Anti-French sentiment (Francophobia or Gallophobia) is an extreme or irrational fear or contempt of France, the French people, the French government or the Francophonie (set of political entities that use French as an official language or whose French-speaking population is numerically or proportionally large). [1] It has existed in various forms and in different countries for centuries. Its antonym is Francophilia.
Though French history in the broadest sense extends back more than a millennium, its political unity dates back from the reign of Louis XI, who set up the basis of nation-state (rather than a dynastic, transnational entity typical of the late Middle Ages). In the last days of the Ancien Régime, only aristocrats and scholars spoke French in much of the kingdom, as about two-thirds of the population spoke a variety of local languages, often referred to as dialects. Henceforth, Eric Hobsbawm argues that the French nation-state was constituted during the 19th century through conscription, which accounted for interactions between French citizens coming from various regions and the Third Republic's public instruction laws, enacted in the 1880s, probably in parallel with the birth of the European nationalisms.[ citation needed ]
England and France have a long history of conflict, dating from before the Battle of Hastings, when William the Conqueror claimed the English throne. Before becoming King of England, William found conflict with his liege several times and conquered some neighbouring fiefs. The relationship between the countries continued to be filled with conflict, even during the Third Crusade. The medieval era of conflict climaxed during the Hundred Years' War, when the House of Plantagenet fought unsuccessfully for control of the French throne and lost almost all French holdings, which resulted in future English kings being more culturally English. (Previously, they had largely spoken French and lived in French castles much of the time. Richard the Lionheart, who was famous for his feud with French King Philip, spent most of his life in France and as little as six months of his reign as King in England).
The modern history of conflict between the two nations stems from the rise of England into a position as a dominant mercantile and seafaring power from the late 17th century onward. Hostility toward and strategic conflict with France's similar ambitions became a defining characteristic of relations between the two powers. The time between the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and Napoleon's final capitulation in 1815 has been perceived in Britain as a prolonged Franco-British conflict to determine who would be the dominant colonial power (sometimes called the Second Hundred Years' War ). British hostility to the Catholic Church, which dated back to earlier conflicts with Spain and the Catholic Habsburg dynasty, contributed to attitudes towards the French because France was also seen as a Catholic power, and the majority of the British people were Protestants. Britain assisted continental European states in resisting French ambitions to hegemony during the reign of Louis XIV and the Napoleonic Wars. Britain also resented France's intervention in the American Revolutionary War. The repeated conflicts spawned deep mutual antagonism between the two nations, which were only and partially overcome by their alliance to defeat Imperial Germany in the early 20th century.
The dimensions of the conflict in Britain were as much cultural as strategic. Indeed, British nationalism, in its nascent phases, was in large part an anti-France phenomenon and the attitudes involved extended well beyond who won what on various battlefields:
Robert Graves wrote shortly after the First World War during his time at Oxford University as an undergraduate that:
The eighteenth century owed its unpopularity largely to its Frenchness. Anti-French feeling among most ex-soldiers amounted almost to an obsession. Edmund, shaking with nerves, used to say at this time: "No more wars for me at any price! Except against the French. If ever there is a war against them, I'll go like a shot." Pro-German feeling had been increasing. With the war over and the German armies beaten, we could give the German soldier credit for being the most efficient fighting man in Europe ... Some undergraduates even insisted that we had been fighting on the wrong side: our natural enemies were the French.
The concerns were not unique to Europe. Despite the positive view in some of the United States, the revolution awakened or created anti-French feelings among some members of the Federalist Party. [3]
Beginning with the French invasions of Germany in the late 18th century, France became the century-long rival of Germany. The rising German nationalist movement also considered France their greatest enemy because France not only had temporarily conquered much of Western Germany during the Napoleonic Wars but also was the country most strongly opposed to the idea of a unified German empire and wanted Germany to remain divided into many individual states.
In this time, the myth of the so-called hereditary enmity (German: Erbfeindschaft) came into being, according to which the Romanic French and the Germanic Germans had been antithetic enemies ever since the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, a notion that was inherently unhistorical. In the 19th century, anti-French sentiment became commonplace in German political discourse even if the deep cultural interrelation between the two could never be blanked out completely. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poked fun at this in his epic Faust I with the verse: Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzen leiden, doch ihre Weine trinkt er gern. "A real German man likes no Frenchy, but he likes to drink their wines.")
Several German nationalist anthems were written against the French, most prominently Die Wacht am Rhein . After the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, the anniversary of the decisive Battle of Sedan was made a semiofficial national holiday in the German Empire.
After the culminations of Franco-German enmity in both world wars, the two actively gave up their mutual animosities in the second half of the twentieth century. The most prominent symbol of this development is the picture of heads of government François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl holding each other's hands at a ceremony at the military cemetery in Verdun in 1984. Today, Germany and France are close political partners and two closely connected nations. A joint Franco-German television network, Arte, was founded in 1992.
Historically, relations between French and Irish have been generally positive, as both peoples shared a common religion, Roman Catholicism, and a common Protestant enemy, England (later the United Kingdom). French kings during the 16th to 19th centuries often supported Irish and Scottish interests against English advances in Ireland and Scotland.
Recently, there have been a few instances of friction between France and the Republic of Ireland over political and economic issues that led to expressions of Irish francophobia. One of these was when Ireland rejected the Lisbon treaty in a referendum in 2008 and Nicolas Sarkozy commented that Ireland "must vote again" [4] – as it indeed did the following year. Another source has been the French criticism of Ireland's low corporate taxation rate and the perceived French resistance to conceding an interest rate reduction on the International Monetary Fund/ European Union loan arrangement until Ireland "moves" on this rate, which was perceived as interference. [5]
Francophobia in Ireland rose in the aftermath of a controversial FIFA World Cup playoff game between the two countries, leading to protests outside the French Embassy in Dublin. [6] Irish businesses exploited the occasion in a mostly light-hearted way, with promotions offering discounts for every goal scored against France and special reductions to celebrate the elimination of France from the tournament. [7] [8]
Goya painted several famous pictures depicting the violence of the Peninsula wars during the Napoleonic Era. In particular, the French actions against Spanish civilians during the Peninsular War drew a large amount of criticism, as illustrated by The Third of May 1808 painting.
The French colonial empires earned many enemies, among rival colonial countries, especially the British empire, especially by colonised peoples. However, French neocolonialism is denounced under the term of Françafrique including by sectors of the French population itself.[ citation needed ]
Despite a large French contribution to the 1991 Iraq Gulf War (called Operation Daguet) and the French presence in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom), the opposition of French President Jacques Chirac to the 2003 Iraq War led to a significant rise in anti-French sentiment in the United States, [10] epitomized by a movement to rename french fries to freedom fries. [11] In March 2003, the cafeteria of the United States House of Representatives had its French fries and French toast renamed to freedom fries and toast, at the direction of Representatives Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and Walter Jones (R-North Carolina). Representative Ney chaired the Committee on House Administration and had authority over the menu in the House cafeteria. [12]
The freedom fries renaming was not without controversy or opposition. Timothy Noah of Slate noted that the move was "meant to demonize France for its exasperating refusal to support a war against Iraq". He compared the 2003 renamings to the renaming of all things German in World War I, but argued that the freedom fries episode was even worse because "Germany, after all, was America's enemy, whereas France is America's NATO ally." [13] The episode occurred despite the fact that neither french fries nor french toast are typically French (see origins of french fries and french toast), with American people and politicians being driven intentionally or unintentionally by the name confusion.
The swell of anti-French sentiment in the United States resulting from 2003 episode was marked. [14] Various media personalities and politicians openly expressed anti-French sentiments; [15] News Corporation's media outlets, particularly the Fox Entertainment Group's Fox News Network, were specifically implicated in a campaign fanning francophobia at the time of the war. [16] [17]
France controls several islands in the Pacific Ocean New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna Islands and French Polynesia. There have been sporadic independence demonstrations in French Polynesia, and briefly in the 1980s a pro-independence insurgency in New Caledonia, led by the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste. However, the situation is by no means unique to France, as the other overseas European Great Power, the United Kingdom, also owns many British overseas territories and the controversies they generate.
There is also the issue of nuclear testing in the Pacific. Since 1960, around 200 nuclear tests have occurred around the Pacific, to the opprobrium of other Pacific states, Australia and New Zealand. In 1982, New Zealand reggae band Herbs released their breakthrough single, "French Letter", which strongly criticised French nuclear testing. [18] The end of the Cold War led to a French moratorium on nuclear testing, but it was lifted in 1995 by Jacques Chirac. French security forces have sought to interfere with the activity of nuclear testing protesters.[ citation needed ] In 1972, the Greenpeace vessel Vega was rammed at Moruroa. The following year Greenpeace protesters were detained by the French, and the skipper claimed he was beaten. Also, in 1985 the French secret service bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand. Greenpeace had been a very vocal opponent of French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Australia ceased military cooperation with France and embargoed the export of uranium to France. Chirac's decision to run a nuclear test series at Mururoa on 5 September and 2 October 1995, just one year before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was to be signed, caused worldwide protest, including an embargo of French wine. Riots took place across Polynesia, and the South Pacific Forum threatened to suspend France. [19]
Protesters demonstrated at the French embassy in Canberra, and the French honorary consulate in Perth was fire-bombed. The company Delifrance was forced to downplay its entry into the Australian market even if it was not a French company. The Herald Sun ran an article, "Why the French are Bastards." A group of Australians ran a full page advertisement in Le Monde , arguing that the opposition in Australia to French nuclear testing was strong, and large numbers of ANZAC soldiers who fell in France's defence in the First World War. Some authors in the French press replied by discussing Australia's own human rights record and its supposed ambitions to dominate the Pacific (one cartoon by Plantu portrayed an Australian wearing a very British bowler hat).[ citation needed ]
The Second World War had an effect on the modern French image abroad. Before the war's outbreak, the French government had reluctantly acquiesced to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement and acceptance of Adolf Hitler's various violations of the Versailles Treaty and his demands at Munich in 1938. Prime Minister of France Édouard Daladier was under no illusions about Hitler's ultimate goals and initially opposed Chamberlain's policy and told the British in a late April 1938 meeting that Hitler's real aim was to eventually secure "a domination of the Continent in comparison with which the ambitions of Napoleon were feeble.... Today it is the turn of Czechoslovakia. Tomorrow it will be the turn of Poland and Romania". [20] However, in the end, Daladier could not stand without Chamberlain's support and let him have his way, with the appeasement of Hitler at the Munich Agreement.
The prime ministers of France between the World Wars were generally frightened about German intentions, as France sustained more casualties in the First World War than any other Western country, approximately 1.4 million military and 1.6 million total casualties. [21] Accordingly, French policies towards Germany in general, more specifically the Nazis, were more aggressive than that of other Western nations. Relations were very poor at the time, and French leaders were also acutely aware that the population of Germany (64 million) exceeded that of France by a considerable margin (40 million), a major strategic vulnerability.
The vulnerability and France's proximity to Germany caused French leaders to take a harder stance on Germany than the British, for example. The French occupation of the Rhineland and France's desire to collect reparations, owed by Germany under the Versailles to France, caused British leaders to see French leaders as pushing for war with Germany.
The predecessor of Daladier, Léon Blum, was acutely aware of the dangers of the German rise. He even considered military assistance to the Spanish government during the Spanish Civil War (the Germans were supporting the Nationalists) [22] [23] but reluctantly decided otherwise, as some Nationalist sympathizers in France openly threatened civil war, just like in Spain. Also, the predecessor of Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin, and his staff, including Anthony Eden, strongly opposed any aid for fear both of communism (the Soviet Union was supporting the Republicans) and of the war spreading into another world war. [24]
In 1940, the military defeat of the French Army, after only a month, caused much disillusion across Europe. As a consequence, the image and the reputation of France as Europe's military superpower were seriously compromised until after the war ended. Vichy France collaborated with Germany, which included anti-Jewish legislation and other actions, which had a negative effect on the French image abroad. [25] However, Free French Forces still participated actively in the final Allied victory and France rebuilt its military after the war, to recover some of its position as a major military power.
Country polled | Positive | Negative | Neutral | Pos-Neg |
---|---|---|---|---|
30% | 38% | 32 | -8 | |
24% | 18% | 58 | 6 | |
35% | 29% | 36 | 6 | |
34% | 25% | 41 | 9 | |
35% | 25% | 40 | 10 | |
35% | 17% | 48 | 18 | |
47% | 27% | 26 | 20 | |
46% | 24% | 30 | 22 | |
46% | 24% | 30 | 22 | |
47% | 24% | 29 | 23 | |
48% | 22% | 30 | 26 | |
55% | 26% | 19 | 29 | |
61% | 32% | 7 | 29 | |
55% | 25% | 20 | 30 | |
38% | 4% | 58 | 32 | |
48% | 16% | 36 | 32 | |
57% | 24% | 19 | 33 | |
51% | 13% | 36 | 38 | |
62% | 20% | 18 | 42 | |
64% | 20% | 16 | 44 | |
70% | 22% | 8 | 48 | |
70% | 11% | 19 | 59 | |
72% | 9% | 19 | 63 | |
Post-World War II France is a major world power with nuclear armed forces retaining a weapons stockpile of around 300 operational nuclear warheads, making it the third-largest in the world, [27] greater than those of United Kingdom, modern Germany or postwar Japan – all nations which have rarely been claimed to be merely "middle powers". France also has a permanent seat on the United Nations, and one of the largest economies in the World. [28] It is very active in international affairs in locations overseas (such as its continuing participation in Afghanistan, its Pacific nuclear testing in the 1980s, and in interventions in its former African colonies).
However, France's very status and active foreign policy have caused it the attract some negative attention. Some view[ citation needed ] some of postwar France's leaders to be vocal and independent-minded in their dealings with other major nations. The two French presidents most often perceived to be vocal and independent are Charles de Gaulle and Jacques Chirac.
The policies of Charles de Gaulle during his second presidency (1959–1969) included several actions that some critics have held against him.
In total, De Gaulle advocated a strong presence among the great nations and independence towards the United States and the Soviet Union.[ citation needed ]
The French Armed Forces encompass the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the National Guard and the Gendarmerie of the French Republic. The President of France heads the armed forces as chef des armées.
In the 19th century France built a new French colonial empire second only to the British Empire. It was humiliated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, which marked the rise of Germany to dominance in Europe. France was on the winning side of the First World War, but fared poorly in the Second World War. It fought losing wars in Indochina and Algeria. The Fourth Republic collapsed and the Fifth Republic began in 1958 to the present. Under Charles De Gaulle it tried to block American and British influence on the European community. Since 1945 France has been a founding member of the United Nations, of NATO, and of the European Coal and Steel Community. As a charter member of the United Nations, France holds one of the permanent seats in the Security Council and is a member of most of its specialized and related agencies.
Jacques René Chirac was a French politician who served as President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously the Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as the Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French army officer and statesman who led the French Resistance against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to reestablish democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers by President René Coty. He was asked to rewrite the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected as President of France later that year, a position he was reelected to in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the early part of the Cold War era; his memory continues to influence French politics.
Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist. He served as Secretary General of NATO from 1 October 1971 until 25 June 1984.
Anti-English sentiment or Anglophobia means opposition to, dislike of, fear of, or hatred towards England or English people. The term is sometimes used more loosely for general anti-British sentiment. Its opposite is Anglophilia.
Anti-French sentiment in the United States is the manifestation of Francophobia by Americans. It signifies a consistent hostility toward the government, culture, and people of France that employs stereotypes.
Gaullism is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader General Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic.
The Force de frappe, or Force de dissuasion after 1961, is the designation of what used to be a triad of air-, sea- and land-based nuclear weapons intended for dissuasion, the French term for deterrence. The French Nuclear Force, part of the Armed Forces of France, is the third largest nuclear-weapons force in the world, following the nuclear triads of the Russian Federation and the United States.
France is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, but is not known to possess or develop any chemical or biological weapons. France was the fourth country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon in 1960, under the government of Charles de Gaulle. The French military is currently thought to retain a weapons stockpile of around 300 operational (deployed) nuclear warheads, making it the third-largest in the world, speaking in terms of warheads, not megatons. The weapons are part of the national Force de frappe, developed in the late 1950s and 1960s to give France the ability to distance itself from NATO while having a means of nuclear deterrence under sovereign control.
French–American relations refers to the diplomatic, social, economic and cultural relations between France and the United States since 1776. France was the first ally of the new United States. The 1778 treaty and military support proved decisive in the American victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War. France fared poorly, with few gains and heavy debts, which were contributing causes of France's own revolution and eventual transition to a Republic.
The History of France from 1914 to the present includes:
Seven Days to the River Rhine was a top-secret military simulation exercise developed in 1979 by the Warsaw Pact. It depicted the Soviet bloc's vision of a seven-day nuclear war between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces.
France–United Kingdom relations are the relations between the governments of the French Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). The historical ties between France and the UK, and the countries preceding them, are long and complex, including conquest, wars, and alliances at various points in history. The Roman era saw both areas, except Northern England and Scotland, conquered by Rome, whose fortifications exist in both countries to this day, and whose writing system introduced a common alphabet to both areas; however, the language barrier remained. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 decisively shaped English history, as well as the English language. In the Middle Ages, the countries were often bitter enemies, with both nations' monarchs claiming control over France. Some of the noteworthy conflicts include the Hundred Years' War and the French Revolutionary Wars which were French victories, as well as the Seven Years' War and Napoleonic Wars, from which Great Britain emerged victorious.
France emerged from World War II in the 1960s, rebuilding the country physically and the nation's national identity through the French Fifth Republic. Under the leadership of President Charles de Gaulle (1959–1969), France regained its great power status.
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war, minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, and is often linked to the goal of achieving world peace. Means to achieve these ends include advocacy of pacifism, non-violent resistance, diplomacy, boycotts, peace camps, moral purchasing, supporting anti-war political candidates, legislation to remove the profit from government contracts to the Military–industrial complex, banning guns, creating open government and transparency tools, direct democracy, supporting Whistleblowers who expose War-Crimes or conspiracies to create wars, demonstrations, and national political lobbying groups to create legislation. The political cooperative is an example of an organization that seeks to merge all peace movement organizations and green organizations, which may have some diverse goals, but all of whom have the common goal of peace and humane sustainability. A concern of some peace activists is the challenge of attaining peace when those that oppose it often use violence as their means of communication and empowerment.
France–Russia relations date back to the early modern period.
French Cameroon or French Cameroons was a League of Nations Mandate territory in Central Africa. It now forms part of the independent country of Cameroon.
The Foreign policy of Charles de Gaulle covers the diplomacy of Charles de Gaulle as French leader 1940-46 and 1958-1969, along with his followers.
Library resources about Francophobia |