Developed from the Latin spoken in northern Gaul after the fall of the Roman Empire, it experienced deep phonological changes, diverging more from Latin than its sister languages. From the end of the 17th century until after World War I, French has been the language of international diplomacy and culture replacing Latin in that role. Spoken in every continent as a first or second language, French is one of the major world languages. It wasn’t until the 16th century when it became mostly standardized because of written language. In 1635, President Richelieu established the Académie française to promote and police the French language. They agreed that the language had become too impractical and flowery, and therefore decided to make the plural “s” silent.
French history is very rich—both the history of french culture and of the french language. While this history helps me understand french better, perhaps the most important thing about the history of the language is that it is a romance language. For that reason it has so many cognates and has many of the same roots that spanish, italian, portuguese, and english (although not a romance language) all have. This is incredibly important because it helps towards learning the language and common expressions become easier to pick up on. You’d have a harder time learning french if you didn’t know any other romance language.
Comments
Richelieu was a Cardinal, although he was also the founder and 'chief protector' of the Académie. I'm not sure that the silencing of the plural 's' was a direct result of 'impractical and flowery' language either. However, I have seen that as an explanation. (It's more likely something that happened much earlier than the 17th century, although it may have been standardized then.)
Second paragraph is excellent.