France has a long history of violence carried out by different groups with different ideologies and goals.
Until the rise of Islamist terrorism in the last twenty years, most of the violent and terrorist acts in the post-World War Two era belonged to three categories:
Attacks in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s by separatist groups from Breton, Corsica, and the Basque region seeking independence from what they regarded as French occupation (the Basques continued their violent campaign until about ten years ago)
Attacks in the 1950s and early 1960s which were related to the Algerian War. These attack were carried out by the pro-independence FLN, and by the OAS, the armed organization fighting to keep Algeria and its 1.5 million French settlers as a part of France. The OAS enjoyed some support in the French military and among close associates of President Charles de Gaulle, who came to office in 1958 vowing to keep French hold over Algeria, but then turned around to negotiate Algerian independence with the FLN. The OAS's attempt to assassinate de Gaulle is detailed in the movie "The Day of the Jackal."
Attacks in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s by various Middle Eastern and North African groups such as the PLO, or the Algerian Armed Islamic Group during the 1992-2004 war in Algeria between the military and the Islamists who were denied victory in the 1992 elections.
Here is a list of the major al-Qaeda- and ISIS-related attacks in the last four years:
11-22 March 2012
7 dead, 10 injuredToulouse and Montauban shootings, murdering three French paratroopers, a French Rabbi and three French schoolchildren (aged eight, six, and three), carried out over a period of eleven days by Mohammed Merah.
22 December 2014
1 dead, 10 injured
2014 Nantes attack. A man yelling "Allahu Akbar" ran over ten pedestrians with his vehicle, killing one, then attempted suicide.
7-9 January 2015
20 dead, 20 injured
January 2015 A�le-de-France attacks, a mass shooting at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, carried out by SaA�d and Cherif Kouachi, two Islamist gunmen who identified themselves as belonging to Al-Qaeda in Yemen. A third Islamist gunman and close friend of the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly, was responsible for two shootings and an hostage taking at a Hypercacher kosher market. He said he synchronized his attacks with the Kouachi brothers. Coulibaly had pledged allegiance to the ISIS.
19 April 2015
1 dead
Unsuccessful attack against two churches in Villejuif by an Algerian jihadist. He killed a woman probably when trying to steal her car, but accidentally shot himself in the leg, putting an end to his plans.
26 June 2015
1 dead, 2 injured
Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack. An Islamist delivery driver, probably linked to ISIS, decapitated a man and rammed a company van into gas cylinders at the Air Products gas factory in an attempt to blow up the building.
13-14 November 2015
130 dead, 352 injured
November 2015 Paris attacks. Multiple shooting and grenade attacks occurred on a Friday night; among the locations targeted were a music venue, sports stadium, and several bar and restaurant terraces. Ninety people were killed during a siege at an Eagles of Death Metal concert inside the Bataclan. French president Francois Hollande evacuated from a football match between France and Germany at the Stade de France after three separate suicide bombings over the course of about forty minutes. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
13 June 2016
2 dead
2016 Magnanville stabbing, a police officer and his wife, a police secretary, were stabbed to death in their home in Magnanville by a jihadist. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
14 July 2016
84 dead, 200+ injured
2016 attack in Nice, terrorists used a truck to run over people celebrating the 2016 Bastille Day.
Source: Home Land Security News Wire