The oldest traces of human occupation in Paris are human bones and evidence of an encampment of hunter-gatherers dating from about BC, during the Mesolithic period. During the Middle Ages, Paris was the largest city in Europe, an important religious and commercial centre, and the birthplace of the Gothic style of architecture.
The University of Paris on the Left Bankorganised in the midth century, was one of the first in Europe. It suffered from the Bubonic Plague in the 14th century and the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century, with recurrence of the plague.
Between andthe city was occupied by the Burgundians and English soldiers. In the 16th century, Paris became the book-publishing capital of Europe, though it was shaken by the French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants.
In the 18th century, Paris was the centre of the intellectual ferment known as the Enlightenmentand the main stage of the French Revolution fromwhich is remembered every year on the 14th of July with a military parade. In the 19th century, Napoleon embellished the city with monuments to military glory.
It became the European capital of fashion and the scene of two more revolutions in and Under Napoleon III and his Prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmannthe centre of Paris was rebuilt between and with wide new avenues, squares and new parks, and the city was expanded to its present limits in In the latter part of the century, millions of tourists came to see the Paris International Expositions and the new Eiffel Tower.
Between the two wars, Paris was the capital of modern art and a magnet for intellectuals, writers and artists from around the world. The population reached its historic high of 2. In the 21st century, Paris added new museums and a new concert hall, but in it also experienced violent unrest in the housing projects in the surrounding banlieues suburbsinhabited largely by first and second generation paris händelse from France's former colonies in the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Inthe city and the nation were shocked by two deadly terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremists. The population of the city declined steadily from untildue to a decrease in family size and an exodus of the middle class to the suburbs; but it is increasing slowly once again, as young people and immigrants move into the city.
Inarchaeologists of the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives INRAP administered by France's Ministry of Higher Education and Research digging at n° 62 Rue Henri-Farman in the 15th arrondissementnot far from the Left Bank of the Seinediscovered Praktiska frågor oldest human remains and traces of a hunter-gatherer settlement in Paris, dating to about BC, during the Mesolithic period.
Other more recent traces of temporary settlements had been found at Bercy indating from around — BC. They are now on display at the Carnavalet Museum. The archaeologists found ceramics, animal bone fragments, and pieces of polished axes.
At the beginning of the 2nd century BC, they built an oppiduma walled fort, whose location is disputed. It may have been on the Île de la Citéwhere bridges of an important trading route crossed the Seine. In his account of the Gallic warsJulius Caesar recorded meeting with the leaders of the Parisii on an island in the Seine.
Other historians cite an absence of traces of an early Gallic settlement on the island, and believe the oppidum was actually in Nanterrein the Paris suburbs, where vestiges of a large settlement were discovered during construction of a highway in the s.
The settlement was called "Lucotocia" according to the ancient Greek geographer Strabo or "Leucotecia" according to Roman geographer Ptolemyand may have taken its name from the Celtic word lugo or lucofor a marsh or swamp. Julius Caesar and his Roman army campaigned in Gaul between 58 and 53 BC under the pretext of protecting the territory from Germanic invaders, but in reality to conquer it and annex it to the Roman Republic.
Caesar responded quickly. He force-marched six legions north to Orléanswhere the rebellion had begun, and then to Gergoviathe home of Vercingetorix.