French nationality law is historically based on the principles of jus soli (Latin for "right of soil") and jus sanguinis, (Latin for "right of blood") according to Ernest Renan's definition, in opposition to the German definition of nationality, jus sanguinis, formalised by Johann Gottlieb Fichte.

The 1993 Méhaignerie Law, which was part of a broader immigration control agenda to restrict access to French nationality and increase the focus on jus sanguinis as the nationality determinant for children born in France, required children born in France of foreign parents to request French nationality between age 16 and age 21, rather than being automatically accorded citizenship at majority. This "manifestation of will" requirement was subsequently abrogated by the Guigou Law of 1998, but children born in France of foreign parents remain foreign until obtaining legal majority.

Children born in France to tourists or other short-term visitors do not acquire French nationality by virtue of birth in France: residency must be proven. Since immigration became increasingly a political theme in the 1980s, both left-wing and right-wing governments have issued several laws restricting the possibilities of access to French nationality.

The distinction between the meaning of the terms citizenship and nationality is not always clear in the English language and differs by country. Generally, nationality refers to a person's legal belonging to a sovereign state and is the common term used in international treaties when addressing members of a country, while citizenship usually means the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation.

Historically, French nationals held differing sets of civil and political rights depending on their religion, ethnicity, economic standing, and sex. The right to vote in French elections did not extend to women, foreigners who naturalised as French nationals, colonial subjects, persons who were not required to pay property taxes, and members of non-Christian faiths. In this way, not all French nationals were necessarily full citizens.

In the society of the Ancien Régime, the rights of an individual depended on which social class they belonged to. The primary factor determining the privileges and obligations a person had was whether they were part of the nobility, clergy, or a higher socioeconomic level of the Third Estate. Foreigners who were not French subjects traditionally could not pass property to their descendants; the droit d'aubaine (right of windfall) allowed the sovereign to confiscate the property of a resident alien in the event of their death. This confiscation became gradually less frequent through the early modern period, with an increasing amount of exceptions granted to foreign merchants to encourage their immigration into the country. France later negotiated treaties with many European states that exempted their subjects from this tax on a reciprocal basis in the latter half of the 18th century.

French nationality and citizenship were concepts that existed even before the French Revolution, loosely based on the premise that people spoke the same language within specific institutional frameworks.

Afterward, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, France was fairly unique among countries in tying its nationality laws to its election laws, and working to increase the joint ambit of citizenship and the right of the franchise.