The Story of France: Revolution, Empire, and National Identity — Fexingo History

France: a name that conjures visions of Gothic cathedrals and revolutionary barricades, of absolute monarchy and republican ideals. In this series, Lucas and Luna guide listeners through the layered narrative of a nation that shaped the modern world. From the coronation of Clovis in 496 to the secular state of laïcité, each episode unpacks a pivotal moment: the Capetian consolidation of royal power, the Hundred Years' War and Joan of Arc, the Wars of Religion that tore the kingdom apart, the Sun King's Versailles, the Enlightenment salons that brewed revolution, the storming of the Bastille, the Terror of 1793–94, Napoleon's conquests and his legal code, the Restoration, the Paris Commune, the Dreyfus Affair, Vichy collaboration, and the contentious construction of European unity. We examine the contradictions: liberty and centralisation, reason and faith, empire and republic. Why did France, the most powerful kingdom in Europe, collapse into revolution? How did the tricolour and the M