Eugene wrote :
>>
>> >Wow... in France they teach you about the World Wars?
>>
>> WWs are a big part of our school program as France has been badly
>> involved in the two... Don't forget that we've been invaded twice,
>>this
>> can't be forgotten.
>>
>> Francois Bruntz
>> Apprenti MIAGE (Universite Paris XII - IBM France)
>
>No, I can't imagine it would be. I think that Canada, and Britain,
>(and the
>United States) have a very odd view of history. None of these
>countries
>have ever been successfully invaded, since 1066 anyway, and their
>extroardinarily military successfulness allows them to percieve
>military
>history, to a certain extent, as a succession of 'threats to the
>free
>world' succesfully dealt with by the forces of goodness and truth. I
>remember you commenting that you didn't like Waterloo; in the
>english
>speaking world, Waterloo is seen with the same approval as is the
>battle of
>the Marne, or Falaise Gap, for that matter. That the forces of
>Darkness are
>sometimes the French and sometimes the Germans, is seen as fairly
>unimportant (please note that I am referring to the opinions of
>these
>events as presented by the secondary school system, and the
>semi-educated
>public, not professional historians). I think Vietnam to a certain
>extent
>shook up the dispoition to see military history as a succession of
>evils
>overcome by good Joes (and Tommies), but perhaps not quite enough.
It's of course an "English" point of view. In France this is
different (and I guess that it's different too in Germany).
Despite the two world wars I don't think that French people consider
Germany to be our greatest enemy (this is of course my own opinion),
Germany is a neighbour and since the Europe construction it is our
greatest ally. No, our "greatest enemy" (these are only words, I
don't want you to think that I'm really serious!) is Great Britain...
This can be surprising for North American people (US and Canadian)
but there is a big problem between French and British people, we had
to ally with Great Britain sometimes but it was only because we had
to, not because we wanted to.
I don't know why there is such a behaviour between our two countries.
The anti-British feeling in France is as stronger as the anti-French
feeling in Great Britain.
I will give you some examples :
In France, we think that Great Britain slows the European
construction in order to keep all its privileges (GB doesn't want
Euro in order to keep the �, etc...). French people don't like this
behaviour...
In Great Britain, during this last week and after the death of
princess Diana at Paris, we watched a lot of reports at TV where some
English people accused the FRENCH photographers (not all the
photographers) then France (!!!) to have killed their princess...
This is sad to see such a problem between the two countries. I went
several times in Great Britain and I met a lot of really nice people
and I can't understand why there is so many hatred (we can say
"hatred" I think).
I think that this will be resolved one day, after all we consider
Germany to be our best ally thank to the European construction and
despite so many wars...
I hope that one day there will a Federal European Union as the United
States or Canada where all our countries will be in peace and will
forget the past...
It's finished, you can stop crying... ;o)
>In France, is Napoleon presented as a hero, or a villain, or
>neither? I'm
>quite curious.
Napoleon is great dilemma for our historians...
At school, he is presented as a brilliant tactician (in fact the best of
his period) who managed to conquer Europe (except Great Britain and
Russia). I learmt that he was a tyrant and that there were a lot of
repression in the conquered countries (in particular in Spain) but for a
French it's difficult not to admire his military talent and not to
consider him as a French hero...
In addition, Napoleon is at the origine of a lot of our laws...
There were a lot of good things about Napoleon and a lot of bad
things. It's ridiculous to compare him to Hitler (there was no
genocide during the Empire), he only had means to conquer Europe when
all the other countries couldn't (but wanted to).
Francois Bruntz
Apprenti MIAGE (Universite Paris XII - IBM France)
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Received on Tue Sep 09 1997 - 09:18:12 UTC