Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the time of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, covering all of what is now France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and including the southern Netherlands, western Germany, most o Switzerland, and the edges of northwestern Italy. Gaul was home to the Gauls, a confederation of tribes that included the Aedui, Arverni, Helvetii, Sequani, Santones, Pictones, Veneti, and Treveri, and the region was conquered from 58 to 50 BC by Roman general Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars, and Gaul was divided into the provinces of Narbonensis, Aquitania, Lugdunensis, Belgica, and Germania Superior. The region would be divided among several Germanic tribes after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, with the Franks conquering much of France as the Visigoths took southern France, the Frisii took over the Netherlands, the Bretons took over Brittany, and the Burgundii took over eastern France.
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