History and Chronology
460 AC Bretons from the British isles ran away from the Anglo-saxons's invasion and they emigrated towards Brittany.
825 Nominoe was made king of Brittany by Charlemagne's son Louis the Devout (Louis le Pieux).
841-851 Nominoe have established the Breton mornarchy after he defeated King of France at Redon. His kingdom streched as far as Nantes Nominoe died on the 7th of March 851 at Vendome as he was advancing on the Seine (after his conquest of Maine and Anjou).
857-875 Salauun extended Brittany : Cotentin , a part of Anjou and of Maine.
875-952 Normans invaded Brittany. They were repelled in 888and, in 939 Brittany is divided.
1212-1341 Brittany flourished under the Dukes's reigns.
1341-1365 After Jean III's death, a war of succession took place between Jean de Montfort - allied with England - and Jeanne de Penthievre - allied with France. In 1634, French King Charles of Blois is defeated in Auray.
1365-1442 Duke Jean v, granson of Jean of Monfort ,reigned on Brittany. It was a period of economic flourishment. That was considered as the "golden century" of Brittany. Jean V lived in his ducal castle in Nantes.
1442-1488 King of France ,who coveted Brittany, supported Francois II's oppponants. In 1488 after the defeat of the Breton army at St Aubin-du-Cornier, the Orchard Treaty was signed.
1488-1514 Duchess Anne of Brittany reigned. In 1491, she married Charles VIII and became Queen of France. In 1499, after Charles VIII's death, she married Louis XVIII and on a row managed to keep the home rule of the dukedom.
1532 Brittany was joined to the Crown of France. Francois the 1rst reigned. On August, the States of Brittany met in Vannes in order to sign the agreement of the Union between Brittany and France.
1534 Jacques Cartier - a sailor from St Malo - discovered Canada.
1561 Rennes became the headquarter of the Breton Parliament in place of Nantes.
1664 Colbert created the East India Company which harbour was Lorient (Port Louis)
1675 Under Louis XIV's reign, the Stamped Paper Revolt took place. Bretons could not bear all the royal taxations, because they broke the spirit and the letter of the 1532 treaty agreements. The revolt went through every towns of Upper Brittany and through Lower Brittany countryside as well ( "the red bonnets"). Repression was fierce. Every steeples (si ce sont des clochers pointus) ou church towers (si ce sont des clochers quadrangulaires) of the Bigouden countryside were laid down.
1790 On the 6th of September 1790, the Breton Parliament was removed by Paris (for : "France must be one and undivisible"). It was the end of the autonomy for Brittany.
1790-1804 Many counter-revolutionary uprisings took place in Morbihan, Loire Atlantique, at Fougeres, Vitre and Lamballe. Some royalists tried to land in Quiberon Bay. Cadoudal and the marquess of La Rouerie led those uprisings.
1805-1900 Economical stagnation of Brittany
1870 The Breton army was created to fight against Germans. that army was left without weapons in the mud of the Camp of Conlie for fear that "it was an army of Chouans"..
1925 Morvan Marchal (of the National Breton Party) created the Breton flag named Gwenn ha Du (white and black).
1940 About a hundred of sailers from the isle of Sein answered to the General De Gaulle's call and joined his fight against Germany. They were the first French people who joined the struggle against the occupying forces.
1941 In June 1941, Loire Atlantique is removed from Brittany by Vichy Government.
1944 Breton harbours of St Malo, Brest , Lorient and St Nazaire were destroyed. Germans destroyed every port installations and they fought house after house so that the Allies could not use them to provide suppplies to their armies. Lorient was freed after the 8th of May 1945.
1950-1960 Economic rebirth of Brittany : farming, fishing, research (CNET, Thompson, CNEXO ...)
1970-1980 Allan Stivell, An Triskell, Tri Yann, Gilles Servat and other musical groups were at the origins of the cultural rebirth of Brittany. First ones of a long series of oil slicks.
1981-2000 Growth of tourism. Pollutions : intensive farming and breeding (chickens and pigs) Total oil tide.