Wang Guangzhi / A tone of humanistic interpretation headline number
"The baby is bitter in his heart, but the baby does not say it." France's current president, Macron, who will run from 2017 to 2022, is considered one of France's most "incompetent" presidents
"No one can occupy Paris before France surrenders"; "The French will never surrender, and it is another matter if they meet the Germans"; "France can win the battle only under the leadership of women, shorts, and foreigners"; "Which army is the most effective french force?" The Foreign Legion, because it is all foreigners "....
Extranet about the French flag
A big reason why the classic French joke has been circulating in the international world for decades and is not outdated is that the French country is too "stalked", that is, too "dramatic".
Hello guys. Macron and Trump
Because of the submarine incident, Macron announced that he "will reassess the relationship with the United States and Australia", and it is no wonder that france not only failed to make money, but also lost face in front of the world by the United States and betrayed by Australia. After the incident, the French were naturally furious, and Macron immediately recalled the ambassador to the United States and Australia. After World War II, this level of diplomatic accident occurred within the Western world, probably for the first time.
Australia's Collins-class conventionally powered submarine
After that, although the United States appeased France for the first time, it still took it upon itself to discuss further strategic deployment with Britain and Australia. Sure enough, the Anglo-Saxon brothers were the same family, which made France feel "excluded" in an instant, which also exposed the tendency of Western politics dominated by Britain and the United States to "not take France as its own family".
The heads of state of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom met online
With the drastic changes in the world order and the times, today's world still generally follows the world pattern of "one superpower and many powers" (the United States is the only superpower), while the five most powerful world powers are still the five permanent members of the United Nations (China, the United States, Russia, Britain, and France). In other words, it is still the five permanents that have the ability to influence the world pattern.
The five permanent members of the United Nations, the five founding members of the United Nations
In fact, there are also "upper three permanent" and "lower two permanent" within the five permanent, the so-called "upper three permanent" refers to three political, economic, military, cultural influence, and global intervention capabilities of the country, they are the United States, China and Russia, and the "lower two permanent" is slightly inferior, although once the scenery is unlimited, but now some weak, that is, Britain and France.
Pictures of the French army spoofed abroad
Britain's decline was revealed from the Anglo-Armagh War in 1982 and the return of Hong Kong in 1997, and France, needless to say, although as one of the five permanents, "love surrender" has almost become a stereotype of France in the international community. After all, the "glorious deeds" of surrendering after only 42 days of resistance during World War II are so famous that they have been talked about for decades.
In June 1940, after France had fallen without a fight, when German troops entered the southern city of Marseille, a French man wept bitterly
To put it interestingly, during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942, in a local Pavlov building, 23 Soviet soldiers resisted the German army alone for 59 days without any assistance, and finally did not surrender even if they were sacrificed, and a building lasted longer than a country. In fact, this is not the prejudice of the Soviet Union, and "mocking France in World War II" is almost a consensus.
French soldiers surrendering to German troops
The United States and Britain even coined a new term, "surrendered monkey," to mock the French. When Trump once visited France, he also said in front of Macron: "You France did not fight well in World War I and World War II, if it were not for us, you would have started learning German a long time ago."
A French female soldier. The French army has one of the highest proportions of female soldiers in the world, reaching a staggering proportion of about 40%, including 50% in the navy.
When the Allies liberated Paris, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill jokingly said: "When we arrived in Paris, the French's arm sockets were tanned"; and the American soldiers were even more unabashed: "The French must be the most language-learning citizens in the world, because they saw the Germans come and learned German, and now they see us coming and learning English."
Sophie Marceau, born in 1966 in Paris, France, is one of the most internationally influential and representative actresses in France, known as the "Rose of France"
In 1940, germany blitzed France, because there were too many French soldiers who surrendered, blocking the road tightly, and the invading German army even had to broadcast in French: "Lay down your weapons, don't get in the way, we don't have time to capture you", of course, there are also such as "what do you call '100,000 French people who raised their hands at the same time'? Of course, it is the "French joke" that blooms everywhere like the "French Army".
Historically, however, during World War II, there were indeed absurd incidents in which an average of 20 German soldiers captured 100 French soldiers.
After the fall, many French women depended on the German soldiers in order to survive
History belongs to history, "French jokes" do not explain everything, in today's turbulent international situation, we can't help but ask a very serious question - to this day, Is France still a global power?
A French female fan
Looking at France's national strength and size alone, France is definitely a well-deserved European power. It has an area of about 670,000 square kilometers (of which the local area is about 550,000 square kilometers), a population of more than 68 million, the sixth largest economic level in the world, a GDP of about 2.8 trillion US dollars, a per capita GDP of more than 42,000 US dollars (about 270,000 yuan), and maintains all-weather overseas military operations all year round.
Administrative divisions of France
France's overseas power is concentrated in West Africa, where France still has absolute dominance, the big brother who is said to be the same, known as the "African Gendarmerie". In fact, the biggest peacekeeper of the situation in West Africa is not the United Nations peacekeeping force, but the French Foreign Legion.
The Blue Zone is "French Africa" in the traditional sense and was once a colony of France
Even the domineering Yankees know that West Africa is the "back garden" of France and cannot be touched.
The French Foreign Legion, responsible for French military operations abroad, is composed of mostly foreign volunteers and former French special forces soldiers
Due to historical colonial reasons, more than 150 million people in Africa today speak French, more than twice the population of france, of which 100 million people speak French as their mother tongue; internationally these French colonized African regions are collectively referred to as "French Africa", which accounts for about 40% of the total area of Africa (12.08 million square kilometers), which is 21 times the area of mainland France.
The blue area is French Africa
In West Africa, France not only bears the responsibility of military stability maintenance, but also maintains a very strong influence in the economic (West African franc) and cultural (French), it can be said that West Africa is still a "piece of fat" that France cannot give up in its hands today. But West Africa is not a Europe with good years, but a dangerous and abnormal "battlefield".
In West Africa, there are a large number of casualties among peacekeepers every year
The Sahel region, a transitional area between the Sahara Desert and the Sudan steppes and the traditional dividing line between North and Central and South Africa, has been inhabited by green forest strongmen since ancient times and has become a region ravaged by terrorist organizations and rebels in modern times. And this is precisely the place where France is most troubled.
The green area is the Sahel region
In 2011, after the outbreak of the Arab Spring, the United States, Britain, and France joined forces to get rid of Gaddafi, and the world was in chaos. After Gaddafi's death, a large number of Tuareg soldiers who served in Libya returned to Mali, becoming rebels and terrorists, and quickly became a major danger to Mali's national security. And this has undoubtedly become a huge pressure on France.
Gaddafi, former dictator of Villa
For a time, a large number of terrorist organizations appeared in the Saleh area, such as the "Maghreb Al-Qaida", "West African Unity Jihadists", "Allah Brigades", Toyota pickups, Soviet-style AKs, who see who is afraid. Their purpose is to subvert the regime of Mali and other West African countries, and in 2012, there was a coup d'état in Mali, and the transitional government knew that the United Nations was unreliable and directly chose to intervene with "French Dad".
Rebels in Mali
In 2013, France launched operation "Serval Cat", a large-scale armed intervention in the situation in West Africa. Chad, Niger, and Mali have all experienced extremely serious local wars, and although nato's good brothers have all announced their fate, only France is fighting a hard battle, and who calls France the bearer of West Africa, making the French army lack of skills and support.
French armored forces in Mali
France's intervention is indeed an absolute guarantee of security in West Africa, which even the United Nations cannot deny. After the French army left the army, the United Nations established the "Mali Peacekeeping Regiment", with 13,000 to 15,000 troops from many countries, including China, responsible for maintaining order. Since then, France has launched a number of military operations in the Sahel region to combat terrorist organizations.
Two French female soldiers
Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other places where there are multiple NATO countries carrying out military activities at the same time, West Africa is almost France singing a monologue, and a France is simultaneously guaranteeing the military stability maintenance tasks of many West African countries.
Of course, although France was able to strike at the terrorist forces in West Africa to the greatest extent, it could not eliminate them, and a large amount of manpower and material resources were invested in them, but they could not get any benefits, and France was miserable. From 2013 to 2020, France has invested more than 18,000 troops in West Africa, lost more than 80 billion euros in military spending, and suffered more than 2,000 casualties.
Extremist groups in Mali
Unlike the United States' dashing withdrawal from Afghanistan, West Africa is destined to become a quagmire for France. The debts of the colonies must eventually be repaid by the colonists.
As soon as Macron took office in 2017, he went to Africa to inspect the Illegal forces
In addition to West Africa, another challenge to France's status as a great power was that it was always neck-wringed by Britain and the United States. Many famous "French jokes" in the world, in addition to France's century-old hatred of Germany, is spread by Britain and the United States, and these two "Anglo-Saxon" brothers are very much in agreement on the point of pitting France.
Sophie Marceau
A very important foreign exchange income of France is foreign arms sales, and a detailed history, not only this time of submarine incident, France also has a lot of business to the United Kingdom and the United States to stir up yellow, for example, in 2014, the United States on the grounds of "Russia illegal invasion of Crimea", coerced France to cancel the contract with Russia for two amphibious assault ships, France was helpless to resell to Egypt, only sold 950 million euros. And guess what? France lost 1.2 billion euros to Russia for breaking the treaty. I did business, but I lost money.
In fact, the Western world is not necessarily "united" within itself. During the Cold War, France was the biggest "thorn", and the Charles de Gaulle administration strongly rejected the United States' request for France's military integration to join NATO, and also forced away the US troops in France through political means. Most importantly, in order not to be affected by the Cold War, France established diplomatic relations with our country as early as 1964.
U.S. forces in Germany
After World War II, in order to get rid of the control of the United States and deal with the threat of the Soviet Union, France could even put aside its prejudices and repair relations with Germany. France is an important force to promote European integration, de Gaulle advocated that "Europe is the Europe of Europeans", the meaning is very clear, behind France stands Europe, this submarine incident, the European Union also expressed absolute support for France.
Isabella Adjani, born in Paris in 1955, is also one of the most internationally influential and representative actresses in France, known as "the first beauty of France"
In 1989, France also tried to form a "Franco-German common brigade" with Germany to air NATO, and set a blueprint for the design of a "European army". Britain and the United States play together, and France pulls Germany to play together. But France's biggest problem is still its love of compromise (surrender), every time NATO and the United States are tough, France will soften, and then continue to "dare to be angry."
Macron and Biden
In addition to the military orders that are often stirred up by the United States, French multinationals are also the focus area of the United States, the most typical of which is the 2013 Alstom case. Alstom Group is a French energy giant, because the United States in the field of power energy is too fierce competition, the United States for a variety of false reasons and legal hegemony issued a sky-high fine, a collapse.
Alstom Group
But the world can see that the alliance between France and Britain and the United States is based only on fragile interests, and once the interests are gone, it may turn against each other. Due to the huge conflict of interests and differences of vision between each other, some international media joked that "the French and the British and americans may only have one consensus, that is, Sophie Marceau is really beautiful."
As for whether France is a world power, I am afraid that this question can only be left to history to answer.