History History

The oldest traces of human presence in Brittany were found at Saint-Malo-de-Phily, in the Vilaine basin: they are rudimentarily carved pebbles, dated to 500,000 to 700,000 years before our era. Along with Saint-Colomban in Carnac, the site of Menez-Dregan, in Plouhinec (Finistère), is the oldest known habitat: this cave, occupied more than 450,000 years ago, even contains some of the oldest evidence of fire domestication in the world.

Agriculture is born, men settle down. Brittany is covered with megaliths, witnesses of a rich and organized civilization: dolmens, covered walkways, tumuli and cairns (Barnénez, Gavrinis), burial places. The menhirs, for their part, have a symbolic function, which remains enigmatic. They can be found isolated, arranged in circles (cromlechs) or lined up as in Carnac.

It's the beginning of metallurgy. Bronze, a combination of copper and tin, made it possible to manufacture more sophisticated objects. Rich in pewter, Armorica holds a good place in the Atlantic trade, which intensifies. Numerous weapons and bronze objects were found in the burials of the period.

Coming from Central Europe, the Celts, masters of iron and metallurgy, gradually extended their hold and culture on the continent, as far as the Armorican tip. This people, organized in clans, brought many technical, agricultural and artisanal innovations. Agriculture and maritime trade developed. Armorica prospered and was structured into five large tribes: Osismes in the west, Coriosolites around Corseul, Namnètes towards Nantes, Redones towards Rennes and Vénètes in present-day Morbihan.

Between -58 and -52, Caesar launched an assault on Gaul. The powerful Venetians, who had put up fierce resistance, were defeated at sea in 56 B.C., despite their skilful seamanship. Armorica gradually became Gallo-Roman, and traditions were mixed.

Under the pressure of barbarian invasions, the Roman Empire faltered and fell in 476. The Armorican coasts are plundered. Subjected also to the threat of the Picts, Scots, Angles and Saxons, the Breton islanders emigrated to Armorica, gradually but massively. They take with them their customs, their language and their clergy. These monks, often Welsh or Irish, founded monasteries and parishes with names beginning with plou-, tre-, lan- or loc-, which have survived to the present day. The first bishoprics are created: Quimper by Saint Corentin, Saint-Pol-de-Léon by Saint Pol-Aurélien, Tréguier by Saint Tugdual, Dol by Saint Samson, Vannes by Saint Paterne, Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Malo by the eponymous saints. They are considered the seven founding saints of Brittany.

A peaceful coexistence is established with the Frankish neighbours, who have taken possession of Gaul: Brittany is loyal to them, but pays no tribute. The advent of the Carolingian dynasty changed the situation: a period of conflict began in 751 and pushed the Breton princes to join forces to defend their independence.

Louis le Pieux, son of Charlemagne, appoints an aristocrat from Vannes, Nominoë, as governor of Brittany. After the death of the emperor, he freed himself and engaged Brittany in a struggle for independence. He crushes the Franks in 845 at the battle of Ballon, near Redon. Nominoë is considered the father of the Breton nation. When he died in 851, his son Erispoë took up the torch, defeated the Franks again and became the first true Breton king.

Weakened by the quarrels of succession, Brittany suffered the assaults of the Vikings. The abbey of Landévennec was sacked in 913. A large number of monks and elites fled the region, which became a Viking principality. It was not until 937 that Breton soil was liberated by Alain II Barbetorte, who was recognized as the first Duke of Brittany after this reconquest.

In 1341, Duke John III died without an heir. Two contenders were vying for the succession: his half-brother Jean de Montfort, supported by the King of England, and his niece Jeanne de Penthièvre, who was favoured by the King of France. At the height of the Hundred Years' War, Brittany became a battleground between the two powers. The war lasted 23 years and ended with the victory of Jean de Monfort in 1364. One year later, he was recognized as Duke of Brittany by the King of France, under the name of John IV.

After the War of Succession, Brittany experienced a period of peace, economic and artistic boom. It asserts its independence by beating its currency, strengthening its army and its administration.

The King of France Charles VIII crushes the troops of the Duke of Brittany François II at Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier. The latter must sign the Treaty of the Orchard, which obliges him to obtain the agreement of the King of France to marry his daughters. François II died just afterwards and his daughter Anne became duchess at the age of 11. The following year, in an attempt to preserve the independence of the duchy, she married the Archduke of Austria. Charles VIII sent his troops to Brittany, had the marriage annulled and forced Anne to unite with him. She became Queen of France. After the death of Charles VIII, she marries his successor Louis XII, imposing his conditions: the independence and privileges of Brittany are recognized, its institutions restored. But the duchess died of illness in 1514, at the age of 36. Her daughter Claude inherited the duchy, married François I in 1514 and died ten years later, bequeathing Brittany to their eldest son.

Francis I wrenched a request from the States of Brittany to be attached to France. The Edict of Union guarantees the "rights, freedoms and privileges" of the duchy, such as the maintenance of a parliament and its own judicial and tax systems.

Mandated by François I, the Malouin navigator Jacques Cartier explores the Canadian coasts. It is the beginning of the colonization of New France.

Linen and hemp fabrics make the richness of the region, with the export of cereals, salt, fish, butter... Beautiful manor houses and parish enclosures are built. Brittany remained out of the Wars of Religion, which opposed Catholics and Protestants at the end of the 16th century, but finally entered the conflict when the Duke of Mercœur, governor of the province, joined the ultra-Catholic League and tried to restore Breton independence. He finally submitted in 1598.

The reign of Louis XIV was marked by a harsh centralizing policy, which was very badly experienced in Brittany. In order to finance his wars, the Sun King raised taxes, causing great discontent. The insurrection broke out when Colbert created new taxes on stamped paper, tobacco and tin tableware. It left Rennes in 1675 and spread throughout the region: the revolt of the Stamped Paper, a city dweller, became that of the Red Bonnets, a peasant woman. The repression is terrible.

The ideas of the Enlightenment spread in Brittany, where they echoed the criticism against royal centralism.

Initially, the revolution was well received in Brittany. If the Breton nobles boycotted the Estates General, the local deputies of the Third Estate, united in the Jacobin Club, took a very active part in the debates. But the new regime quickly became unpopular: the Breton peasantry took a dim view of the arrests of refractory priests, the beheading of the king, and the seizure of confiscated property by the bourgeoisie... In 1793, the announcement of compulsory conscription set off a guerrilla-style peasant insurrection that lasted until the beginning of the 19th century. Repression and the Terror hit back, and the authorities pursued a brutal centralizing policy. Historic Brittany no longer existed, split into five departments.

After the Revolution, Brittany's economy, which had collapsed, was struggling to recover. The canvas industry, archaic, does not resist to external competition. Agriculture remains the central activity, the industrial boom (cannery, shipyards) is timid. Many Bretons go into exile. It is also the great era of cod fishing off Newfoundland and Iceland, from the ports of Saint-Malo, Binic or Paimpol. Recruited from the countryside and poor areas, the "Terre-neuvas" set out for long months at sea, in harsh conditions. In order to open up the territory, canals were built in competition with the arrival of the train from 1850 onwards. With it, tourism made its debut and picturesque Brittany attracted artists. The feeling of belonging develops and a Breton Association is created in 1843, to defend its economic and cultural influence.

The centralist policy of the Third Republic undermined the particularities of Brittany. The use of the Breton language was sanctioned in schools, which became compulsory. In a region very attached to Catholicism, the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State generated tensions.

With over 120,000 dead, the region was one of the hardest hit by the Great War.

In the inter-war period, the rural exodus continued. The Breton movement wakes up: newspapers and parties are born, federalist or nationalist. The Gwenn ha Du flag is created in 1923, the Seiz Breur modernise Breton arts.

Brittany was occupied by the Germans in June 1940. Many volunteers embarked for Great Britain, to join the Free French. Among them were 128 of Sein's 1,300 inhabitants! Maquis and resistance networks were created, such as the Shelburn network in Plouha, which evacuated Allied airmen who had fallen in France to England.
A small number of Breton nationalists collaborated with Nazi Germany, in the hope of advancing the Breton cause, a move that was to bring the movement into lasting disrepute after the war. In 1941, the Vichy regime separated Loire-inférieure (now Loire-Atlantique) from Brittany.
The region was liberated by General Patton's columns in the summer of 1944. Pockets of German resistance prolonged the conflict, particularly in Saint-Malo, Brest and Lorient, which emerged ravaged and battered.