History of Brittany

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48°00′N 3°00′W / 48.000°N 3.000°W / 48.000; -3.000

Brittany Bretagne (French) Breizh (Breton) Bertaèyn (Gallo)
Historical province
Flag Coat of arms
Motto(s):  None (de jure) Historical: Kentoc'h mervel eget bezañ saotret Rather death than dishonour (de facto)
Anthem: None (de jure) "Bro Gozh ma Zadoù" Old Land of Our Fathers (de facto)
Country	France
Largest settlements	List Nantes Rennes Brest Saint-Nazaire Quimper Lorient Vannes Saint-Malo Saint-Brieuc Douarnenez
Area
• Total	34,023 km2 (13,136 sq mi)
Population  (2021)
• Total	4,829,968
Demonym	Bretons
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	FR-E
Website	bretagne.com

The history of Brittany may refer to the entire history of the Armorican peninsula or only to the creation and development of a specifically Brythonic culture and state in the Early Middle Ages and the subsequent history of that state.

Pre-Brythonic Armorica includes the ancient megalith cultures in the area and the Celtic tribal territories that existed before Roman rule. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, large scale migration from the British Isles led to the foundation of British colonies linked initially to homelands in Cornwall, Devon, and Wales. The various independent petty Breton states later developed into a Kingdom and then a Duchy of Brittany, before it was unified with France to become a province. After the French Revolution Brittany was abolished as an administrative unit, but continued to retain its distinctive cultural identity. Its administrative existence was reconstituted, in reduced size, as the Region of Brittany in the mid-20th century.

The history of Brittany begins with settlement beginning in prehistoric times. The neolithic era, which began around 5000 BCE, is characterised in the region by the development of an important megalithic art found in sites such as the cairn of Barnenez, the cairn of Gavrinis, the table of the Merchants of Locmariaquer or the alignments of Carnac. In the course of its protohistory which began around the middle of the third century BCE, a subsoil rich in tin allowed the development of an industry in bronze objects, which led to commercial routes for export to other regions of Europe. It was inhabited by Gallic peoples including the Veneti and the Namnetes in the first centuries BCE before these territories were conquered by Julius Caesar in 57 BCE, and progressively Romanized.

As part of Armorica since the Gallo-Roman period, Brittany developed an important maritime trade network near the ports of Nantes, Vannes, and Alet, as well as salting factories along its coasts. When Rome encountered crises in the third and fifth centuries, the first wave of island Bretons were asked by the imperial power to help secure their territory, beginning with a migratory movement that was carried out until the sixth century, and saw the beginnings of many kingdoms in the peninsula.

In order to prevent Breton incursion, the neighbouring Frankish kingdom created a Breton borderland incorporating the counties of Rennes and Nantes. From the sixth to ninth centuries however, the Merovingian dynasty and the Carolingian dynasty tried to integrate the region into the Frankish kingdom, with limited and ephemeral success.

The union of the country as Brittany occurred in 851 under King Erispoë, son of Nominoë, but was disrupted by disputes over succession and Norsemen incursions. Since 939, Brittany was re-established as a Sovereign Duchy with somewhat definite borders, administered by Dukes of Breton houses from 939 to 1166, before falling into the sphere of influence of the Plantagenets and then the Capets. The War of the Breton Succession lasted from 1341 to 1364 against the backdrop of the Hundred Years' War. An autonomous power emerged in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, maintaining a policy of independence from France. The union of Brittany to France occurred in 1532.

The Breton province then maintained relative autonomy and benefited from its own institutions. After a period of strong economic and demographic growth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, due to a period of newfound peace, Brittany experienced a troubled period from the end of the seventeenth century to the French Revolution of 1789. Brittany was dissolved in 1789 and divided among the departments of Côtes-du-Nord, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Inférieure and Morbihan.

After a long nineteenth century marked by a modernization of agriculture and by huge increases in population, an emigration to the rest of France began. Although a traditionally conservative region, Brittany saw the rise of workers' movements in cities such as Brest, Lorient and Saint-Nazaire.

The First World War was an important turning point for Bretons, who discovered new ways of life, which some would seek to integrate little by little. The question of the proper place for the Breton language and regional traditions became the central element of a political movement which began to emerge in the same era. A long process of modernization took place from the 1920s through the 1970s, in concert with a movement of cultural reaffirmation.