History
French people are the descendants of Gauls (a western European Celtic people), as well as Italic people, Sarmatian peoples (Alans, Taifals), Bretons, Aquitanians (Basques), Iberians, and Greeks in southern France, mixed with the Germanic people arriving at the end of the Roman Empire such as the Franks, the Belgae, the Visigoths, the Suebi, the Marcomanni, the Vandals, the Saxons, the Allemanni and the Burgundians, and later Germanic tribes such as the Vikings (known as Normans), who settled mostly in Normandy in the 9th century.
The name "France" etymologically derives from the word Francia, the territory of the Franks. The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire.
Some regions were immensely affected by mass migrations of different peoples: Celtics in Brittany, and Germanics in Alsatia (Alemanni) before the existence of the Frankish kingdoms, and the languages and culture of these regions continue through self-perpetuation until this day.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)