History History

The first traces left by man were observed in Wimereux, with a few bifaces and flint knobs next to the bones of elephants and hippopotamuses dated to 700,000 years ago. Populations settled in the region during the ice ages and left traces of their passage, mainly on the limestone plains

The first traces of homo sapiens are dated 38,000 years before our era. The region was then a steppe populated by reindeer. Around 3000 BC, the drier climate caused the forest to retreat and the arrival of new populations from the south led to the first known wars in the region's history. During the Bronze Age, around 1500 BC, there is evidence of important interregional trade, including with Great Britain.

We then come to Antiquity. Various Celtic peoples, such as the Morins at Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer), occupied the Opal Coast when Julius Caesar launched his famous Gallic War. Then, after several centuries of pax romana, the Germanic peoples (Vandals, Burgundians...) came like a torrent and ravaged the region. Another invasion, from the sea, pushed the inhabitants to take refuge on the heights. The Franks eventually conquered the region and settled there.

A linguistic separation begins to appear on either side of the Lys, with Picard and its Latin roots in the south and Flemish in the north, struggling to impose itself. The shoreline was abandoned to maritime raiders. The Angles and Saxons settled there, as the names of some villages show. Ham or hem means "domain" in Saxon and Frisian and zeele "lordly house" in Frankish Salian

Christianization was very slow, but it eventually reached the region. The 7th century was the golden age of missionary monasteries, especially in Thérouanne, where the Benedictine monk Audomar became the first bishop of the region. It is better known under the name of Saint-Omer. With the help of three other monks, Bertin, Momelin and Ebertram, he launched the development of the marshy lands of the Audomar region, born of the progressive retreat of the sea. Towards the 8th and 9th centuries, the Flemish lowlands were awakened and commercial centres (also called portus) appeared like Saint-Omer.

The economic development of the region will not cease, but the main actors change. The nobles became poorer. The towns acquired considerable privileges thanks to the bourgeois, who bought rights from the lords and managed to maintain their economy through military and political crises. Belfries were built everywhere to symbolize the power of the aldermen and merchants. The Church asserts its cultural and social power.

The Hundred Years' War broke out in 1337 and devastated the region, as England made the area the scene of its first military operations. At Crécy, part of the French nobility was decimated. Calais became English after a long siege and remained so for two centuries, which stifled the development of the large neighbouring towns. The period was also marked by the Black Death and famine. Through marriages and successions, Flanders and Artois passed into the hands of the Dukes of Burgundy, allied to the English

Louis XI conquered the region, but the heiress Marie de Bourgogne married the future emperor of Austria Maximilian of Habsburg. Only the Boulonnais region remained the property of the kingdom of France. The rest of the region was disputed by the great European powers, Austria, Spain and England. In 1558, the French took back Calais from the English

The 16th century was marked by the reformation initiated by Luther and Calvin. Maritime Flanders, north of Calais, sided with the Protestant Netherlands, while the Artois, under Spanish rule, became a real haven for English Catholics persecuted in their own country. The liberality of the Spanish government, which was not very present, also allowed Artois to prosper

After this brief respite for the region, the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV were to be a new era of almost ninety years of fighting, sieges, pillaging, diplomatic dismemberment and therefore misery. The treaties of the Pyrenees (1659), Nijmegen (1678) and Utrecht (1710) sealed the Opal Coast to France in stages, but definitively. Its inhabitants, hostile at first, eventually accepted their new French identity, which continued to assert itself throughout the wars and economic epics.

Up until 1788, the newfound economic prosperity did not concern the people, but only the upper classes. Poverty was so great that the slightest change in the economy led to disasters and famines, and the food crisis hit the region hard

In 1789, the French Revolution had little impact on the region. The end of the privileges ruined many cities. The creation of the two departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais in 1790, with their division and choice of prefectures, gave rise to serious quarrels

In the year VIII (1799), Napoleon Bonaparte was welcomed by a region eager for peace, still deeply rural and very illiterate. In 1810, thanks to the continental blockade, the economy of Nord-Pas-de-Calais took off by developing industry and the cultivation of sugar beet.

Like the Roman conquerors, Bonaparte set his sights on Boulogne to achieve one of his great ambitions: invading England. The emperor had huge works carried out, allowing the port to receive more than 2,000 ships, and had another one built in Wimereux. When he came on 16 August 1804, it was decided to build a commemorative monument, the first stone of which was laid on 9 November 1804. This is the origin of the Column of the Grande Armée in Wimille. The invasion project was abandoned in August 1805, after the Trafalgar disaster and the emergence of a new coalition of Austria and Russia

From 1812 onwards, the difficulties multiplied: the effects of the continental blockade, increasingly strong resistance to conscription, royalist agitation... In April 1814, as soon as Napoleon's abdication was announced, the constituted bodies pledged their allegiance to the Bourbons. Large popular demonstrations welcomed Louis XVIII. The Empire collapsed in great turmoil, but the negative aspects of the end of the reign should not mask the economic achievements in agriculture (new crops such as beet) and industry (textile boom in Calais, Saint-Omer...). The end of the Empire marked a real break in the history of the Pas-de-Calais: from then on, the economy took precedence over politics

The region established itself as the "first factory in France". The overall economic success was strengthened by the import of advanced technology from England and labour from overpopulated Belgium.

This peacetime boom came to an end with the outbreak of war with Prussia in 1870.

The Great War was particularly trying. The fighting did not take place on the Opal Coast, but the coastline served as a rear base throughout the conflict. Allied troops passed through the ports, training camps were also established there as well as hospitals. Montreuil was home to the high command of the British army in 1916.

The region gradually recovers from the First World War, but the Second World War shatters this resurrection. One man from Lille emerged from the chaos and left his mark on the century: Charles de Gaulle. Philippe Pétain was born in the same region, but the two men did not have the same "idea of France". Allied and enemy armies clashed in the Somme and on the coast and large sites were destroyed by successive bombings. The blockhouses are still a gaping scar in our landscape

In 1946, the companies in the entire mining basin were nationalised to form the Houillères du Nord-Pas-de-Calais and the steel industry developed rapidly. But this boom period soon came to an end. From 1950 onwards, the region suffered a crisis. The coal industry slowly began to die. In thirty years, around 300,000 jobs were lost

The government tried to revive the activity by promoting the establishment of factories in the automotive sector. From the 1980s onwards, society moves from a world of industry to a world of services. Large companies emerged, including mail order companies (La Redoute) and numerous super and hypermarket chains (Auchan). This shift is leading analysts to rethink their vision of the territory

The end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century have led to a different approach. The geographical position of the Hauts-de-France region is an incomparable asset to facilitate the emergence of new economic networks. The opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 opened up an extraordinary range of possibilities, as did the operation of the TGV Nord Europe, Eurostar and Thalys

The region is reclaiming its past (ducasses, Dunkirk carnival), while playing a driving role in new creations. The challenge of cultural industries has been met and several fields of activity are emerging: fashion, urban cultures, video or more recently new image technologies or even cinema. The region is attracting new audiences and tourists are now making light of long-held clichés about the North, following the example of director Dany Boon in his film Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. While celebrating its traditions with numerous festivities (Fête de la mer, Fête du Flobard, Fête du Hareng), it is also developing its green tourism with numerous walking and cycling routes and its urban cultures with street art