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French DNA: What is the Genetic History of France?

Chapters:
0:00 A Brief History of France
1:41 Genetic History of France
4:14 North/South Genetic Division
5:49 Brittany
7:31 Genetics of Modern France and Haplogroups

France is one of the largest countries in Europe, but what is its genetic history and what is the genetic makeup of the country today? Now there are so many interesting episodes in the history of France. In the ancient world, this land was the home of Celtic civilization, known as Gaul, which also included the territory of other modern countries, such as Belgium. Associated with the La Tène culture, ancient Celts from Gaul actually sacked the city of Rome itself in 387 BC. The Romans would eventually conquer this region however, in the form of Julius Caesar’s brutal conquest of Gaul beginning in 58 BC, with the region going on to become Roman Gaul.

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, peoples of Germanic origin such as the Visigoths and the Franks migrated into ancient France, with the Franks in particular controlling this land for centuries, establishing numerous Frankish-related kingdoms. The Vikings also played a role in the history of France, with this illustration showing the Viking Siege of Paris in 845 AD. After plundering and occupying the city, the Vikings only left Paris after the Frankish King, Charles the Bald, paid them a hefty ransom of 2.6 tonnes of silver and gold. Norsemen also had a significant influence in the north of France as well, establishing the Duchy of Normandy in the 10th century AD under their leader Rollo.

In the 14th century, France was devastated by the Black Death, with bubonic plague sweeping across Europe. In more recent history, the French Revolution of 1789 is one of the most famous events in history, with one of the most famous people in history rising out of this upheaval, Napoleon, who went on to fight wars across much of Europe. But what impact did these and many other episodes down through history have on the genetics of France? Well a really interesting paper published in the European Journal of Human Genetics looked at the Genetic History of France by analysing genetic data from over 2000 individuals born in France.

Sources:

Saint Pierre, A., Giemza, J., Alves, I. et al. The genetic history of France. Eur J Hum Genet 28, 853–865 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-020-05... https://www.nature.com/articles/s4143...

Fig. 1: Clustering of the French individuals into six or seven clusters as inferred by FineSTRUCTURE analysis. | European Journal of Human Genetics (nature.com)

Gallia Aquitania - Wikipedia

What is “French & German” Ancestry? - 23andMe Blog

Insights into the genetic history of France - El·lipse (prbb.org)

Biagini, S.A., Ramos-Luis, E., Comas, D. et al. The place of metropolitan France in the European genomic landscape. Hum Genet 139, 1091–1105 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-020-02...

S. Brunel et al., Ancient genomes from present-day France unveil 7,000 years of its demographic history. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 12791–12798 (2020). Ancient genomes from present-day France unveil 7,000 years of its demographic history | PNAS

Genetic history and DNA ancestry project of the Benelux & France - Eupedia

E. Ramos-Luis, A. Blanco-Verea, M. Brión, V. Van Huffel, P. Sánchez-Diz, A. Carracedo, Y-chromosomal DNA analysis in French male lineages, Forensic Science International: Genetics, Volume 9, 2014, Pages 162-168, ISSN 1872-4973, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2013....

Duchy of Normandy - Wikipedia

Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA) - Eupedia

Von Wartburg Line - Wikipedia

Haplogroup I1 (Y-DNA) - Eupedia

Creative Commons Imagery:

Miguel Hermoso Cuesta File:Campaniforme M.A.N. 04.JPG - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

Rosemania File:Parade helmet.jpg - Wikipedia Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Deed - Attribution 2.0 Generic - Creative Commons

Kairom13 File:Francia 714.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

#france #history #ancestry