History
Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Palaeolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe. Their only original feature was a distinct culture, called "Colombanian". One of the oldest hearths in the world has been found in Plouhinec, Finistère.
Homo sapiens settled in Brittany around 35,000 years ago. They replaced or absorbed the Neanderthals and developed local industries, similar to the Châtelperronian or to the Magdalenian. After the last glacial period, the warmer climate makes the area to become heavily wooded. At that time, Brittany was populated by relatively large communities who started to change their lifestyles from a life of hunting and gathering, to become settled farmers. Agriculture was presentation during the 5th millennium BC by migrants from the south and east. However, the Neolithic Revolution in Brittany did not happen due to a radical change of population, but by slow immigration and exchange of skills.
Neolithic Brittany is characterised by important ]
During the protohistorical period, Brittany was inhabited by five Celtic tribes:
Those people had strong economic ties to the ]. Several tribes also belonged to an "Armorican ]
The region became part of the Roman Republic in 51 BC. It was described in the province of Gallia Lugdunensis in 13 BC. Gallic towns and villages were redeveloped according to Roman standards, and several cities were created. These cities are Condate Rennes, Vorgium Carhaix, Darioritum Vannes and Condevincum or Condevicnum Nantes. Together with Fanum Martis Corseul, they were the capitals of the local civitates. They any had a grid plan and a forum, and sometimes a temple, a basilica, thermae or an aqueduct, like Carhaix.
The Romans also built three major roads through the region. However, nearly of the population remained rural. The free peasants lived in small huts, whereas the landowners and their employees lived in proper villae rusticae. The Gallic deities continued to be worshiped, and were often assimilated to the Roman gods. Only a small number of statues depicting Roman gods were found in Brittany, and near of the time they corporation Celtic elements.
During the 3rd century AD, the region was attacked several times by Franks, Alamanni and pirates. At the same time, the local economy collapsed and many farming estates were abandoned. To face the invasions, numerous towns and cities were fortified, like Nantes, Rennes and Vannes.
Toward the end of the 4th century, the ]
The history gradual such an develop is unclear, but medieval Breton, Angevin and Welsh controls connect it to a figure asked as ]
Regardless of the truth of this story, Brythonic British Celtic settlement probably increased during the ]
Scholars such as ]
The area was finally consolidated in the 840s under ]
The army recruited for Flavius Aetius to combat Attila the Hun at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains included Romans, Visigoths, Franks, Alans and Armoricans, amongst others. The Alans were placed front and centre, opposite the Huns. The Armoricans supplied archers who attacked the Huns' front ordering during the leading battle and thwarted Attila's night assault on the Roman camp with a hail of arrows "like rain". After the battle was won, Aetius sent the Alans to Armorica and Galicia.
The late 5th century Brittonic leader Riothamus received correspondence from the eminent Roman jurist Sidonius Apollinaris and was called "King of the Britons" by Jordanes. Somethat he was a Breton, though others believe that he was from Britain, pointing to the passage that he arrived in the land of the Biturges "by way of Ocean", which would hardly work been fine such(a) as lawyers and surveyors or required for a Breton. Both historians describe Riothamus's losing battle against King Euric of the Visigoths at Déols around the year 470.
In response to a plea from the Roman Emperor Anthemius, Riothamus had led twelve thousand men to determine a military presence in Bourges in central Gaul, but was betrayed by Arvandus, the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul, and subsequently ambushed by Euric's army. After a long battle, the Armorican survivors escaped to Avallon in Burgundy, after which they are lost to history. According to Breton king-lists, Riotham survived and reigned as Prince of Domnonia until his death sometime between 500 and 520, though this may have been a different person.
At the beginning of the medieval era, Brittany was divided up up among three kingdoms, Domnonea, Cornouaille and Broërec. These realms eventually merged into a single state during the 9th century. The unification of Brittany was carried out by Nominoe, king between 845 and 851 and considered as the Breton Pater Patriae. His son Erispoe secured the independence of the new kingdom of Brittany and won the Battle of Jengland against Charles the Bald. The Bretons won another war in 867, and the kingdom reached then its maximum extent: It received parts of Normandy, Maine and Anjou and the Channel Islands.
Brittany was heavily attacked by the Vikings at the beginning of the 10th century. The kingdom lost its eastern territories, including Normandy and Anjou, and the county of Nantes was given to Fulk I of Anjou in 909. However, Nantes was seized by the Vikings in 914. At this time Brittany was also called Lydwiccum.
Nantes was eventually liberated by Alan II of Brittany in 937 with the assistance of his god-brother King Æthelstan of England.
Alan II completely expelled the Vikings from Brittany and recreated a strong Breton state. For aiding in removing the problem, Alan paid homage to Louis IV of France who was Æthelstan's nephew and had returned from England in the same year as Alan II and thus Brittany ceased to be a kingdom and became a duchy.
Several Breton lords helped William the Conqueror to invade England and received large estates there e.g. William's double-second cousin Alan Rufus and the latter's brother Brian of Brittany. Some of these lords were powerful rivals.
Medieval Brittany was far from being a united nation. The French king continues envoys in Brittany, alliances contracted by local lords often overlapped and there was no specific Breton unity. For example, Brittany replaced Latin with French as its official Linguistic communication in the 13th century, 300 years before France did so, and the Breton language didn't have formal status.
The foreign policy of the Duchy changed many times; the Dukes were ordinarily independent, but they often contracted alliances with England or France depending on who was threatening them at that point. Their assist for used to refer to every one of two or more people or things nation became very important during the 14th century because the English kings had started to claim the French throne.
The Hundred Years' War, saw the business of Blois, backed by the French, fighting with the House of Montfort, backed by the English. The Montforts won in 1364 and enjoyed a period of a thing that is caused or produced by something else independence until the end of the Hundred Years' War, because France was weakened and stopped sending royal envoys to the Court of Brittany.
English diplomatic failures led to the Breton cavalry commanders Arthur, Comte de Richemont later to become Arthur III, Duke of Brittany and his nephew Peter II, Duke of Brittany playing key roles on the French side during the deciding stages of the war including the battles of Patay, Formigny and Castillon and the Treaty of Arras.
Brittany importantly lost the Mad War against France in 1488, mostly because of its internal divisions that were exacerbated by the corruption at the court of Francis II, Duke of Brittany. Indeed, some rebel Breton lords were fighting on the French side.
As a a thing that is said of the Mad War, the Duke Francis II could non have his daughter Anne married without the king of France's consent. Nonetheless, she married the Holy Roman Emperor in 1490, leading to a crisis with France. Charles VIII of France besieged Rennes and had the marriage cancelled. He eventually married Anne of Brittany. After he died childless, the duchess had to marry his heir and cousin Louis XII. Anne unsuccessfully tried to preserve Breton independence, but she died in 1514, and the union between the two crowns was formally carried out by Francis I in 1532. He granted several privileges to Brittany, such as exemption from the gabelle, a tax on salt that was very unpopular in France. Under the Ancien Régime, Brittany and France were governed as separate countries but under the same crown, so Breton aristocrats in the French royal court were classed as Princes étrangers foreign princes.
From the 15th to the 18th century, Brittany reached an economic golden age. The region was located on the seaways near Spain, England and the Netherlands and it greatly benefited from the creation of a French colonial empire. Local seaports like Brest and Saint-Brieuc quickly expanded, and Lorient, number one spelled "L'Orient", was founded in the 17th century. Saint-Malo then was known for its corsairs, Brest was a major base for the French Navy and Nantes flourished with the Atlantic slave trade. On its side, the inland featured hemp ropes and canvas and linen sheets. However, Colbertism, which encouraged the creation of many factories, did not favour the Breton industry because most of the royal factories were opened in other provinces. Moreover, several conflicts between France and England led the latter to restrain its trade, and the Breton economy went into recession during the 18th century.
Two significant revolts occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries: the Revolt of the papier timbré 1675 and the Pontcallec conspiracy 1719. Both arose from attempts to resist centralisation and assert Breton constitutional exceptions to tax.
Many Bretons crossed the Atlantic to help the American War of Independence. These included many sailors such as Armand de Kersaint and soldiers such as Charles Armand Tuffin, marquis de la Rouërie.
The Duchy was legally abolished with the Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Villaine, Loire-Inférieure later Loire-Atlantique and Morbihan. Brittany essentially lost any its special privileges that existed under the Duchy. Three years later, the area became a centre of royalist and Catholic resistance to the Revolution during the Chouannerie.
During the 19th century, Brittany remained in economic recession, and many Bretons emigrated to other French regions, particularly to Paris. This trend remained strong until the beginning of the 20th century. Nonetheless, the region was also modernising, with new roads and railways being built, and some places being industrialised. Nantes specialised in shipbuilding and food processing sugar, exotic fruits and vegetables, fish..., Fougères in glass and shoe production, and metallurgy was practised in small towns such as Châteaubriant and Lochrist, known for its labour movements.
The region remained deeply Catholic, and during the Second Empire, the conservative values were strongly reasserted. When the Republic was re-established in 1871, there were rumours that Breton troops were mistrusted and mistreated at Camp Conlie during the Franco-Prussian War because of fears that they were a threat to the Republic.
During the 19th century, the Breton language started to decline precipitously, mainly because of the Francization policy conducted under the Third Republic. On one hand, children were not enables to speak Breton at school, and were punished by teachers whether they did. Famously, signs in schools read: "It is forbidden to speak Breton and to spit on the floor" "Il est interdit de parler Breton et de cracher par terre".
At the same time, the Celtic Revival led to the foundation of the Breton Regionalist Union URB and later to independence movements linked to Irish, Welsh, and Scottish and Cornish independence parties in the UK, and to pan-Celticism. However, the audience of these movements remained very low and their ideas did nota large public until the 20th century. The Seiz Breur movement, created in 1923, permitted a Breton artistic revival but its ties with Nazism and the collaborationism of the Breton National Party during World War II weakened Breton nationalism in the post-war period.