Re: What's With The French
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:35 am
Is there really a broad dislike of France and the French? Let's look at the history.
England and France were rivals and enemies starting in the Middle Ages. Back then, countries could only conveniently war on their near neighbors, so England and France had at it since at least the Norman Conquest in 1166 AD.
In the 18th century, the English and French factions in America fought the French & Indian War. During the American Revolution, France was the closest ally of the US. Benjamin Franklin spent years in Paris cultivating the alliance. For the French, this was part of the game of Big Power Politics they had played against England for centuries. As England's enemy, we automatically became France's friend. The Marquis de Lafayette even raised a French army and brought it here to support our Revolution. Lafayette was second only to George Washington in popularity. When Lafayette revisited the US in 1824, he was feted by adoring crowds across the country. During the presidency of John Adams, perhaps the greatest controversy was whether we should remain allied to France even after the French Revolution. The Alien and Sedition Acts were intended largely to suppress dissent on this issue. Thomas Paine, firebrand writer of the American Revolution, even went to France to express his continued enthusiasm.
During the Civil War, the English government backed the Confederacy, seeking to undermine America, but France backed the Union. Despite all this, the American majority remained ethnically British, and dislike of France was part of the English tradition. This dislike was fanned by the Quai d'Orsay (France's State Department), which continued the old Big Power game of rivalry with England. It was French policy (I refer to the government, not necessarily the people) to oppose "anglophone" interests and culture. This policy was at least a thousand years old, and continued on autopilot into the 20th century.
France saw itself (still sees itself) as a Big Power locked in a struggle for primacy with England. (No accident that the two official languages of the UN are English and French.) The US is part of the "anglophone" world whose power the French sought to humble.
Of course, all this looks a bit silly now that France has been eclipsed on the world stage, and England's strength is now its ties to the US. But ancient traditions die slow deaths, so France and the ethnic English in America still blow on the embers of their rivalry from time to time. Yet America came to the aid of France in both the First and Second World Wars, suffering vast casualties both times. We didn't have to do that, so it's hard to claim the US has been hostile to France. The French government long took pleasure in resisting the US government, believing that showed France was still Great. Sad. French policy finally caught up with history with the election of Sarkozy.
England and France were rivals and enemies starting in the Middle Ages. Back then, countries could only conveniently war on their near neighbors, so England and France had at it since at least the Norman Conquest in 1166 AD.
In the 18th century, the English and French factions in America fought the French & Indian War. During the American Revolution, France was the closest ally of the US. Benjamin Franklin spent years in Paris cultivating the alliance. For the French, this was part of the game of Big Power Politics they had played against England for centuries. As England's enemy, we automatically became France's friend. The Marquis de Lafayette even raised a French army and brought it here to support our Revolution. Lafayette was second only to George Washington in popularity. When Lafayette revisited the US in 1824, he was feted by adoring crowds across the country. During the presidency of John Adams, perhaps the greatest controversy was whether we should remain allied to France even after the French Revolution. The Alien and Sedition Acts were intended largely to suppress dissent on this issue. Thomas Paine, firebrand writer of the American Revolution, even went to France to express his continued enthusiasm.
During the Civil War, the English government backed the Confederacy, seeking to undermine America, but France backed the Union. Despite all this, the American majority remained ethnically British, and dislike of France was part of the English tradition. This dislike was fanned by the Quai d'Orsay (France's State Department), which continued the old Big Power game of rivalry with England. It was French policy (I refer to the government, not necessarily the people) to oppose "anglophone" interests and culture. This policy was at least a thousand years old, and continued on autopilot into the 20th century.
France saw itself (still sees itself) as a Big Power locked in a struggle for primacy with England. (No accident that the two official languages of the UN are English and French.) The US is part of the "anglophone" world whose power the French sought to humble.
Of course, all this looks a bit silly now that France has been eclipsed on the world stage, and England's strength is now its ties to the US. But ancient traditions die slow deaths, so France and the ethnic English in America still blow on the embers of their rivalry from time to time. Yet America came to the aid of France in both the First and Second World Wars, suffering vast casualties both times. We didn't have to do that, so it's hard to claim the US has been hostile to France. The French government long took pleasure in resisting the US government, believing that showed France was still Great. Sad. French policy finally caught up with history with the election of Sarkozy.