Globalized France: The historical roots of contemporary France

As Patrick Boucheron writes, there would be no France without the world. To understand past and present France, we must study the various connections between France and the rest of the world. This interconnection will be a leading thread in this course, whereby we will attempt to explain the current state of France by looking not only at its past, but also at that of the surrounding world that shaped French history.

We will study how France shaped its territory, why it has chosen a centralised political model, and we will try to explain France's complex social matrix. Foreign relations (“ colonisation, décolonisation”) and European construction will be among many topics to be explored. As we travel through a long period of history to understand our present, we'll observe what has changed and what is still current.

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Patrick BOUCHERON, Histoire Mondiale de la France, Seuil, 2025, ISBN: 978-2-02-160416-0