A Petit History of Paris ~ The City of Light

Wednesday, 09 May 2007 04:37

This week, we put France on the map and measured the nation by the numbers.  Today, zooming in on Paris, the capital, where newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy will take power next week.  Paris has long been known as the City of Light.  But it didn't start out that way. Once upon a time, Paris was a muddy little place.  The first Parisians--members of a Celtic tribe called the Parisii--settled on a small island on the river Seine.  The island's advantages were obvious.  The river was good for fishing, provided access to the sea, and protected against invaders; invaders like Julius Caesar.

When Caesar came to put down a rebellion in 52 BC, the city on the Seine sided with the rebels. So Caesar took it for himself.  Back then, the city was called Lutetia Parisiorum: "muddy dwelling of the Parisii."  It became known as Paris around the third century, about when it became Christian.

Center of France

In 508, the Frankish king Clovis I made Paris his capital.  The city quickly lost that distinction, though. For four centuries, Merovingian and Carolingian kings resided elsewhere, and Paris was assailed by Vikings--until 987, when a local count, Hugh Capet, became king and once again made Paris the capital.  After that the city grew, and grew beautiful. Construction of the cathedral of Notre Dame began in 1163.  One of its early patrons was King Louis IX ~ a.k.a. St. Louis.

As long as Paris was the center of France, it was also the focus of France's troubles. In 1420, civil war enabled the English to capture Paris and keep it for 16 years.  In 1572, Catholic mobs slaughtered thousands of French Protestants in the streets.  In the 17th century, more civil strife helped inspire Louis XIV, France's Sun King, to actually move the royal court away from Paris, to Versailles.

Heart of Revolution

As the French monarchy grew more absolute, the French people grew more annoyed. In 1789, the mounting tensions exploded. A mob stormed the Bastille, once a castle, later a prison, and touched off the French Revolution. Paris soon became a staging ground for political terror.  King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were guillotined there in 1793.  Another 1,300 people were executed during six weeks in 1794. The chaos ended only with Napoleon, who crowned himself emperor inside Notre Dame in 1804.

Even after that, Paris saw enough upheavals to earn a reputation as a breeding ground for discontent. As the Austrian Prince Metternich put it, "when Paris sneezes, Europe catches cold."  In 1871, after a brief occupation by German armies, Paris even broke away from France to form the Paris Commune.  The government killed some 20,000 communards to put Paris back in France.

Modern City

Today's Paris emerged from all the revolutionary strife.  In 1853, Emperor Napoleon III commissioned Baron Haussmann to modernize the old city's heart.   He demolished what was medieval, planted trees, and built parks, markets, and boulevards. Culture flourished.  The Eiffel Tower went up in 1889, just as the city was becoming a haven for artists and intellectuals from around the world.

During World War II, German forces seized Paris, which stayed under fascist occupation for four years.  Remarkably, it sustained little damage, and quickly reclaimed its place as the City of Light. Today, greater Paris has millions of inhabitants and an economy larger than most countries'.  Popular uprisings still happen, but the energy of Paris has yet to be drained.

by--Mark Diller