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The earliest traces of human occupation in Paris, was discovered in 2008 close to the Rue Henri-Farman in the 15th arrondissement. The bones of human found, are the evidence of an encampment of hunter-gatherers dating the Mesolithic period trough 8000 BC. The sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, the Parisii were settled on the “Île de la Cité” and on the banks of the River Seine from 250 to 225 BC. They built bridges and a fort and began to trade with other river settlements in Europe with their minted coins.
Titus Labienus In 52 BC, led a Roman army and defeated the Parisii. He established a Gallo-Roman garrison town called Lutetia. The town in the 3rd century AD was Christianised. It was occupied by Clovis I the King of the Franks, after the collapse of the Roman Empire and made it his capital in 508.
Paris was the biggest city in Europe, an important religion and commerce center, and the motherland of the Gothic architecture troughout the Middle Age.
On the Left Bank, The University of Paris, organised in the mid-13th century, was one of the first universities in Europe. During the 14th century it suffered of the Bubonic Plague and the Hundred Years War in the 15th century, with recurrence of the plague again.
From 1418 to 1436, city was taken by the Burgundians and English soldiers. Trough the 16th century although it became the book-publishing capital of Europe, it was shaken by the French Religion Wars between Catholics and Protestants.
Amongst 18th century, it was the center of the intellectual ferment to the Enlightenment, and the main stage of the French Revolution in 14th of July 1789.
During the 19th century period, Napoleon I enriched the city with monuments for the military glories. The city became the European capital of fashion and faced two more revolutions (in 1830 and 1848).
Under the rule of Napoleon III and the Prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the center of Paris was reconstructed from 1852 to 1870 with new large avenues, new parks and squares. The city was expanded to its current limits in 1860. By the second part of the century, millions of tourists came to Paris, to see International Expositions and the new Eiffel Tower.
Paris was to face the bombardment in World War I and German captivation between 1940 to 1944 in World War II. Between those two wars, Paris was a magnet for intellectuals, writers and artists from all around the world and the capital of modern art. In 1921 the population of the city reached its highest number of 2.1 million, but for the rest of the century it was decreased. New museums were opened, and the Louvre given its glass pyramid.
In the 21st century, Paris added new museums and a new concert hall.
The population of the city decreased unceasingly between 1921 to 2004, because of the decrease in family sizes and and migrations of the middle class to the suburbs; but it is increasing again, as young people and immigrants move into the Paris City.