History:
Megalithic remains suggest that the earliest inhabitants of Brittany were a highly organized, advanced people. The Celts came to Armorica (as Brittany was originally called) from the 4th to the 1st century BC. In 56 BC, Julius Caesar’s army invaded the region.
The Bretons, who were originally from what is now Great Britain, fled the Angles and Saxons to settle on the continent. In 846, King Charles the Bald officially recognized Brittany as an independent region with Nominoë as its sovereign. The Normans tried to invade Brittany but were thwarted by Alain Barbe-Torte. In the early 15th century, Brittany thrived under the reign of Duke Jean V: its navy was the most powerful in the world. However, in 1488, after the defeat of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, the region came into the fold of the French monarchy. In 1491, Anne of Brittany became Queen of France when she married Charles VIII and later Louis XII. In August 1532 an act of union was signed in Vannes making Brittany officially part of France.
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the pious Bretons built numerous granite churches, chapels, roadside crosses and fountains. The period of the French Revolution saw a number of revolts against the army in 1793 – and thus began the Chouannerie, the counter-revolutionary movement in the Vendée that was to continue until 1799. In the 1920s there was a rise in the Breton nationalist movement and the very first separatist attacks took place in 1932. In the early 1970s Breton harp player Alan Stivell, among others, helped popularise Celtic music and contributed to the renaissance of Celtic culture.