The soaring fire of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has made many Chinese people who remember the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan clap their hands and applaud. But what the schadenfreude do not know is that a century and a half ago, it was the fierce tide of nationalism that tricked France into going further and further down the road to war. In the end, not only did the Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens be destroyed into ruins, but also the Gallic roosters ate their own bitter fruit.
Treaty of Verdun of the Carolingian Empire
France's history as a political entity began in the early Middle Ages. At that time, the Byzantine Empire had just come out of the shadow of destroying the icons, and the Li Tang Dynasty was weakening in the storm of destroying Buddhism. Since the legal basis of the founding of the country was only the Treaty of Verdun signed by Charlemagne's descendants to divide the family property, France was only a mosaic of aristocratic territories for the next few centuries. Even the rightful owners of most of the capital's neighborhoods are the bishops of Paris, not the kings. For the people who were busy paying rent to the lords, "national identity" and "national consciousness" were still impossible.
In the 13th century, the French king rose strongly and gradually suppressed the aristocratic forces. For the first time, subjects discovered that their fate was dominated by distant courts, and a primitive sense of state was born. The Parisian way of life also radiated outward through political power, unifying the local dialects and folklore into French culture. However, as the literary hero Victor Hugo wrote at the beginning of "1993", the villagers in brittany and other border areas did not know what the "motherland" was until the outbreak of the Great Revolution.
The Kingdom of France expanded rapidly after the 13th century
As national identity was gradually formed, the ambitions of the King of France grew. The eastern boundary of France, as defined by the feudal contract, is the "realm of four rivers" composed of the Rhône, Saône, Meuse and Esco rivers. Today's French cities, such as Marseille, were originally part of the Holy Roman Empire. But the swelling monarchs set their sights on the homes of their neighbors, and Paris, a centralized center in the northeast, forced the king to expand his territory.
In order to beautify the invasion, the monarch and his eagle dogs claimed that France was the most devout and beautiful Christian kingdom, worthy of a well-proportioned land. And the history of the country is derived from Gaul in the time of Caesar, and the division of Fernando. Therefore, it is reasonable that the country must expand to the "natural boundary" of Gaul, which is composed of the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Ocean!
To coincide with the expansion, the King named the Gauls of Caesar's time as their ancestors
This theory, based on the invention of history and the fight against chicken blood, not only has nothing to do with the well-being of the people, but also carries the risk of coercing the people into going to war. But under the repeated propaganda of the court, it became a national consensus. The maharajas struggled until the end of the 18th century and still did not touch the Promised Land, including Belgium. The root cause of the failure of expansion was that France was still a hierarchical kingdom of nobility, and the royal power could not reach the grassroots for general mobilization. Therefore, when it comes to diplomacy, we cannot ignore the law of succession and disregard the food for the sake of land enclosure.
The dream has not yet come true, the revolution has arrived. The purpose of the French Revolution was to turn the rule of the monarch into the rule of the nation, and the spearhead was not directed abroad, so the new regime once declared that it would not pursue an expansionary policy. However, although the burning national sentiment has achieved the compulsory military service system for the whole people to join the army, it has blurred the line between the ambition of the emperor and patriotic enthusiasm, and even more ignored the constraints of international practice. The frenzied explosives in power not only defeated the foreign interventionist forces, but also seized large tracts of land and declared it inalienable, which further reduced the possibility of the new regime's reconciliation with the great powers.
The revolutionary regime continued to fight the great powers to preserve the new territory
In order to defend the fruits of victory that have been eaten, the new regime had to continue to fight outside the "natural boundaries". The nationalist spirit of advocating for civil rights against the royal power has completely degenerated into an ambition for external hegemony, which has eaten the revolution itself. When Napoleon repeatedly won the victory of foreign expansion, the people who were overwhelmed by the dream of great power embraced him as emperor.
Despite Bonaparte's claims, the purpose of the new monarchy was to promote progress and defend freedom. However, under his rule, a large number of newspapers and periodicals were shut down and millions of men were thrown away on the battlefield, making production unsustainable. The exhausted country ended up with only a white expanse of land that was really clean.
The frenzy of French nationalism has brought disasters to other countries and their own countries
Napoleon cost France a generation, but it was still a national icon
Later, the news of the anti-French invasion of Paris did not awaken the French. They are still immersed in the memories of the glory of the past, allowing Napoleon, who has collapsed on the island of St. Helena, to continue to dominate the spiritual world of France. In the pens of Stendhal, Dumas and others, both the ambitious Jullien and the legendary Count of Monte Cristo bear the shadow of an abdicated emperor. Even Balzac, who was engaged in comedy, regarded Bonaparte as an idol.
As a result, the restored Bourbon family could not sit still. Its legitimacy derives from dynastic orthodoxy, but the people who executed Louis XVI scoffed at it. Louis XVIII, bloated, tried to alleviate domestic contradictions with liberalization reforms, but his status as a victim of the Revolution prevented him from truly labeling himself as progressive. The loss of French hegemony under the Vienna system made the people extremely dissatisfied with the authorities.
Bloated Louis XVIII simply could not satisfy the French dream of great power
As a defeated party, although the Restoration Dynasty retained its main territory and sent the occupying forces of the great powers out of the country in only three years, it was still unable to take off the hat of "losing power and humiliating the country". The new monarch, who had no choice but to emulate Napoleon, continued his foreign adventures. Spain was invaded again by French troops in the name of suppressing the revolution, and Algeria, across the sea, was declared a natural extension of French territory and a place for Gaul's roosters.
However, small fights could not satisfy the people, and the Orthodox Dynasty was still replaced by the Orleans Branch. The new king tried to flaunt freedom and open-mindedness and continued to use troops in North Africa, but he still could not make the people buy it. Although more than thirty years of domestic peace have led to a rapid increase in the human resources that were overdrawn by Napoleon, the people who are born anti-bone still look forward to the heroes who dare to toss and turn.
The Restoration Dynasty invaded Algeria in order to divert internal contradictions
Popular resentment broke out in 1848! As it did 60 years ago, the revolution, in addition to establishing a republican system, once again destroyed the internal order. Male citizens are swayed by universal suffrage, while political elites are content to seize dominance. In the midst of the chaos, Louis Bonaparte, who spoke German French after years in exile, stepped onto the stage of history. With the weakness of his opponents and the great prestige of his uncle, he easily won the presidency and was "elected" as emperor by referendum, known as Napoleon III!
Little Bonaparte knows that his biggest hole card is the love of the people for his uncle. In order to consolidate his rule, he could only play Napoleon. While holding high the banner of freedom and progress, we strive to revive France as a great power. Expensive railway canal construction projects and urban renovation projects have been launched, and the industrial economy has grown rapidly on paper, but this is only the last consumption of the demographic dividend. In a flurry of flowers, France's population growth rate plummeted by half, and huge amounts of capital were awkwardly stored in the banks, sluggish.
Napoleon III's political capital was to imitate his uncle
In the area of education, as the illiteracy rate has fallen significantly, the minister of education, Duluj, has also popularized primary history education. However, literacy is not the same as having culture, and the ability to take the test is not in line with the academic standard. French historians such as Guizot and Michelet were almost all on the opposite side of the new empire. Ordinary people, who can only read and memorize texts, are quickly captured by the history of official inventions and the media that acts as mouthpieces, and cannot wake up in the myth of great powers.
The seemingly successful cause of education is that the fire of national emotions that has long since changed is blowing more and more vigorously. The head of the empire, who was difficult to ride the tiger, had to run wild on the road of exhausting military force and showing off the prestige of the country.
Napoleon III's France experienced only a false boom
Napoleon III, who prided himself on peace and love, plunged France into the quagmire of war
When The Little Bonaparte was dressed in a yellow robe, in order to dispel the international community's scruples about Napoleon's shadow, he vowed that "the empire is peace" . But he knew that the French government had developed a path dependence on military adventures, and that simply brushing a copy of Algeria would only fatigue the aesthetics of his subjects. Empires that lack roots must challenge their more difficult or novel opponents.
The new emperor made a remarkable move, and came up to target the huge Russia. Forty years ago, the spirited Tsar Alexander I invaded Paris on a high-headed horse. But the glory of the past is long gone, and Nicholas I, who is trapped in internal and external difficulties, has made a bad move in an attempt to dominate the Ottomans in order to divert domestic contradictions. Britain immediately tore its face, and its old friend Austria stabbed him in the back. The smooth international situation helped Bonaparte jr. to defeat the "European gendarmes" of foreign powers and middle forces, at the cost of 100,000 soldiers' lives.
France won the Crimean War with 100,000 lives
The Qing Empire was also doomed. Many people believe that the British and French invasion of China is to expand the export of goods, and they are angered by the conflict of etiquette. However, foreign businessmen have long found that the consumption power of the Chinese market is limited. Moreover, during the reign of the arrogant and conceited Qianlong Emperor, there was still a honeymoon period between China and France. It was under the guidance of the French technician Jiang Youren that the aesthetic hongli of the farmhouse built the Yuanying Temple and the Great Water Law in the Yuanmingyuan, which forced the far east to be crowned. Emperor Gaozong even planned to send a mission to the King, but the news of Louis XVI's execution led him to arrest the White Lotus in 1794 to prevent the revolt.
The symbol of friendship between the two countries was eventually destroyed by Napoleon III. The angry writer Hugo angrily denounced his native France as a bandit. But more French people did not realize that there was a universal conscience above the so-called patriotic zeal, and Hugo's performance was more like that of the sympathetic virgin. The real Asian expansion of Bonaparte Jr. focused on Vietnam, after all, the Qing Dynasty only paid reparations, but the southern vassals of the Qing Dynasty were forced to cede the land to France. The island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific was also occupied by empire, which allowed France to retain its influence in the Asia-Pacific region to this day.
The Yuanmingyuan, which was originally a symbol of Friendship between Qing and France, was destroyed by the British and French forces
But the emperor's luck soon ran out, and the expedition to Mexico became a disaster for the people and money, and the Italian problem had a devastating impact. Napoleon III, who had been closely related to the Italian Charcoal Party, had a wishful thinking of killing three birds with one stone: to expand southeast with the Kingdom of Sardinia as his younger brother, to support Sardinia's unification of Italy, and to attack Austria, which dominated the Apennines. But the god-believing French did not allow Bonaparte jr. to abandon the Papal States, which made him hated by Italian nationalists. The weakening of Austria led to the rapid rise of Prussia.
As an important export of French nationalism, the Prussians had completed their own historical invention. Modeled on the "natural frontiers" theory, they claimed that French Alsace-Lorraine should belong to Germany. Like Napoleon III, the iron-blooded chancellor Bismarck consolidated his position by fighting chicken blood and going to war with the outside world. Just as the so-called peers are wrongdoers, little Bonaparte, who has lost ground due to the Italian problem, soon experienced the feeling of "attacking the shield of the son with the spear of the son".
Napoleon III, who bowed to Bismarck
Bismarck deliberately provoked France with tough rhetoric, causing war between the two countries. The excited French people, dreaming of marching into Berlin, received news of the defeat of Sedan and the capture of the emperor. Napoleon III, who played with fire and self-immolated himself, squandered the loyalty of the people to the Bonaparte family like his uncle overdrawing the French manpower.
But the Pandora's box opened by two generations of French emperors did not close it. Even after the torment of the two world wars, chicken blood sentiment and alienated nationalist frenzy, there is still a huge market...