About French military history (not another bash)

[Haiw]

I always hear the stories about the French military history without a single victory. However, there's one thing that puzzles me. How did they ever become a colonial power when they sucked as much as they 'supposedly' did?

[Argyll]

this will be interesting...................... :roll:

[Midtown]

http://www.winesquire.com/images/frenchman.gif

Who is gonna turn down bread and drink?
If we didnt have an over abundance of beer and pizza here, we might even like the french

[Caesar]

I always hear the stories about the French military history without a single victory. However, there's one thing that puzzles me. How did they ever become a colonial power when they sucked as much as they 'supposedly' did?

rofl

Seriously, how do you think this thread will stay clean with such an ignorent comment from his author?

You can read some books ya know...

This thread is starting damn bad.

[n.ignomo]

The point is that you start from a point where you think France never won. Actually, bellicism isn't a reason to rewrite history the way you want. I mean who on this forum would say Germany never won a war? That's completly wrong just for one reason : many wars. I think all countries have won even once a war (except civil ones which makes only losers). According to caesar, go get a military history book, study it, or just go on the www you'll get all the infos needed.
Anyway, this thread is useless.

[California Joe]

They had a pretty good run under Napoleon. Duh. Their Imperial Guards were known as the "Hammer of Europe" Until he ran into The Iron Duke and the Russian winter they were kicking ass.

The Legion conducted one of the most successful anti terrorism campaigns in Algeria ever. They were sold out by politicians and rebelled.

Just a couple of examples....

[Haiw]

I know about Napoleon and the actions in Algeria, but I was just wondering about the REAL French military history in 'the old days', as every French basher and his dog always runs the good old 'they only had defeats'-record. So I'm just curious, (and since it's pretty flamable I put it in off-topic), are the bashers just totally crap on history, or were the French just lucky when building their colonial power.

[Jack Mehoff]

All I know is they got their ass kicked by the British several times both in Europe and North America. France also lost a huge chunk of their empire in North America to the British, no wonder why the hostility between French and British still last to this day

[Beowulf]

Well, Charles "the hammer" Martel beat a bunch of saracens at Poitiers 700ad? +/- (edit 732)

Then his grandson Charlemagne did some stuff, King of the Franks, and Holy Roman Emperor or some such stuff.

[n.ignomo]

Hem a lil' precision, we didn't lose louisiane (old one, 1/4th of current USA)....we just sold it to the british, just like the russian with alaska. Why did we sell it, because we were fighting against the whole Europe so we needed money. As you can see, US don't speak french, but France still exists, let's not start playing "if it had not..." !
Actually , you can compare France's wars during XVIII/XIXth century as WW2 for Germany : alone against everybody else. Most of these wars were for political reasons, which was a new things, most were economic before. About Charlemagne, one of his grand-son created feodality (capitulaire de Mersen et de Quierzy-sur-Oise 748). I don't know if some of you here are keen on medieval age, but if you're interested in historical military of France, this is a time to consider.

[memphiz]

they're still in Canada(Quebec etc.) thats gotta mean somthing. and all the bad French are it the southern states

[Caesar]

It reminds me of Jeanne d'Arc who kicked the English out of Orleans but got judged and executed by her own country...

France was so powerful back then that the most important and speaken language in the world was French. It was Latin and Greek before, now it's english. It's just normal process in history.

What language will be next? :)

[XD-40]

French are not cowards as some others call them that way. It is just their politicians. I know personally several members of French army. One is a paratrooper, and their paratroopers are very good.

As for their military history, they were occupied because their military leadership did make few bad decisions in early WW2. For some reasons they were not so creative in WW2 to prevail. Plus they also had those who oppenly collaborated.

The thing that I dislike about French, and even my French friends agree about, is that they like to stick etiquetes about some other nations especially smaller nations. And all of that from a nation that has its own bugs.

[stateofequilibrium]

The French just get greedy and then everything goes to $hit.

But otherwise, they've had some outstanding periods. Does anyone know the history and tactics employed at Waterloo? I remember reading on it so long ago. While we think about the boxed formations immortalized in paintings and representations that staved off Napoleon's cavalry and army.. I did get the general feeling that both sides were being pounded upon and it was Napoleon's error not to have available enough reserves to b*tchslap Wellington, and also pesky bad luck and timing right from the beginning despite a sound plan.

[California Joe]

Hem a lil' precision, we didn't lose louisiane (old one, 1/4th of current USA)....we just sold it to the british, just like the russian with alaska. Why did we sell it, because we were fighting against the whole Europe so we needed money. As you can see, US don't speak french, but France still exists, let's not start playing "if it had not..." !
Actually , you can compare France's wars during XVIII/XIXth century as WW2 for Germany : alone against everybody else. Most of these wars were for political reasons, which was a new things, most were economic before. About Charlemagne, one of his grand-son created feodality (capitulaire de Mersen et de Quierzy-sur-Oise 748). I don't know if some of you here are keen on medieval age, but if you're interested in historical military of France, this is a time to consider.

You sold Lousiane to the United States......not Britain. Just........you know....sayin.

[Haiw]

It reminds me of Jeanne d'Arc who kicked the English out of Orleans but got judged and executed by her own country...

France was so powerful back then that the most important and speaken language in the world was French. It was Latin and Greek before, now it's english. It's just normal process in history.

What language will be next? :)
Dutch :P

[cut]

It reminds me of Jeanne d'Arc who kicked the English out of Orleans but got judged and executed by her own country...

France was so powerful back then that the most important and speaken language in the world was French. It was Latin and Greek before, now it's english. It's just normal process in history.

What language will be next? :)

we killed jeanne d'arc called her a witch and burnt her. Which she was obviously, because she said god told her to fight in a man's war, but god was the british, and you have to burn anyone who has conversations with the devil.

Oh and french was never more spoken than english before the british the spanish were the global power for about a century.

[Caesar]

It reminds me of Jeanne d'Arc who kicked the English out of Orleans but got judged and executed by her own country...

France was so powerful back then that the most important and speaken language in the world was French. It was Latin and Greek before, now it's english. It's just normal process in history.

What language will be next? :)

we killed jeanne d'arc called her a witch and burnt her. Which she was obviously, because she said god told her to fight in a man's war, but god was the british, and you have to burn anyone who has conversations with the devil.

Oh and french was never more spoken than english before the british the spanish were the global power for about a century.

The English burnt her because they feared her. The reason why they executed her was that she was wearing men's clothes. The "I can speak for/with God" is nothing, really. If they had to burn every people claiming to speak with God, we should have burnt Jesus Christ and Mahomet for heresy, according to your statement.

When I say "but got judged and executed by her own country..." I was refering to Charles VII who did nothing to save her, despite the fact that she put him on the throne.

Don't forget that Jeanne d'Arc got rehabilitated in 1456.

[Caesar]

Oh and yes, French was the most importan language in the seventeenth century. What century were you refering, cut?

[n.ignomo]

California Joe > My bad.....a mistake that shows our beloved relations with english !
About Jeanne d'Arc : that time, the King had lost all his power and was a lord just as others, and Charles VII forgot the crown which all Kings did since Pepin le Bref in 752. By that, french royalty was place in by god himself, divine king. The interesting point is that despite the many wars we had against some other europeans countries, nobody never (never!) call in question the religious side of french kings. These kings were untouchable because this was a very religious time, and you don't touch an elected of god. To get back to Charles VII, Jeanne d'Arc made him go crowned and asked him to go in war...then you know the story except that she didn't make us win 100 yr's war, but thanks to her we didn't lose it ! Remeber that the war ended in 1453....she died in 1431...22 yr is more that WW1+WW2+Vietnan+Koera+Gulf+Kosovo....long enough to lose some other battles.

[cut]

It reminds me of Jeanne d'Arc who kicked the English out of Orleans but got judged and executed by her own country...

France was so powerful back then that the most important and speaken language in the world was French. It was Latin and Greek before, now it's english. It's just normal process in history.

What language will be next? :)

we killed jeanne d'arc called her a witch and burnt her. Which she was obviously, because she said god told her to fight in a man's war, but god was the british, and you have to burn anyone who has conversations with the devil.

Oh and french was never more spoken than english before the british the spanish were the global power for about a century.

The English burnt her because they feared her. The reason why they executed her was that she was wearing men's clothes. The "I can speak for/with God" is nothing, really. If they had to burn every people claiming to speak with God, we should have burnt Jesus Christ and Mahomet for heresy, according to your statement.

When I say "but got judged and executed by her own country..." I was refering to Charles VII who did nothing to save her, despite the fact that she put him on the throne.

Don't forget that Jeanne d'Arc got rehabilitated in 1456.

rehabilitated? i don't know what you mean by that..


they burnt her because she was talking to the devil, couldn't of been god he was on our side (by the mentality of that period anyway.

and the english would have burnt mohamed too

[Caesar]

rehabilitated? i don't know what you mean by that..

Sorry, bad translation then.

I was just saying that Charles VII obtained from Church a revision of the lawsuit. Jeanne d' Arc is rehabilitated in 1456.

:)