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| French
History : some milestones (1) |
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See also :
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French historical anecdotes
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Do you know that all French 5th grade
students are familiar with these (little) historical facts :
- Vercingetorix became
the leader of the Gallic tribes when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul
(in 56 B.C.).
| A valiant warrior,
he won the battle of Gergovia but, later, his army was besieged
in Alésia (in Burgundy) and he had to surrender to Caesar.
The picture of the noble Gaul throwing his sword at the feet
of Caesar is in all children's history books. He was strangled
in a Roman jail. |
 (credit) |
Read a few quotes about
the Roman vision of the
Gauls !
- Vercingetorix was taken to Rome
and strangled. In French mythology, this event is associated
with the idea that it is more classy to lose with "grandeur"
than to win with efficiency, like the boring Romans did. Read
about Asterix, the
national comic strip hero...By the way, we might mention that
the Webmaster was born in Paris rue Vercingetorix and his sister
lives rue d'Alésia!
- Do you know who broke the Soissons vase
? The answer is : Clovis, the first King of France. In 486, after
a victory in Soissons, and during the allotment of the pillage,
one of his soldiers wanted the vase that he, Clovis, wanted as
well and deliberately broke it so that the King would not have
it. Several years later, while inspecting the troops, Clovis
recognized him, asked him to check his shoes, and broke his skull
as he was bending his head, admonishing him to "Remember
the Soissons vase". For the French this anecdote illustrates
that either "the King is always right" or "Kings
never forget."
- More to come (read about some
French attitudes which
are deeply rooted in history).
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- Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, was escorting
the rear-guard of the army of the (not yet) Emperor, retreating
from Spain in 778. He was attacked by the Basques in the mountain
pass of Roncevaux and even though he blew his olifant
(horn), the army did not rescue him. He tried to break his sword,
named Durandal on a rock and waited to be killed, praying
God and praising Charlemagne. Moral of the story : love your
King, good or not so good.
- Jeanne d'Arc
is always shown either listening to the voices of angels telling
her to go see the King and help him expel the English from France,
or dying burned at the stake by the same English in 1431. Hardly
any mention is made that she was betrayed by her compatriots.
Morality of the story : beware of the English.
- Colbert, the Prime Minister of King Louis XIV,
the Sun King, was a good minister and a hard worker. He is the
very symbol of the omnipresence of the State in the economy.
He is always shown entering his office and rubbing his hands
with joy at the view of the paperwork piled on his desk. French
kids do not like this image...
- Pasteur was an illustrious
chemist who made major discoveries about germs (the English attribute
vaccination to Jenner). He had this idea of injecting antibodies
to treat rabies; all French kids have seen the scene in which
he is shown injecting a young Alsatian shepherd and saving his
life. Think of that when you drink pasteurized milk.
- Other stories include
- Charlemagne visiting a school he founded,
- King Saint Louis making legal decisions under an oak tree,
- Napoleon pinching the earlobe of a soldier (who seems to
enjoy it...),
- the six Bourgeois
de Calais (burghers of
Calais) bare-footed and half-naked surrendering to the English
(again!) to save their fellow citizens,
- etc...
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| DID YOU KNOW THAT ....
If you know two words in French, you know the word "merde"
but do you know why, when a French person wants to refer to it
without saying the word itself, he/she uses the formula "mot
de Cambronne" ? This is because in the battle of Waterloo,
lost by Napoleon, the general Cambronne, who commanded the imperial
guard, used it when the English asked him to surrender ! |
The dates that all French kids know
- 732 : Charles Martel stops the
Arab invasion near Poitiers
- 800 : Charlemagne is crowned
Emperor in Rome
- 1515 : François 1rst
wins the battle of Marignano, in Italy
- 1610 : the good king Henri IV
is stabbed by Ravaillac
- 1789 : the beginning of the
French Revolution (Bastille)
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- 1870 : the Franco-Prussian war
and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine
- 1914-1918 : WW 1 (for the USA,
it is 1917-1918)
- 1936 : the Front Populaire (Socialist
government)
- 1939-1945 : WW 2 (for the USA,
it is 1941-1945)
- 1968 : student riots
- More to come
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| DID
YOU KNOW THAT....? The French like to refer to the famous quote
"Ceux qui ne connaissent pas l'Histoire sont condamnés
à la revivre" ("Those who do not know History
are condemned to relive it"). In France, the present is
seen as a link between the past and the future : in a speech
, in a report or an article, even in business, it is frequent
to start with a historical background. |
Deepest downs in French
history
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There have been many downs in
the history of France, when the country was defeated, ruined
and hopeless and after a few years came back to life. Among them:
- The
" Hundred Year War "
against England, between 1337 to 1453, included disasters such
as the king of France (Jean le Bon) being kept prisoner in London
for years, another king (Charles VI) becoming crazy, a terrible
defeat in Azincourt (1415) but, finally, came Jeanne
d'Arc (1429) and the final victory
- After Waterloo (June 18, 1815), France was crushed
by a large coalition, Paris occupied, Napoleon exiled ; in spite
of the huge losses of 20 years of wars, the country recovered
within a few years.
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- The lost war against Prussia
in 1870, with two provinces (Alsace and Lorraine) annexed
by Germany and a huge indemnity to pay but, finally, " la
Belle Epoque " and decades of prosperity and artistic
creation
- WW1
was a victory at the cost of many defeats (1,4 million men killed)
and it took ten years for the country to recover. See comparative
figures.
- The defeat
in 1940 and more than four years of occupation,
the country deeply humiliated and severely destroyed but, finally,
" les Trentes Glorieuses " (the Thirty Prosperous)
(1950-1980) with the spectacular modernization of the French
society and economy and the country catching up with its time
under the presidency of de
Gaulle
- More to come ? (I hope not)
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| DID
YOU KNOW THAT....? American historian Steven Englund observed
in Le Monde, December 2, 2004, that even after two centuries,
English and French historians still do not agree about Napoleon.
On one side, Anglo-Saxon detractors are incapable of understanding
what was unique about Napoleon's power and the good he did ;
on the other side, the French have elevated him to a cult figure
while underestimating the mud and spilled blood. What is lacking
on both sides, (particularly the Anglo-Saxon side), says Englund,
is the ability to admit ambivalence and ambiguity. |
Top
French national heroes
- Clovis, the first king, who
became Christian
- Charlemagne (who is also a German
national hero)
- Jeanne
d'Arc who saved the French
from the English...
- King Henri IV because he re-established
peace after the War of Religion and he cared for the people (everyone
knows he said :"I want every family to put a chicken in
the pot every Sunday")
- Louis XIV (the Sun King) because
of "grandeur"
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- Napoleon, because of glory and
because he organized the country with structures which still
exist (the Code Civil, the educational system, the prefects,
etc..)
- Louis Pasteur,
the image of the good scientist
- Victor Hugo, poet and writer
read worldwide, political opponent to Napoleon 3rd
- Charles
de Gaulle who rebuilt
French national pride after WW2 and ended the Algerian war and
colonization
- More to come (read more about
kings)
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| DID YOU KNOW THAT....?
Names of streets give a good idea of some of the (more
recent) national heroes and some of them have a street named
after them in a majority if not all French cities : Jean Jaurès
(a socialist leader murdered just before WWI as he was trying
to avoid it breaking out), Emile Zola (the illustrious writer
of the life of the working class at the end of the XIXth century),
Louis Pasteur and Victor Hugo (see above), heroes of the Resistance
in WW II (Pierre-Brossolette, Vailland-Couturier, Jean Moulin,...),
and now Général de Gaulle, etc... See more... |
French history in a nutshell
- A strong state (l'Etat):
French history is the history of the building of the state, which
was the persistent action of the kings, from the small warlike
Franc kings (a small tribe, north of what is now Paris) to the
Sun King or Napoleon. The country was rich and populated, exposed
to dangerous neighbours : the German world, England, the Mediterranean
world, not to mention Viking or Arab invasions. The constant
policy of the kings was to develop a strong state to protect
the country from invasions. At the peaks of its power (XIIIth
Century or XVIIIth Century), France was the most populated and
the most powerful power in Europe. Read about the state
and about its civil servants.
Today, the Prefect is the representant of the State in each of
the 100 "Départements" : he is appointed by
the government (and not elected) and his powers and his prestige
are huge. By American standards, France is an incredibly centralized
country.
- A conservative country (la fille
ainée de l'Eglise) : in the XVIth Century, France
chose to reject the Reformation ; the Church and the kings kept
control over all sources of new ideas. Many aspects of French
society result from this choice (in particular the extreme difficulties
to introduce reforms progressively and the country progressing
through riots and revolutions). The French fear
change : see Peyrefitte ("Le
Mal Français") and Marseille
("du bon usage de la guerre civile en France")
- Art and culture come first
: the country being rich and tightly controlled
by kings and nobility, huge resources could be allocated to art
for pleasure and for the glory of God and the king. See Braudel.
and read about "l'exception
culturelle"
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- A
split country : since France has a rather limited culture of
consensus (this is an understatement...), the whole history of
France is the history of one half against the other half : the
Armagnacs vs the Bourguignons (15th century), the Catholics vs
the Protestants (16th century), the Anciens vs the Modernes (17th
century), the Girondins vs the Montagnards (1790s), the Republicans
vs the Royalists (end 19th century), Secular vs Catholics (begining
20th century), now the Right vs the Left, etc... Each national
vote illustrates the existence of two
Frances, a recent example being the May 2005 referendum on
the European Constitution. There is also a strong North-South
split.
- A
country with a mission
(l'universalisme)
: due to its strong state, its large population and its place
in the center of Europe, France has developed the ambition to
carry to the world a universal message (the Rights of Man, Liberté-Egalité-Fraternité,
the motto of the French Republic, etc) ; Napoleon and his army
were sincerely convinced they were bringing liberty and democracy
to Europe. He used the words "Our armies will bring to the
world Liberty and the Rights of Man ". Doesn't it sound
familiar ? The same words George W.Bush used ! In the days of
colonialism, it is interesting to observe how different it was
between English colonization ("we respect local cultures
because they are and they will always be different") and
French colonization ("they
are lucky, they will become like us"). This also sounds
familiar.... Read de Gaulle and about
French possessions.
- Read more about historical
Paris
- More to come..
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The chauvinistic section
- Read a rather grandiose
and lyric vision of France by Charles de Gaulle, in the very first page
of his War Memoirs :
"All
my life, I have thought of France in a certain way. This is inspired
by sentiment as much as by reason. The emotional side of me tends
to imagine France, like the princess in the fairy stories or
the Madonna in the frescoes, as dedicated to an exalted and exceptional
destiny. Instinctively I have the feeling that Providence has
created her either for complete successes or for exemplary misfortunes.
If, in spite of this, mediocrity shows in her acts and deeds,
it strikes me as an absurd anomaly, to be imputed to the faults
of the Frenchmen, not to the genius of the land. But the positive
side of my mind also assures me that France is not really herself
unless in the front rank ; that only vast entreprises are capable
of counterbalancing the ferments of dispersal which are inherent
in her people ; that our country, as it is, surrounded by the
others, as they are, must aim high and hold itself straight,
on pain of mortal danger. In short, to my mind, France cannot
be France without greatness."
More about de
Gaulle and America.
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- The French have the reputation
of being very chauvinist (the word itself comes from a character
in a XIXth century play, a fellow named Chauvin who was a soldier
of Napoleon). To reinforce this reputation, here is a list of
"do you know who invented ...?" :
|
who invented/ discovered ? |
the answer is.... |
and NOT .... |
| cinema |
Louis and
Auguste Lumière (1895) |
Thomas Edison |
| planes |
Clément
Ader (1890) |
Wilbur Wright
(1903) |
| photography |
Nicéphore
Niepce (1826) |
George Eastman |
| sound recording |
Edouard Scott de Martinville
(1860) |
Thomas Edison (1878) |
| HIV virus |
Pr.Luc Montagnier
(1980s) |
Pr.Robert
Gallo |
| helicopter |
Paul Cornu
(1907) |
Igor Sikorsky |
| optical
pumping (laser) |
Alfred Kastler
(1949) (read more) |
Theodore
Maiman |
| internet |
Centre Européen
de Recherche Nucléaire |
Netscape (read more) |
| the smart
card |
Roland Moreno
(1974) |
Bill Gates |
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A more serious section...
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A short bibliography of
some of the books I like :
- Fernand BRAUDEL, L'identité
de la France, Arthaud, 1986 (The identity of France,
Harpers & Collins, 1988) (this book is definitely a must!)
- Jean FAVIER, Paris- 2000
ans d'histoire, Fayard, Paris, 1997
- Pierre NORA, Realms of memory
- The Construction of the French Past, Columbia Univ. Press,
1996
- Robert
PAXTON, Vichy France, Columbia University Press, New York,
1974
- Alain PEYREFITTE, Le Mal Français,
Plon, Paris 1976 (a very clear-sighted book on the major weakness
of the French society : the inability to progress by reforming
smoothly)
- Alain
PEYREFITTE, C'était de Gaulle, Paris, Fayard, 1994
(2 vol.) (after having worked closely for de Gaulle, a mine of
extraodinary quotes about France, the French, the Americans...
read some of them)
- Barbara TUCHMAN, A Distant
Mirror-The Calamitous 14th Century, A.Knopf, New York, 1978
- Barbara
TUCHMAN, The Guns of August, Bantam, 1976
- Eugen WEBER, Ma France,
Fayard, 2000
- Gordon WRIGHT, France in
Modern Times, Norton,1987
- Theodore ZELDIN, France 1848-1945
Intellect and Pride, Oxford 1980
- More to come...
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And also :
- Michel CARMONA, Hausmann :
his Life and Times and the Making of Modern Paris, Ivan R.Dee
Pub, 2002 (in French : Haussmann, Fayard, 2000)
- Ina CARO, The Road from the
Past - Traveling Through History in France, A Harvest Book,
1994
- Robert DARNTON, The Great
Cat Massacre, Vintage, New York, 1984
- Laura Dee DOWNS & Stephane
GERSON, Why France ? American Historians Reflect on an Enduring
Fascination, Cornell University Press, 2007 (American historians
tell why they decided to study French history)
- Nancy MITFORD, Madame de
Pompadour, Sphere Books, New York, 1968
- Ronald
TIERSKY, François Mitterrand - The Last French President,
St.Martin's, New York, 2000
- More to come...
More :
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|
To history
of Franco - American relations
Getting mixed up with all these
kings?
To more
French history
To table
of contents
Back to home
page
|
Harriet Welty
Rochefort writes articles and books about France and the French.
Order her books :
- "French Toast, An American in Paris
Celebrates The Maddening Mysteries of the French", St.Martin's Press,
New York, 1999
- "French Fried, The Culinary Capers
of An American in Paris", St.Martin's Press, New York, 2001
More on Harriet's books (excerpts, upcoming
events, testimonials, etc..)
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