Today in 1815

[Beachcomber]

Duplicate post.

<font color="#0000FF" size="1">[ February 27, 2008 01:45 PM: Message edited by: Beachcomber ]</font>

[Lew]

GL-

given the foundation you laid in your last post there...

Obviously during WWI France was a "superpower" in every sense of the word. For that matter, as late at 1941 they were considered maybe the 5th most powerful nation on the planet.

So my question for you is, in light of the instability they exhibited in the middle-18th century, when did they group together and become a power again? Or were they always a power that whole time, and simply experiencing turmoil in their leadership?

To put it another way, did France have a Bismarck-type who united them or did they maintain their status as a world power throughout the 19th century despite all the chaos you described?

[Beachcomber]

Good question Lew. Gae will chastise me for continuing in this discussion but then again I have been chastened before so what of it. The main reason France was able to hold onto its status even during times of internal turmoil is because none of its neighbors were in any position to capitalize on her weaknesses really. The Franco-Prussian war changed that and Bismark and Prussia became the dominant nation on the continent and assumed the mantle of dominant nation from then on as Germany became a unified nation from a group of small kingdoms. The Hapsburgs in Austria seemed to have had a pathological wish to keep things as they were. There was no real moving force in Austria, no dynamism. The French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War led to Napoleon III's abdication and flight to England. He had a much more pleasant exile than his uncle. But to answer your question precisely, France maintained its status simply from weakness on her neighbors. The Napoleonic Wars bled Europe white, from all nations. There had been a constant state of war since 1792-1814. That's a damn long time.

[Lew]

GL-

I don't care what Gae says, I welcome your words of enlightenment always.


And Gae.....you really are going to get a smacked bottom next time I see you....

[Beachcomber]

This week with this board being so SLOW, I have ventured on to a Napoleonic discussion forum I have not visited in several years. Now that board is as hard-core Napoleon as you can get, from neurotic hatred to obsessive compulsive admiration and everything in between. I got into it so badly with this English guy the moderator posted a reminder of what is considered "appropriate" and to tone down our arguments, another one stomped off in complete exasperation and my other posts have received hundreds of views and quite a few comments. Let's just say I shook the place up a bit. There are people on that forum who know the Napoleonic era much better than I do, and some of their arguments degenerate into minutia. Should you venture into it you won't recognize me by name, as I use the name I use for my artwork and plan to change my name to eventually. It's my mother's maiden name. If interested in checking it out Lew here's the link. You will likely recognize me by what I post LOL. You have to register to post comments:

Napoleon Discussion

[Beachcomber]

and Lew (or anyone on here) should you visit and register and post anything, please don't refer to me as GL. I plan to maintain the same persona I'm registered under currently. Imagine that. [img]graemlins/angel.gif[/img]

[gae]

GL, I told you not to talk about the Frenchie...
Board will shurt down in 3...2...1