11 Facts About Pierre Chaunu

Pierre Chaunu's specialty was Latin American history; he studied French social and religious history of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

Pierre Chaunu taught in the lycee of Bar-le-Duc in 1947, where he was a professor of history.

Pierre Chaunu was admitted to the Ecole des hautes etudes hispaniques in 1948 and stayed in Madrid and Seville until 1951.

Strongly influenced by Fernand Braudel, who was his mentor, and the Annales School, Chaunu defended his dissertation on Seville et l'Atlantique in 1954.

Pierre Chaunu was professor at the lycee at Vanves, part-time lecturer at the faculte des lettres in Paris, researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, elected member of CNRS after 1957 and of the Comite consultant des universites, and in 1959 charge d'enseignement.

In 1960, Pierre Chaunu became maitre de conferences in 1960 and full professor in 1962 at the University of Caen Lower Normandy, where he founded the Centre de recherche d'histoire quantitative in 1966.

Pierre Chaunu was named professor of modern history at Paris-Sorbonne University in 1970.

Pierre Chaunu became a member of the Haut conseil a l'integration in 1994.

Pierre Chaunu was a lay preacher in the temple at Courseulles-sur-Mer and a committee member of the Societe de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Francais.

Pierre Chaunu equally echoed the study of Latin America that made his reputation: South America experienced a steep drop in population at the arrival of the Spanish.

Pierre Chaunu had an important impact on historiography, whether with regard to quantitative history, his studies of Latin America, or the social and religious history of France during the Ancien Regime.