Marne , Bloch's troop was responsible for the assault and capture of Florent before advancing on La Gruerie. Bloch led his troop with shouts of "Forward the 18th!" They suffered heavy casualties: 89 men were either missing or known to be dead. Bloch enjoyed the early days of the war; like most of his generation, he had expected a short but glorious conflict. Gustave Bloch remained in France, wishing to be close to his sons at

9120-420: The Franco-Prussian War in 1870. This led to the establishment of the Third French Republic , and subsequent decades saw a period of economic prosperity and cultural and scientific flourishing known as the Belle Époque . France was one of the major participants of World War I , from which it emerged victorious at great human and economic cost. It was among the Allies of World War II , but it surrendered and

9310-411: The French Riviera , coastal cliffs such as the Côte d'Albâtre , and wide sandy plains in the Languedoc . Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast. France has an extensive river system consisting of the four major rivers Seine , the Loire , the Garonne , the Rhône and their tributaries, whose combined catchment includes over 62% of the metropolitan territory. The Rhône divides the Massif Central from

9500-405: The House of Plantagenet , rulers of the County of Anjou , established its dominion over the surrounding provinces of Maine and Touraine , then built an "empire" from England to the Pyrenees , covering half of modern France. Tensions between France and the Plantagenet empire would last a hundred years, until Philip II of France conquered, between 1202 and 1214, most continental possessions of

9690-406: The Madrid train bombings in 2004 . Opération Chammal , France's military efforts to contain ISIS , killed over 1,000 ISIS troops between 2014 and 2015. The vast majority of France's territory and population is situated in Western Europe and is called Metropolitan France . It is bordered by the North Sea in the north, the English Channel in the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and

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9880-402: The Mediterranean Sea in the southeast. Its land borders consist of Belgium and Luxembourg in the northeast, Germany and Switzerland in the east, Italy and Monaco in the southeast, and Andorra and Spain in the south and southwest. Except for the northeast, most of France's land borders are roughly delineated by natural boundaries and geographic features: to the south and southeast,

10070-417: The Nazi German authorities looted his apartment and stole his books; he was also persuaded by Febvre to relinquish his position on the editorial board of Annales . Bloch worked in Montpellier until November 1942 when Germany invaded Vichy France . He then joined the non-Communist section of the French Resistance and went on to play a leading role in its unified regional structures in Lyon . In 1944, he

10260-418: The Phoney War . Involved in the Battle of Dunkirk and spending a brief time in Britain, he unsuccessfully attempted to secure passage to the United States. Back in France, where his ability to work was curtailed by new antisemitic regulations, he applied for and received one of the few permits available allowing Jews to continue working in the French university system. He had to leave Paris, and complained that

10450-421: The Popular Front politically. Although he did not believe it would do any good, he signed Alain's— Émile Chartier 's pseudonym—petition against Paul Boncour 's Militarisation laws in 1935. While he was opposed to the rise of European fascism , he also objected to attempting to counter the ideology through "demagogic appeals to the masses", as the Communist Party was doing. Febvre and Bloch were both firmly on

10640-459: The Popular Front government (e.g., annual leave , eight-hour workdays , women in government ). In 1940, France was invaded and quickly defeated by Nazi Germany . France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north, an Italian occupation zone and an unoccupied territory, the rest of France, which consisted of the southern France and the French empire. The Vichy government , an authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, ruled

10830-488: The Seven Years' War (1756–1763). Its European territory kept growing, however, with acquisitions such as Lorraine and Corsica . Louis XV's weak rule, including the decadence of his court, discredited the monarchy, which in part paved the way for the French Revolution . Louis XVI (r. 1774–1793) supported America with money, fleets and armies , helping them win independence from Great Britain . France gained revenge, but verged on bankruptcy—a factor that contributed to

11020-427: The Sorbonne in 1936, and his chair in economic history was up for appointment. Bloch—"distancing himself from the encroaching threat of Nazi Germany"—applied and was approved for his position. This was a more demanding position than the one he had applied for at the college. Weber has suggested Bloch was appointed because unlike at the college, he had not come into conflict with many faculty members. Weber researched

11210-408: The University of Paris (1936 to 1939), and the University of Montpellier (1941 to 1944). Born in Lyon to an Alsatian Jewish family, Bloch was raised in Paris, where his father—the classical historian Gustave Bloch —worked at Sorbonne University . Bloch was educated at various Parisian lycées and the École Normale Supérieure , and from an early age was affected by the antisemitism of

11400-419: The country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Metropolitan France was settled during the Iron Age by Celtic tribes known as Gauls before Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture . In the Early Middle Ages , the Franks formed the Kingdom of Francia , which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire . The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned

11590-470: The official language of France and Europe's aristocracy. France became rivals of the House of Habsburg during the Italian Wars , which would dictate much of their later foreign policy until the mid-18th century. French explorers claimed lands in the Americas, paving expansion of the French colonial empire . The rise of Protestantism led France to a civil war known as the French Wars of Religion . This forced Huguenots to flee to Protestant regions such as

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11780-403: The trap-bath split such as Received Pronunciation , though it can be also heard in some other dialects such as Cardiff English . The oldest traces of archaic humans in what is now France date from approximately 1.8 million years ago. Neanderthals occupied the region into the Upper Paleolithic era but were slowly replaced by Homo sapiens around 35,000 BC. This period witnessed

11970-433: The École pratique des hautes études , all based in Paris. A third generation was led by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (1929–2023) and includes Jacques Revel, and Philippe Ariès (1914–1984), who joined the group in 1978. The third generation stressed history from the point of view of mentalities , or mentalités . The fourth generation of Annales historians, led by Roger Chartier (born 1945), clearly distanced itself from

12160-459: The 1970s France faced an economic crisis and allowed new immigrants (mostly from the Maghreb , in northwest Africa) to permanently settle in France with their families and acquire citizenship. It resulted in hundreds of thousands of Muslims living in subsidised public housing and suffering from high unemployment rates. The government had a policy of assimilation of immigrants, where they were expected to adhere to French values and norms. Since

12350-434: The 1970s and 1980s. By the 1990s, however, mentalité history had become interdisciplinary to the point of fragmentation, but still lacked a solid theoretical basis. While not explicitly rejecting mentalité history, younger historians increasingly turned to other approaches. Fernand Braudel became the leader of the second generation after 1945. He obtained funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York and founded

12540-402: The 200 years of the Crusades, in such a fashion that the Arabs referred to crusaders as Franj . French Crusaders imported French into the Levant , making Old French the base of the lingua franca ("Frankish language") of the Crusader states . The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars in the southwest of modern-day France. From the 11th century,

12730-420: The 4th century, a period of revival and prosperity. In 312, Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity . Christians, who had been persecuted, increased. But from the 5th century, the Barbarian Invasions resumed. Teutonic tribes invaded the region, the Visigoths settling in the southwest, the Burgundians along the Rhine River Valley, and the Franks in the north. In Late antiquity , ancient Gaul

12920-409: The 6th Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, which was devoted to the study of history and the social sciences. It became an independent degree-granting institution in 1975 under the name École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Braudel's followers admired his use of the longue durée approach to stress slow, and often imperceptible effects of space, climate and technology on

13110-517: The Alps and flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the Camargue . The Garonne meets the Dordogne just after Bordeaux, forming the Gironde estuary , the largest estuary in Western Europe which after approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Other water courses drain towards the Meuse and Rhine along the northeastern borders. France has 11,000,000 km (4,200,000 sq mi) of marine waters within three oceans under its jurisdiction, of which 97% are overseas. France

13300-406: The Center for Historical Studies of El Colegio de México, the leading graduate studies institution of Latin America. British historians, apart from a few Marxists, were generally hostile. Academic historians decidedly sided with Geoffrey Elton 's The Practice of History against Edward Hallett Carr 's What Is History? One of the few British historians who were sympathetic towards the work of

13490-504: The Christian Gallo-Roman culture , and ancient Gaul was renamed Francia ("Land of the Franks"). The Germanic Franks adopted Romanic languages . Clovis made Paris his capital and established the Merovingian dynasty , but his kingdom would not survive his death. The Franks treated land as a private possession and divided it among their heirs, so four kingdoms emerged from that of Clovis: Paris, Orléans , Soissons , and Rheims . The last Merovingian kings lost power to their mayors of

13680-538: The Franks was known as the francisca ), although these weapons may have been named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around. In English, 'France' is pronounced / f r æ n s / FRANSS in American English and / f r ɑː n s / FRAHNSS or / f r æ n s / FRANSS in British English. The pronunciation with / ɑː / is mostly confined to accents with

13870-521: The Franks". Later kings expanded their directly possessed domaine royal to cover over half of modern France by the 15th century. Royal authority became more assertive, centred on a hierarchically conceived society distinguishing nobility , clergy, and commoners . The nobility played a prominent role in Crusades to restore Christian access to the Holy Land . French knights made up most reinforcements in

14060-464: The French government's longtime historical association with the Catholic Church , Charlemagne tried to revive the Western Roman Empire and its cultural grandeur. Charlemagne's son, Louis I kept the empire united, however in 843, it was divided between Louis' three sons, into East Francia , Middle Francia and West Francia . West Francia approximated the area occupied by modern France and

14250-568: The Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II ) was his most influential. This vast panoramic view used ideas from other social sciences, employed effectively the technique of the longue durée, and downplayed the importance of specific events and individuals. It stressed geography but not mentalité . It was widely admired, but most historians did not try to replicate it and instead focused on their specialized monographs. The book dramatically raised

14440-628: The Neolithic, including the Carnac stones site (approximately 3,300 BC). In 600 BC, Ionian Greeks from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia (present-day Marseille ). Celtic tribes penetrated parts of eastern and northern France, spreading through the rest of the country between the 5th and 3rd century BC. Around 390 BC, the Gallic chieftain Brennus and his troops made their way to Roman Italy , defeated

14630-620: The Nord and the Pas de Calais" with whom he had spent four years in close quarters. His few references to the French generals were sparse and sardonic. Apart from the Marne, Bloch fought at the battles of the Somme , the Argonne , and the final German assault on Paris . He survived the war, which he later described as having been an "honour" to have served through. He had, however, lost many friends and colleagues. Among

14820-971: The North Atlantic, the French West Indies , and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean . Metropolitan France has a wide variety of topographical sets and natural landscapes. During the Hercynian uplift in the Paleozoic Era , the Armorican Massif , the Massif Central , the Morvan , the Vosges and Ardennes ranges and the island of Corsica were formed. These massifs delineate several sedimentary basins such as

15010-688: The Pyrenees and the Alps and the Jura, respectively, and to the east, the Rhine river. Metropolitan France includes various coastal islands, of which the largest is Corsica . Metropolitan France is situated mostly between latitudes 41° and 51° N , and longitudes 6° W and 10° E , on the western edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone. Its continental part covers about 1000 km from north to south and from east to west. Metropolitan France covers 551,500 square kilometres (212,935 sq mi),

15200-516: The Revolution. Some of the Enlightenment occurred in French intellectual circles, and scientific breakthroughs, such as the naming of oxygen (1778) and the first hot air balloon carrying passengers (1783), were achieved by French scientists. French explorers took part in the voyages of scientific exploration through maritime expeditions. Enlightenment philosophy, in which reason is advocated as

15390-606: The Romans in the Battle of the Allia , and besieged and ransomed Rome. This left Rome weakened, and the Gauls continued to harass the region until 345 BC when they entered into a peace treaty. But the Romans and the Gauls remained adversaries for centuries. Around 125 BC, the south of Gaul was conquered by the Romans, who called this region Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), which evolved into Provence in French. Julius Caesar conquered

15580-654: The School also invited Bloch. He refused, possibly because of difficulties in obtaining visas : the US government would not grant visas to every member of his family. In May 1940, the German army forced the French to withdraw. Bloch fought at the Battle of Dunkirk in May–June 1940, being evacuated to England . Although he could have remained in Britain, he chose to return to France because his family

15770-472: The Third Republic". Marc had a brother, Louis Constant Alexandre, seven years his senior. The two were close, although Bloch later described Louis as being occasionally somewhat intimidating. The Bloch family lived at 72, Rue d'Alésia , in the 14th arrondissement of Paris . Gustave began teaching Marc history while he was still a boy, with a secular, rather than Jewish, education intended to prepare him for

15960-410: The U.S. and Britain, which reshaped economic, political, and demographic research. An attempt to require an Annales -written textbook for French schools was rejected by the government. By 1980 postmodern sensibilities undercut confidence in overarching metanarratives. As Jacques Revel notes, the success of the Annales school, especially its use of social structures as explanatory forces, contained

16150-406: The actions of human beings in the past. The Annales historians, after living through two world wars and incredible political upheavals in France, were deeply uncomfortable with the notion that multiple ruptures and discontinuities created history. They preferred to stress inertia and the longue durée. Special attention was paid to geography, climate, and demography as long-term factors. They believed

16340-625: The archives of the college in 1991 and discovered that Bloch had indicated an interest in working there as early as 1928, even though that would have meant him being appointed to the chair in numismatics rather than history. In a letter to the recruitment board written the same year, Bloch indicated that although he was not officially applying, he felt that "this kind of work (which he claimed to be alone in doing) deserves to have its place one day in our great foundation of free scientific research". H. Stuart Hughes says of Bloch's Sorbonne appointment: "In another country, it might have occasioned surprise that

16530-461: The assistance of other disciplines". His 1928 Oslo lecture, called "Towards a Comparative History of Europe", formed the basis of his next book, Les Caractères Originaux de l'Histoire Rurale Française . In the same year he founded the historical journal Annales with Febvre. One of its aims was to counteract the administrative school of history, which Davies says had "committed the arch error of emptying history of human element". As Bloch saw it, it

16720-509: The body, and the heart), writing implements (including styluses, pens, pencils, needles, and brushes), and material forms (including scrolls, erasable tables, codices, broadsides and printed forms and books). Under the heading of "places", his class explores where texts were made, read, and listened to, including monasteries, schools and universities, offices of the state, the shops of merchants and booksellers, printing houses, theaters, libraries, studies, and closets. The texts for his course include

16910-405: The burdensome tasks" themselves, asked Pirenne to become editor-in-chief of Annales to no avail. Pirenne remained a strong supporter, however, and had an article published in the first volume in 1929. He became close friends with both Bloch and Febvre. He was particularly influential on Bloch, who later said that Pirenne's approach should be the model for historians and that "at the time his country

17100-513: The closest of them, all killed in action, were: Maxime David (died 1914), Antoine-Jules Bianconi (died 1915) and Ernest Babut (died 1916). Bloch himself was wounded twice and decorated for courage, receiving the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'Honneur . He had joined as a non-commissioned officer , received an officer's commission after the Marne, and had been promoted to warrant officer and finally

17290-427: The collective nature of mentalities. Its contributors viewed events as less fundamental than the mental frameworks that shaped decisions and practices. However, informal successor as head of the school was Le Roy Ladurie. Multiple responses were attempted by the school. Scholars moved in multiple directions, covering in disconnected fashion the social, economic, and cultural history of different eras and different parts of

17480-789: The constitutional July Monarchy ; French troops began the conquest of Algeria . Unrest led to the French Revolution of 1848 and the end of the July Monarchy. The abolition of slavery and introduction of male universal suffrage was re-enacted in 1848. In 1852, president of the French Republic, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte , Napoleon I's nephew, was proclaimed emperor of the Second Empire , as Napoleon III. He multiplied French interventions abroad, especially in Crimea , Mexico and Italy . Napoleon III

17670-648: The continuities of the deepest structures were central to history, beside which upheavals in institutions or the superstructure of social life were of little significance, for history lies beyond the reach of conscious actors, especially the will of revolutionaries. They rejected the Marxist idea that history should be used as a tool to foment and foster revolutions. In turn the Marxists called them conservatives. Braudel's first book, La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Epoque de Philippe II (1949) ( The Mediterranean and

17860-659: The early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte , subjugating part of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire . The collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured the Bourbon Restoration until the founding of the French Second Republic which was succeeded by the Second French Empire upon Napoleon III 's takeover. His empire collapsed during

18050-718: The emergence of cave painting in the Dordogne and Pyrenees , including at Lascaux , dated to c.  18,000 BC. At the end of the Last Glacial Period (10,000 BC), the climate became milder; from approximately 7,000 BC, this part of Western Europe entered the Neolithic era, and its inhabitants became sedentary . After demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, metallurgy appeared , initially working gold, copper and bronze , then later iron . France has numerous megalithic sites from

18240-516: The empire, leaving England and Aquitaine to the Plantagenets. Charles IV the Fair died without an heir in 1328. The crown passed to Philip of Valois , rather than Edward of Plantagenet, who became Edward III of England . During the reign of Philip, the monarchy reached the height of its medieval power. However Philip's seat on the throne was contested by Edward in 1337, and England and France entered

18430-572: The empire, with West Francia evolving into the Kingdom of France . In the High Middle Ages , France was a powerful but decentralized feudal kingdom. The Hundred Years' War , a dynastic conflict with England , dominated French history from the mid-14th to mid-15th century. In the 16th century, the French Renaissance saw culture flourish and a French colonial empire rise. Internally, France

18620-448: The end of the 20th century, historians were making a more critical assessment of Bloch's abilities, influence, and legacy, arguing that there were flaws to his approach. Marc Bloch was born in Lyon on 6 July 1886, one of two children to Gustave and Sarah Bloch, née Ebstein. Bloch's family were Alsatian Jews : secular , liberal and loyal to the French Republic . They "struck a balance", says

18810-594: The ensuing uprising of European monarchies against his rule, Napoleon was defeated. About a million Frenchmen died during the Napoleonic Wars . After his brief return from exile, Napoleon was finally defeated in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo , and the Bourbon monarchy was restored with new constitutional limitations. The discredited Bourbon dynasty was overthrown by the July Revolution of 1830, which established

19000-555: The era in which Bloch was born: the middle of the French Third Republic , so "after those who had founded it and before the generation that would aggressively challenge it". When Bloch was nine-years-old, the Dreyfus affair broke out in France. As the first major display of political antisemitism in Europe, it was probably a formative event of Bloch's youth, along with, more generally, the atmosphere of fin de siècle Paris. Bloch

19190-481: The extent to which he shifted his thinking on particular subjects. In 1930, both keen to make a move to Paris, Febvre and Bloch applied to the École pratique des hautes études for a position: both failed. Three years later Febvre was elected to the Collège de France . He moved to Paris, and in doing so, says Fink, became all the more aloof. This placed a strain on Bloch's and his relations, although they communicated regularly by letter and much of their correspondence

19380-790: The first few months of the war, called the Phoney War , he was stationed in Alsace, this time lacking the eager patriotism he had shown in the war. He also evacuated civilians to behind the Maginot Line and for a while he worked with British Intelligence . Bloch began but did not complete writing a history of France. At one point he expected to be invited to neutral Belgium to deliver a series of lectures in Liège , on Belgian neutrality . Some academics had escaped France for The New School in New York City, and

19570-545: The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear-weapon state . France is a founding and leading member of the European Union and the eurozone , as well as a member of the Group of Seven , North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Francophonie . Originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire ,

19760-618: The following year and again applied to the Fondation , this time successfully. Bloch researched the medieval Île-de-France in preparation for his thesis. This research was Bloch's first focus on rural history. His parents had moved house and now resided at the Avenue d'Orleans , not far from Bloch's quarters. Bloch's research at the Fondation—especially his research into the Capetian kings —laid

19950-582: The forefront of the development of a supranational European Union , notably by signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, establishing the eurozone in 1999 and signing the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. France has fully reintegrated into NATO and since participated in most NATO-sponsored wars. Since the 19th century, France has received many immigrants , often male foreign workers from European Catholic countries who generally returned home when not employed. During

20140-624: The former had been forced to leave his library and papers in his Paris apartment following his move to Vichy. On account of limited space in Montpellier, he had attempted to have them transported to his country home in Fougères . Eventually the Nazis looted his apartment and removed the library in January 1942. Bloch held Febvre responsible, believing he could have done more to prevent it. Bloch had refused to donate

20330-412: The front. Except for two months in hospital followed by another three recuperating, he spent the war in the infantry; he joined as a sergeant and rose to become the head of his section . Bloch kept a war diary from his enlistment. Very detailed in the first few months, it rapidly became more general in its observations. However, says the historian Daniel Hochedez , Bloch was aware of his role as both

20520-401: The globe. By the time of the crisis the school was building a vast publishing and research network reaching across France, Europe, and the rest of the world. Influence spread out from Paris, but few new ideas came in. Much emphasis was given to quantitative data, seen as the key to unlocking all of social history. However, the Annales ignored the developments in quantitative studies underway in

20710-409: The groundwork for his career. He began by creating maps of the Paris area illustrating where serfdom had thrived and where it had not. He also investigated the nature of serfdom, the culture of which, he discovered, was founded almost completely on custom and practice. His studies of this period formed Bloch into a mature scholar and first brought him into contact with other disciplines whose relevance he

20900-506: The historian Carole Fink , between both "fierce Jacobin patriotism and the antinationalism of the left". His family had lived in Alsace for five generations under French rule. In 1871, France was forced to cede the region to Germany following its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War . The year after Bloch's birth, his father was appointed professor of Roman History at the Sorbonne, and the family moved to Paris—"the glittering capital of

21090-400: The historical events he found himself in, writing only that his memories were "a discontinuous series of images, vivid in themselves, but badly arranged, like a reel of motion picture film containing some large gaps and some reversals of certain scenes". Bloch later described the war, in a detached style, as having been a "gigantic social experience, of unbelievable richness". For example, he had

21280-407: The history of men and events, in the context of their structures. While authors such as Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie , Marc Ferro and Jacques Le Goff continue to carry the Annales banner, today the Annales approach has been less distinctive as more and more historians do work in cultural history , political history and economic history . Bloch's Les Rois thaumaturges (1924) looked at

21470-530: The history of mentalities. The Annales school systematically reached out to create an impact on other countries. Its success varied widely. The Annales approach was especially well received in Italy and Poland . Franciszek Bujak (1875–1953) and Jan Rutkowski (1886–1949), the founders of modern economic history in Poland and of the journal Roczniki Dziejów Spolecznych i Gospodarczych (1931– ), were attracted to

21660-435: The ideas of the Annales School. Brito Figueroa carried his conception of the field to all levels of university study, emphasizing a systematic and scientific approach to history and placing it squarely in the social sciences. Spanish historiography was influenced by the "Annales School" starting in 1950 with Jaume Vicens Vives (1910–1960). In Mexico, exiled Republican intellectuals extended the Annales approach, particularly from

21850-514: The innovations of the Annales school. Rutkowski was in contact with Bloch and others, and published in the Annales . After the Communists took control in the 1940s Polish scholars were safer working on the Middle Ages and the early modern era rather than contemporary history. After the " Polish October " of 1956 the Sixth Section in Paris welcomed Polish historians and exchanges between the circle of

22040-423: The journal is vast and experimental—there is a search for total history and new approaches. The emphasis is on social history, and very long-term trends, often using quantification and paying special attention to geography and to the intellectual world view of common people, or "mentality" ( mentalité ). Little attention is paid to political, diplomatic, or military history, or to biographies of famous men. Instead

22230-461: The king's policies. The Annales historians did not try to replicate Braudel's vast geographical scope in La Méditerranée . Instead they focused on regions in France over long stretches of time. The most important was the study of The Peasants of Languedoc by Braudel's star pupil and successor Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. The regionalist tradition flourished especially in the 1960s and 1970s in

22420-475: The largest among European Union members. France's total land area, with its overseas departments and territories (excluding Adélie Land ), is 643,801 km (248,573 sq mi), 0.45% of the total land area on Earth. France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the southeast, the Massif Central in the south-central and Pyrenees in

22610-560: The latter an early modernist, quickly became associated with the distinctive Annales approach, which combined geography, history, and the sociological approaches of the Année Sociologique (many members of which were their colleagues at Strasbourg) to produce an approach which rejected the predominant emphasis on politics, diplomacy and war of many 19th and early 20th-century historians as spearheaded by historians whom Febvre called Les Sorbonnistes. Instead, they pioneered an approach to

22800-450: The left, although with different emphases. Febvre, for example, was more militantly Marxist than Bloch, while the latter criticised both the pacifist left and corporate trade unionism. In 1934, Étienne Gilson sponsored Bloch's candidacy for a chair at the Collège de France. The college, says the historian Eugen Weber , was Bloch's "dream" appointment—although one never to be realised—as it

22990-610: The library to the University of Montpellier at the advice of the Vichy education minister, his friend Jérôme Carcopino , and later protested the loss to the newly appointed minister Abel Bonnard . Bloch's mother had recently died, and his wife was ill; he faced daily harassment. On 18 March 1941, Bloch made his will in Clermont-Ferrand. The Polish social historian Bronisław Geremek suggests that this document hints at Bloch in some way foreseeing his death, as he emphasised that nobody had

23180-506: The local leaders of Combat and organisers of the Comité Général d'Etudes (an underground Conseil d'État ), René Courtin and Pierre-Henri Teitgen . He also knew the sociologist and Communist Resistance member Georges Friedmann and the philosopher of mathematics Jean Cavaillès , a key Resistance figure who co-founded the left-wing Libération-sud in Clermont-Ferrand in December 1940,

23370-551: The long-standing folk belief that the king could cure scrofula by his thaumaturgic touch . The kings of France and England indeed regularly practiced the ritual. Bloch was not concerned with the effectiveness of the royal touch—he acted instead like an anthropologist in asking why people believed it and how it shaped relations between king and commoner. The book was highly influential in introducing comparative studies (in this case France and England), as well as long durations ("longue durée") studies spanning several centuries, even up to

23560-485: The making, remaking, dissemination, and reading of texts in early modern Europe and America. Under the heading of "practices", his class considers how readers read and marked up their books, forms of note-taking, and the interrelation between reading and writing from copying and translating to composing new texts. Under the heading of "materials", his class examines the relations between different kinds of writing surfaces (including stone, wax, parchment, paper, walls, textiles,

23750-469: The most diverse in Europe, comprising more than 140 species of trees. France had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.52/10, ranking it 123rd globally. There are nine national parks and 46 natural parks in France. A regional nature park (French: parc naturel régional or PNR) is a public establishment in France between local authorities and the national government covering an inhabited rural area of outstanding beauty, to protect

23940-588: The most significant French historian of his age. In 1936, Friedman says he considered using Marx in his teachings, with the intention of bringing "some fresh air" into the Sorbonne. The same year, Bloch and his family visited Venice , where they were chaperoned by the Italian historian Gino Luzzatto . During this period they were living in the Sèvres – Babylone area of Paris, next to the Hôtel Lutetia . By now, Annales

24130-633: The most-used language in diplomacy, science, and literature until the 20th century. France took control of territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia. In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes , forcing thousands of Huguenots into exile and published the Code Noir providing the legal framework for slavery and expelling Jews from French colonies. Under the wars of Louis XV (r. 1715–1774), France lost New France and most Indian possessions after its defeat in

24320-447: The movement he began against the "smugness" that pervaded French intellectual thinking continued. Bloch had been greatly influenced by him, as Durkheim also considered the connections between historians and sociologists to be greater than their differences. Not only did he openly acknowledge Durkheim's influence, but Bloch "repeatedly seized any opportunity to reiterate" it, according to R. C. Rhodes. At Strasbourg, he again met Febvre, who

24510-418: The name France comes from the Latin Francia , or "realm of the Franks ". The name of the Franks is related to the English word frank ("free"): the latter stems from the Old French franc ("free, noble, sincere"), and ultimately from the Medieval Latin word francus ("free, exempt from service; freeman, Frank"), a generalisation of the tribal name that emerged as a Late Latin borrowing of

24700-448: The new vistas in social and economic history. Co-founder Marc Bloch (1886–1944) was a quintessential modernist who studied at the elite École Normale Supérieure, and in Germany, serving as a professor at the University of Strasbourg until he was called to the Sorbonne in Paris in 1936 as professor of economic history. Bloch's interests were highly interdisciplinary, influenced by the geography of Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918) and

24890-405: The newly established kingdoms. These victories led to the worldwide expansion of French revolutionary ideals and reforms, such as the metric system , Napoleonic Code and Declaration of the Rights of Man. In 1812 Napoleon attacked Russia , reaching Moscow. Thereafter his army disintegrated through supply problems, disease, Russian attacks, and finally winter. After this catastrophic campaign and

25080-423: The next generation. To complicate the situation further, the country was in both political and economic crises , and the college's budget was slashed by 10%. No matter who filled it, this made another new chair financially unviable. By the end of the year, and with further retirements, the college had lost four professors: it could replace only one, and Bloch was not appointed. Bloch personally suspected his failure

25270-448: The off-and-on Hundred Years' War . Boundaries changed, but landholdings inside France by English Kings remained extensive for decades. With charismatic leaders, such as Joan of Arc , French counterattacks won back most English continental territories. France was struck by the Black Death , from which half of the 17 million population died. The French Renaissance saw cultural development and standardisation of French, which became

25460-433: The originality of thought that Bloch would later be known for, and was not vastly different to what others had written on the subject. Following his graduation, he taught at two lycées , first in Montpelier, a minor university town of 66,000 inhabitants. With Bloch working over 16 hours a week on his classes, there was little time for him to work on his thesis. He also taught at the University of Amiens . While there, he wrote

25650-414: The outbreak of war, Bloch published the first volume of Feudal Society . Torn from normal behaviour and from normal expectations, suspended from history and from commonsense responses, members of a huge French army became separated for an indefinite period from their work and their loved ones. Sixty-seven divisions, lacking strong leadership, public support, and solid allies, waited almost three-quarters of

25840-464: The palace (head of household). One mayor of the palace, Charles Martel , defeated an Umayyad invasion of Gaul at the Battle of Tours (732). His son, Pepin the Short , seized the crown of Francia from the weakened Merovingians and founded the Carolingian dynasty . Pepin's son, Charlemagne , reunited the Frankish kingdoms and built an empire across Western and Central Europe . Proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III and thus establishing

26030-411: The political and biographical history which up until that point was the norm, along with what the historian George Huppert has described as a "laborious cult of facts" that accompanied it. In 1920, with the opening of the University of Strasbourg , Bloch was appointed chargé de cours ( assistant lecturer ) of medieval history. Alsace-Lorraine had been returned to France with the Treaty of Versailles ;

26220-409: The position be redesignated the study of comparative history. Bloch, says Weber, enjoyed and welcomed new schools of thought and ideas, but mistakenly believed the college should do so also; the college did not. The contest between Bloch and Grenier was not just the struggle for one post between two historians; it was also a struggle to determine which path historiography within the college would take for

26410-511: The potential seizure or liquidation of Annales , Febvre insisted on continuing to publish it in Paris to ensure an international distribution and demanded that Bloch step down for the sake of preserving their project. Bloch initially refused what he called "an abdication" and proposed to move the journal to the unoccupied zone. In his desire to keep the journal afloat at all costs, Febvre went so far as to point out that Bloch had himself tried to rescue his Paris library. Bloch, forced to accede, turned

26600-506: The primary source of legitimacy , undermined the power of and support for the monarchy and was a factor in the Revolution. The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change that began with the Estates General of 1789 , and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate . Many of its ideas are fundamental principles of liberal democracy , while its values and institutions remain central to modern political discourse. Its causes were

26790-465: The reconstructed Frankish endonym * Frank . It has been suggested that the meaning "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul , only Franks were free of taxation, or more generally because they had the status of freemen in contrast to servants or slaves. The etymology of *Frank is uncertain. It is traditionally derived from the Proto-Germanic word * frankōn , which translates as "javelin" or "lance" (the throwing axe of

26980-413: The remainder of Gaul and overcame a revolt by Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix in 52 BC. Gaul was divided by Augustus into provinces and many cities were founded during the Gallo-Roman period , including Lugdunum (present-day Lyon ), the capital of the Gauls. In 250–290 AD, Roman Gaul suffered a crisis with its fortified borders attacked by barbarians . The situation improved in the first half of

27170-399: The revolt was a political failure (the Gaullist party emerged stronger than before) it announced a split between the French and de Gaulle, who resigned. In the post-Gaullist era, France remained one of the most developed economies in the world but faced crises that resulted in high unemployment rates and increasing public debt. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, France has been at

27360-472: The right to avoid fighting for their country. Annales School The school deals primarily with late medieval and early modern Europe (before the French Revolution ), with little interest in later topics. It has dominated French social history and heavily influenced historiography in Europe and Latin America. Prominent leaders include co-founders Lucien Febvre (1878–1956), Henri Hauser (1866–1946) and Marc Bloch (1886–1944). The second generation

27550-451: The same area of Strasbourg and became kindred spirits, often going on walking trips across the Vosges and other excursions. Bloch's fundamental views on the nature and purpose of the study of history were established by 1920. That same year he defended, and subsequently published, his thesis. It was not as extensive a work as had been intended due to the war. There was a provision in French further education for doctoral candidates for whom

27740-436: The second-largest behind the British Empire . Including metropolitan France, the total area reached almost 13 million square kilometres in the 1920s and 1930s, 9% of the world's land. Known as the Belle Époque , the turn of the century was characterised by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity and technological, scientific and cultural innovations. In 1905, state secularism was officially established . France

27930-707: The seeds of its own downfall, for there is "no longer any implicit consensus on which to base the unity of the social, identified with the real". The Annales school kept its infrastructure, but lost its mentalités . The journal began in Strasbourg as Annales d'histoire économique et sociale ; it moved to Paris and kept the same name from 1929 to 1939. It was successively renamed Annales d'histoire sociale (1939–1942, 1945), Mélanges d'histoire sociale (1942–1944), Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations (1946–1994), and Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (1994– ). In 1962, Braudel and Gaston Berger used Ford Foundation money and government funds to create

28120-604: The significance of the two qualifications). He had a high respect for historical geography , then a speciality of French historiography, as practised by his tutor Vidal de la Blache whose Tableau de la géographie Bloch had studied at the ÉNS, and Lucien Gallois . Bloch applied unsuccessfully for a fellowship at the Fondation Thiers . As a result, he travelled to Germany in 1909 where he studied demography under Karl Bücher in Leipzig and religion under Adolf Harnack in Berlin; he did not, however, particularly socialise with fellow students while in Germany. He returned to France

28310-435: The sociology of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). His own ideas, especially those expressed in his masterworks, French Rural History ( Les caractères originaux de l'histoire rurale française , 1931) and Feudal Society , were incorporated by the second-generation Annalistes, led by Fernand Braudel . Georges Duby , a leader of the school, wrote that the history he taught: The Annalistes, especially Lucien Febvre , advocated

28500-439: The southwest. Due to its numerous overseas departments and territories scattered across the planet, France possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 11,035,000 km (4,261,000 sq mi). Its EEZ covers approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world. Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America , Saint Pierre and Miquelon in

28690-488: The state and reinforced royal power. He destroyed castles of defiant lords and denounced the use of private armies. By the end of the 1620s, Richelieu established "the royal monopoly of force". France fought in the Thirty Years' War , supporting the Protestant side against the Habsburgs. From the 16th to the 19th century, France was responsible for about 10% of the transatlantic slave trade . During Louis XIV 's minority, trouble known as The Fronde occurred. This rebellion

28880-414: The status of the region was a contentious political issue in Strasbourg, its capital, which had a large German population. Bloch, however, refused to take either side in the debate; indeed, he appears to have avoided politics entirely. Under Wilhelmine Germany , Strasbourg had rivalled Berlin as a centre for intellectual advancement, and the University of Strasbourg possessed the largest academic library in

29070-424: The unoccupied territory. Free France , the government-in-exile led by  Charles de Gaulle , was set up in London. From 1942 to 1944, about 160,000 French citizens, including around 75,000 Jews , were deported to death and concentration camps . On 6 June 1944, the Allies invaded Normandy , and in August they invaded Provence . The Allies and French Resistance emerged victorious, and French sovereignty

29260-449: The war had interrupted their research to submit only a small portion of the full-length thesis usually required. It sufficed, however, to demonstrate his credentials as a medievalist in the eyes of his contemporaries. He began publishing articles in Henri Berr 's Revue de Synthèse Historique . Bloch also published his first major work, Les Rois thaumaturges , which he later described as " ce gros enfant " (this big child). In 1928, Bloch

29450-425: The work of Pierre Goubert in 1960 on Beauvais and René Baehrel on Basse-Provence. Annales historians in the 1970s and 1980s turned to urban regions, including Pierre Deyon (Amiens), Maurice Garden (Lyon), Jean-Pierre Bardet (Rouen), Georges Freche (Toulouse), Gregory Hanlon (Agen and Layrac ), and Jean-Claude Perrot (Caen). By the 1970s the shift was underway from the earlier economic history to cultural history and

29640-430: The world. Thus, says Stephan R. Epstein of the London School of Economics , "Bloch's unrivalled knowledge of the European Middle Ages was ... built on and around the French University of Strasbourg's inherited German treasures". Bloch also taught French to the few German students who were still at the Centre d'Études Germaniques at the University of Mainz during the Occupation of the Rhineland . He refrained from taking

29830-503: The worldwide profile of the Annales School. In 1951, historian Bernard Bailyn published a critique of La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Epoque de Philippe II , which he framed as dichotomizing politics and society. Before Annales , French history supposedly happened in Paris. Febvre broke decisively with this paradigm in 1912, with his sweeping doctoral thesis on Philippe II et la Franche-Comté . The geography and social structure of this region overwhelmed and shaped

30020-477: The École normale supérieure (ÉNS) (where his father had been appointed maître de conferences in 1887). His father had been nicknamed le Méga by his students at the ÉNS and the moniker Microméga was bestowed upon Bloch. Here he was taught history by Christian Pfister and Charles Seignobos , who led a relatively new school of historical thought which saw history as broad themes punctuated by tumultuous events. Another important influence on Bloch from this period

30210-401: Was invaded by Germany and defended by Great Britain at the start of World War I in August 1914. A rich industrial area in the north was occupied. France and the Allies emerged victorious against the Central Powers at tremendous human cost. It left 1.4 million French soldiers dead, 4% of its population. Interwar was marked by intense international tensions and social reforms introduced by

30400-400: Was 11 when Émile Zola published J'Accuse…! , his indictment of the French establishment's antisemitism and corruption. Bloch was greatly affected by the Dreyfus affair, but even more affected was nineteenth-century France generally, and his father's employer, the École Normale Supérieure, saw existing divides in French society reinforced in every debate. Gustave Bloch was closely involved in

30590-410: Was a founding member of NATO and attempted to regain control of French Indochina , but was defeated by the Viet Minh in 1954. France faced another anti-colonialist conflict in Algeria , then part of France and home to over one million European settlers ( Pied-Noir ). The French systematically used torture and repression, including extrajudicial killings to keep control. This conflict nearly led to

30780-407: Was a modernist in his historiographical approach, and repeatedly emphasised the importance of a multidisciplinary engagement towards history, particularly blending his research with that on geography , sociology and economics, which was his subject when he was offered a post at the University of Paris in 1936. During the Second World War Bloch volunteered for service, and was a logistician during

30970-538: Was arrested in Narbonne in September 1942 and escaped from Montpellier prison in December 1942. It was during these bitter years of defeat, of personal recrimination, of insecurity that he wrote both the uncompromisingly condemnatory pages of Strange Defeat and the beautifully serene passages of The Historian's Craft . R. R. Davies Bloch's professional relationship with Febvre was also under strain. The Nazis wanted French editorial boards to be stripped of Jews in accordance with German racial policies . Facing

31160-439: Was assigned to the 272nd Reserve Regiment. Within eight days he was stationed on the Belgian border where he fought in the Battle of the Meuse later that month. His regiment took part in the general retreat on the 25th, and the following day they were in Barricourt , in the Argonne . The march westward continued towards the river Marne —with a temporary recuperative halt in Termes —which they reached in early September. During

31350-425: Was being published six times a year to keep on top of current affairs, however, its "outlook was gloomy". In 1938, the publishers withdrew support and, experiencing financial hardship, the journal moved to cheaper offices, raised its prices, and returned to publishing quarterly. Febvre increasingly opposed the direction Bloch wanted to take the journal. Febvre wanted it to be a "journal of ideas", whereas Bloch saw it as

31540-472: Was beneficial to his wife's declining health. The dean of faculty at Montpellier was an antisemite, who also disliked Bloch for having once given him a poor review . Bloch rejected the Vichy propaganda notion of returning to traditional French values, arguing that "the idyllic, docile peasant life of the French right had never existed". In Montpellier, he had to be escorted to class for protection from militant right-wing students. His university contacts included

31730-458: Was captured by the Gestapo in Lyon and murdered in a summary execution after the Allied invasion of Normandy . Several works—including influential studies like The Historian's Craft and Strange Defeat —were published posthumously. His historical studies and his death as a member of the Resistance together made Bloch highly regarded by generations of post-war French historians; he came to be called "the greatest historian of all time". By

31920-451: Was divided into Germanic kingdoms and a remaining Gallo-Roman territory. Celtic Britons , fleeing the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain , settled in west Armorica ; the Armorican peninsula was renamed Brittany and Celtic culture was revived. The first leader to unite all Franks was Clovis I , who began his reign as king of the Salian Franks in 481, routing the last forces of the Roman governors in 486. Clovis said he would be baptised

32110-469: Was dominated by the conflict with the House of Habsburg and the French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots . France was successful in the Thirty Years' War and further increased its influence during the reign of Louis XIV . The French Revolution of 1789 overthrew the Ancien Régime and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man , which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. France reached its political and military zenith in

32300-479: Was driven by feudal lords and sovereign courts as a reaction to the royal absolute power . The monarchy reached its peak during the 17th century and reign of Louis XIV. By turning lords into courtiers at the Palace of Versailles , his command of the military went unchallenged. The "Sun King" made France the leading European power. France became the most populous European country and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. French became

32490-601: Was due to antisemitism and Jewish quotas . At the time, Febvre blamed it on a distrust of Bloch's approach to scholarship by the academic establishment, although Epstein has argued that this could not have been an over-riding fear as Bloch's next appointment indicated. We sometimes clashed...so close to each other and yet so different. We threw our 'bad character' in each other's faces, after which we found ourselves more united than ever in our common hatred of bad history, of bad historians—and of bad Frenchmen who were also bad Europeans. Lucien Febvre Henri Hauser retired from

32680-405: Was executed in January 1793. After another revolt in June 1793 , the constitution was suspended and power passed from the National Convention to the Committee of Public Safety . About 16,000 people were executed in a Reign of Terror , which ended in July 1794 . Weakened by external threats and internal opposition, the Republic was replaced in 1795 by the Directory . Four years later in 1799,

32870-579: Was fighting beside mine for justice and civilisation, wrote in captivity a history of Europe". The three men kept up a regular correspondence until Pirenne's death in 1935. In 1923, Bloch attended the inaugural meeting of the International Congress on Historical Studies (ICHS) in Brussels , which was opened by Pirenne. Bloch was a prolific reviewer for Annales , and during the 1920s and 1930s he contributed over 700 reviews. These included criticisms of specific works, but more generally, represented his own fluid thinking during this period. The reviews demonstrate

33060-445: Was himself to become an important member of the Annales School after the Second World War—later described the journal's management as being a chief executive officer—Bloch—with a minister of foreign affairs—Febvre. Utilizing comparative methodology allowed Bloch to discover instances of uniqueness within aspects of society, and he advocated it as a new kind of history. According to Bryce Lyon, Braudel and Febvre, "promising to perform all

33250-453: Was his duty to correct that tendency. Both Bloch and Febvre were keen to refocus French historical scholarship on social rather than political history and to promote the use of sociological techniques. The journal avoided narrative history almost completely. The inaugural issue of the Annales stated the editors' basic aims: to counteract the arbitrary and artificial division of history into periods, to re-unite history and social science as

33440-626: Was his father's contemporary, the sociologist Émile Durkheim , who pre-figured Bloch's own later emphasis on cross-disciplinary research. The same year, Bloch visited England; he later recalled being struck more by the number of homeless people on the Victoria Embankment than the new Entente Cordiale relationship between the two countries. The Dreyfus affair had soured Bloch's views of the French Army , and he considered it laden with "snobbery, anti-semitism and anti-republicanism". National service had been made compulsory for all French adult males in 1905, with an enlistment term of two years. Bloch joined

33630-444: Was invited to lecture at the Institute for the Comparative Study of Civilizations in Oslo. Here he first expounded publicly his theories on total, comparative history: "it was a compelling plea for breaking out of national barriers that circumscribed historical research, for jumping out of geographical frameworks, for escaping from a world of artificiality, for making both horizontal and vertical comparisons of societies, and for enlisting

33820-414: Was its precursor. During the 9th and 10th centuries, threatened by Viking invasions , France became a decentralised state: the nobility's titles and lands became hereditary, and authority of the king became more religious than secular, and so was less effective and challenged by noblemen. Thus was established feudalism in France. Some king's vassals grew so powerful they posed a threat to the king. After

34010-412: Was led by Fernand Braudel (1902–1985) and included Georges Duby (1919–1996), Pierre Goubert (1915–2012), Robert Mandrou (1921–1984), Pierre Chaunu (1923–2009), Jacques Le Goff (1924–2014), and Ernest Labrousse (1895–1988). Institutionally it is based on the Annales journal, the SEVPEN publishing house, the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH), and especially the 6th Section of

34200-459: Was no longer there, but the team he had grouped around him survived him...and the spirit which animates it remains the same". Marc Bloch, review of L'Année Sociologique , 1923–1925 The war was fundamental in re-arranging Bloch's approach to history, although he never acknowledged it as a turning point. In the years following the war, a disillusioned Bloch rejected the ideas and the traditions that had formed his scholarly training. He rejected

34390-400: Was now a leading historian of the 16th century. Modern and medieval seminars were adjacent to each other at Strasbourg, and attendance often overlapped. Their meeting has been called a "germinal event for 20th-century historiography", and they were to work closely together for the rest of Bloch's life. Febvre was some years older than Bloch and was probably a great influence on him. They lived in

34580-439: Was occupied in 1940. Following its liberation in 1944 , the short-lived Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the defeat in the Algerian War . The current Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle . Algeria and most French colonies became independent in the 1960s, with the majority retaining close economic and military ties with France . France retains its centuries-long status as

34770-431: Was one of the few (possibly the only) institutions in France where personal research was central to lecturing. Camille Jullian had died the previous year, and his position was now available. While he had lived, Julian had wished for his chair to go to one of his students, Albert Grenier , and after his death, his colleagues generally agreed with him. However, Gilson proposed that not only should Bloch be appointed, but that

34960-416: Was one of the first countries to create an environment ministry, in 1971. France is ranked 19th by carbon dioxide emissions due to the country's heavy investment in nuclear power following the 1973 oil crisis , which now accounts for 75 per cent of its electricity production and results in less pollution. According to the 2020 Environmental Performance Index conducted by Yale and Columbia , France

35150-453: Was restored with the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF). This interim government, established by de Gaulle, continued to wage war against Germany and to purge collaborators from office . It made important reforms e.g. suffrage extended to women and the creation of a social security system. A new constitution resulted in the Fourth Republic (1946–1958), which saw strong economic growth ( les Trente Glorieuses ). France

35340-434: Was still there. To Bloch, France collapsed because her generals failed to capitalise on the best qualities humanity possessed—character and intelligence—because of their own "sluggish and intractable" progress since the First World War. Two-thirds of France were occupied by Germany. Bloch was demobilised soon after Philippe Pétain 's government signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940 forming Vichy France . Bloch received

35530-588: Was the fifth most environmentally conscious country in the world. Like all European Union state members, France agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 20% of 1990 levels by 2020. As of 2009 , French carbon dioxide emissions per capita were lower than that of China. The country was set to impose a carbon tax in 2009; however, the plan was abandoned due to fears of burdening French businesses. Forests account for 31 per cent of France's land area—the fourth-highest proportion in Europe—representing an increase of 7 per cent since 1990. French forests are some of

35720-420: Was to emphasise for most of his career. Serfdom as a topic was so broad that he touched on commerce, currency, popular religion, the nobility, as well as art, architecture, and literature. His doctoral thesis —a study of 10th-century French serfdom—was titled Rois et Serfs, un Chapitre d'Histoire Capétienne . Although it helped mould Bloch's ideas for the future, it did not, says Bryce Loyn, give any indication of

35910-404: Was unseated following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and his regime replaced by the Third Republic . By 1875, the French conquest of Algeria was complete, with approximately 825,000 Algerians killed from famine, disease, and violence. France had colonial possessions since the beginning of the 17th century, but in the 19th and 20th centuries its empire extended greatly and became

36100-449: Was viewed internationally as a Dutch counterpart of the Annales school, although Slicher van Bath himself vehemently rejected the idea of a quantitative "school" of historiography. Has been cited as a key influence in the development of World Systems Theory by sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein . The current leader is Roger Chartier , who is Directeur d'Études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Professeur in

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