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preface
When it comes to Britain and France, many people think of "couples" who love and kill each other.
Because although the two countries often "enter and exit pairs" and belong to the camp of Western developed countries, there are constant contradictions behind the scenes, and the grudges can be traced back to thousands of years!
In the past, France was severely suppressed by Britain, so the question is, can France win against Britain now?
Why is it said that there are only three countries that France cannot beat? Which three again?
First, the thousand-year-old grudges have never been left to an end in turmoil
The feud between Britain and France should start from the geographical location, and Britain is isolated outside the main body of the European continent.
The North Sea is bordered to the east, the Irish Sea and the vast Atlantic Ocean to the west, and an empty space to the north.
Only the Normandy and Calais regions in the south can be connected to the European continent.
It belongs to France and is separated from Britain by only a shallow English Channel, laying the groundwork for a thousand years of dispute between Britain and France.
At that time, if the English wanted to expand their territory, they could only go to the south to compete with the French.
Because neither the Atlantic Ocean in the west nor the bitter cold in the east is a place where the English can set foot.
Especially in the east, where fierce Vikings lived, the English avoided it.
Coinciding with the disintegration of the Frankish Kingdom, a huge kingdom was disintegrated into the prototype of Germany, France and Italy.
Among them, France now controls the western territory of the kingdom, and there are disagreements with England in terms of territory and succession to the throne.
Especially after the death of the English king "Edward the Penitent", the contradiction quickly intensified.
Edward had no heirs, so the throne passed to a man named Harold.
It happened that William, a vassal of the French king, was related to the British royal family, so he joined the struggle for the throne.
In the end, the brave William successfully defeated Harold and became the king of England.
But at the same time he was a subordinate of the King of France, so the sovereignty of Normandy caused a lot of controversy.
In this way, the time came in the 12th century, and France became weaker and weaker, so that Louis VI, in order to maintain his authority, married his son Louis VII to Eleanor of the Duchy of Aquitaine.
From the identity point of view, the two are also a good match, but the personality difference is too far, coupled with the problem of heirs, so that later Eleanor chose to divorce and turned to marry the English king.
This contradiction suddenly could not be adjusted, after all, the king of France and the king of England were rivals at that time, and Eleanor controlled the rich and huge Aquitaine region, which further imbalanced the strength of the two sides.
Fortunately, Philip II, the son of Louis VII, was quite talented, and the southern conquest and the northern war expanded the territory, which eased the contradictions between Britain and France.
But détente is ultimately not a solution, but may allow contradictions to accumulate deeper.
After the death of King Charles IV of France in 1328, King Edward III of England stepped forward and succeeded to the throne as a nephew.
Not to be outdone, the French aristocracy united to fight against Edward III, and the vigorous "Anglo-French Hundred Years' War" broke out, which swept almost all the surrounding forces into it.
Of the four phases of the war, France gained only a slight advantage in the first and middle periods, and then fell into adversity for a time, and even the capital almost fell.
However, with tenacious perseverance, the French army still eliminated the main British army in the Battle of Castilon and became a worthy winner.
At this time, the British finally realized that they could not defeat France head-on, and began to gradually focus their attention on overseas regions.
Second, entanglement and inheritance, the two countries are reconciled because of profit
When Britain and France turned their attention overseas, the relationship between the two countries entered a new stage, it can be said that cooperation and confrontation are equally important, concentrated cooperation is the trend, and confrontation is the norm.
Among them, Britain engaged in offshore balancing, in order to curb the development of France and prevent its rapid expansion, for which Britain also engaged in fierce colonial battles with France.
Unfortunately, when Britain and the Netherlands fought three Anglo-Dutch wars in the 17th century, France, as a bystander, took the opportunity to seize a large amount of land and commercial interests, and returned to European hegemony.
This made Britain very unhappy, especially after learning that France and Austria were in alliance, Britain knew what it had to do, so it united with Prussia and opened the curtain of a new round of disputes.
From the War of the Spanish Succession, to the Seven Years' War, the Indian and North American Colonial Wars, to the American War of Independence and the French Napoleonic Wars, Britain and France have been enemies.
It was not until after the Crimean War of 1853 that the turmoil subsided, and pressure from Germany and Russia led to the unification of the two countries and the signing of the Entente Agreement in 1904.
But how can a grudge that lasted for thousands of years be so easy to settle? Britain and France have always been suspicious of each other.
For example, Britain felt that the reason why France was so tough on Germany in World War I was to gain hegemony in Europe, so it had been making trouble;
Although Britain and France belonged to the same camp in World War II, they had completely different views on the war, such as the evacuation of Dunkirk, Britain felt that it was a big victory, but France felt that it was a betrayal...
In order to regain their glory, Britain and France had very different choices, Britain decided to move closer to the United States, while France was committed to improving its position in Europe.
In the process, the two countries "tripped each other".
For example, France has twice denied Britain's application to join the European Community of Shared Destiny, and openly accused the United States of being a "Trojan horse".
Britain is also not polite, joining the EU when needed and developing with the help of the EU's power; When it was not needed, he "jumped ship" directly from the EU, so angry that France publicly launched accusations many times.
However, it would be a mistake to mistakenly believe that Britain and France had no possibility of cooperation because of these "appearances".
After the advent of the 20th century, cooperation and exchanges between Britain and France were also very frequent.
For example, the joint invasion of Egypt by Britain and France, the joint construction of the Channel Tunnel by Britain and France, and the signing of a bilateral defense cooperation treaty between the two countries in 2010 are enough to prove that the relationship between the two countries has ushered in a warm spring.
The state of Britain and France, as British Prime Minister Palmerston said:
"Between countries, there are no eternal friends and enemies, only eternal interests."
It is really embarrassing that Britain and France finally suspended their differences because of their interests, and France was not Britain's opponent for most of the time in the process of fighting between the two sides.
So the question is, which of France or Britain will be stronger today?
Third, strength analysis, comparison between Britain and France
Here, we may wish to compare comprehensive national strength from the three perspectives of economy, politics and military.
From an economic point of view, Britain and France are similar in size, although the total GDP of the United Kingdom is a little larger than that of France, but this difference is insignificant, and the per capita GDP is about $40,000.
From this point of view, Germany, which is also one of the European troikas, will develop more rapidly.
Don't look at Germany as a defeated country, with the automobile industry can be described as booming, the total GDP of Europe is the first.
From a political point of view, Britain and France are both permanent members and both have veto power in the Security Council.
However, with Brexit, France is better in terms of actual influence.
After all, after Brexit, France became the only country with veto power in the entire European Union, plus it has a large number of troops in Africa, and its influence even exceeded that of the United States for a time.
From a military point of view, France is much stronger than Britain.
After all, France is one of the few countries in the world that has an independent and complete defense industrial system, and from here, Britain is much worse.
In addition, France also has a large number of overseas military bases, only slightly inferior to the United States, plus France has the same nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as the United States, which has left Britain, which has average military weapons.
As for the Air Force, the gap between the two sides is not too big.
Although both countries lacked large bombers and transport aircraft, the use of fighter jets to mount nuclear bombs could achieve the same effect, which was sufficient for Britain and France.
Therefore, from a comprehensive point of view, France's strength is better than that of Britain, and if it fights again, Britain may not be able to compete with France again.
It's just that France does not dare to say that it is "completely invincible", but admits that it also has three countries that cannot win, who are these three countries? Why does France say it can't beat it?
In fact, these three countries are very easy to guess, obviously China, the United States and Russia, from the volume point of view, the two sides are not a level, France can not fight is really normal.
Although it is not possible to win with a large number of people, for the three countries, China, the United States and Russia, the numerical advantage is really a big plus.
After all, in other respects, China, the United States and Russia are not inferior.
France believes that it cannot defeat China because China's strength has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, and its economy, science and technology and military have taken off;
It is not surprising that the United States can beat France, after all, it is the only superpower in the world;
As for Russia, it has inherited the "legacy" of the former Soviet Union, and the skinny camel is bigger than the horse.
To sum up, it may not be difficult to confront Britain with the strength of a country alone, but it is still more difficult to confront China, the United States and Russia.
However, European forces are intertwined, France is originally on the road of "alliance", many allies, in fact, can also be counted as part of France's strength, so France is very strong.
Fourth, the good-neighborly policy is entangled with Britain and France
Many people do not understand why Britain and France did not act as neighbors well, but fought for thousands of years, in fact, it is not uncommon to look at the world:
Neighboring powers are prone to war for geographical reasons.
Take the relationship between Poland, Turkey and Russia, the first two have been fighting Russia for a long time, especially Turkey, which is said to have fought Russia 12 times in 241 years, with a staggering frequency.
Many people say that the confrontation between Russia and Turkey is a "series of wars".
As a result of this war, a large territory that was once part of the Ottoman Empire was gradually occupied by Russia.
It is touching that Poland and Turkey also played the role of "first brother" in the world, but in the end they went into decline, but instead made a "wedding dress" for Russia.
Why not Britain and France? In order to avoid withdrawing from the stage of history, these two former countries have been working hard for it, and indeed achieved certain results.
As for the relationship between the two countries, where the future will go, everyone generally feels not optimistic, after all, the previous Brexit has accumulated a considerable amount of resentment in France.
Coupled with the fact that the two sides still have a thousand-year-old feud, things are even more troublesome.
When I was in the EU, I often met to deepen my understanding, and this resentment could be resolved, but now it is accumulating, waiting to erupt.
Since 2018, the bilateral summit between Britain and France has not been held, and it seems to be clearly declaring that "the relationship between Britain and France is very cold", and the two sides have indeed been competing vigorously in the past five or six years.
Not to mention that according to media reports, the new British prime minister and these government officials have an extremely tough attitude towards the EU and are unlikely to take the initiative to improve Britain-France relations;
Britain is tough, France is not inferior, and during the previous French presidential election, no candidate proposed to improve Anglo-French relations, which shows that this issue is not taken seriously in France.
French polls show that 3/4 of French people think Italy and Germany can be trusted, but only 2/5 of French people think Britain can be an ally.
This is absurd, after all, Britain and France were allies against Germany and the Italian Axis powers.
Today, France feels that Britain is less reliable than Germany and Italy, which is understandable.
But this is no way, after all, Britain and France have chosen very different paths.
Britain wants to follow the United States and use American hegemony for the welfare, while France wants to use Europe to get rid of the United States and ensure its independence.
Coupled with Brexit, the millennium grudge between Britain and France, etc., it is really difficult to promote the relationship between Britain and France.
Judging from the current situation alone, the path chosen by France seems to be smoother.
This also reminds us that we must adhere to independence and self-determination at all times, and cannot pin our choice on others, but always insist on developing the economy, science and technology and the military.
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