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{{Infobox country|conventional_long_name=Republic of France|native_name=République de France|common_name=France|image_flag=RTL flag France.png|demonym=French (français)|capital=Paris|largest_city=Marseille|official_languages=[[French]]|religion=[[Catholic Church]] </br> Reformed Church of France|regional_languages=[[Arpitan]] </br> Occitan|government_type=Unitary parliamentary republic|legislature=Congress of France|upper_house=Senate|lower_house=National Assembly|image_map=RTL France 1945.png}} |
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{{Nation |
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|common_name=France |
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'''France''', officially the '''Republic of France''' (French: ''République de France''), is a country primarily located in mainland Europe with overseas territories in Oceania. France borders the [[Netherlands]], [[Spain]], [[Rhineland]], [[Switzerland]], [[Arpitania]], [[Piedmont]], and [[Genoa]]. |
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|full_name= |
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|local_name=République Française |
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|established= |
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|capital= Paris |
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|largest_city= {{unbulleted_list | Paris }} |
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|population= |
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|government_type= Republic |
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|languages= {{unbulleted_list | French (Official) }} |
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|currency= |
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|flag=RTL_flag_France.png}} |
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'''France''', officially the '''French Republic''' (French: ''République française''), is a country primarily located in mainland Europe with overseas territories in Oceania France borders Spain, the Netherlands, the Rheinish Republic, Switzerland, and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallo-Italic_languages Cisalpine] states. |
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== History == |
== History == |
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{{Main|History of France}}France was defeated in 1669 during the War of Devolution by the Triple Alliance - a coalition of England, the Netherlands, and Sweden. In 1672, the French began the [[History of Europe#Franco-Dutch War|Franco-Dutch War]] only to lose and concede claims to territory Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1676. In 1700 with the [[History of Europe#Crisis of the Spanish Succession|Spanish Succession Crisis]], the territories of Milan, Naples, and Sardinia were ceded to France. |
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Decades later with the death of Louis the Great, King Philip VII ascended to the throne as a result of the [[History of France#French Succession Crisis of 1714|French Succession Crisis]] in 1715. In 1748, the Bourbon monarchy allied with the [[Prussia|Prussians]]. During the [[History of Europe#Silesian War|Silesian War]], France lost several territories in the [[History of New Netherland#Prince Maurice’s War (1750-1755)|American theatre]], their ports in India, and their Italian subjects. Soon after, [[Philip VIII]] ascended to the throne in 1763. During the 1780s, France significantly weakened, eventually culminating in the French Revolution and the [[Augustine Wars]]. The House of Bourbon fled to [[New France]] in 1795, re-establishing their rule in north America. |
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==== Premodern history ==== |
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Inhabited since the Paleolithic era, the territory of Metropolitan France was settled by Celtic tribes known as Gauls during the Iron Age. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture that laid the foundation of the French language. The Germanic Franks arrived in the fifth century and formed the Kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun in 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia becoming the Kingdom of France in 987. Since then, France has seen the rule of different dynasties, eventually leading to the Bourbon dynasty coming into power during the 16th century. By then, France started to establish a burgeoning worldwide colonial empire. |
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In 1815, the House of Bourbon-Grimaldi, a Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon decendent from Phillip I, Duke of Orleans, came to rule the country, commonly known as the Valentinois monarchs. In the early 1870s, the [[Communard Revolution]] resulted in the abolition of the monarchy and the annexation of the [[Belgique|Duchy of Belgique]] and the Spanish exclave of [[Franche-Comte]]. In 1877, a [[United Kingdom|British]]-backed coup removed the radical communards in power and installed the moderate PCF. By 1900, France held considerable colonial territories in southeast Asia, Africa, and most notably Oceania. |
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==== Long 18th century ==== |
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In 1910, [[François Desmarais]] was appointed Grand Marshal of France. He eventually orchestrated the 1919 and abolished the French presidency, leading to a period of military rule. With his death in 1928, the notorious [[Camille Laframboise]] rose to power as Grand Marshal. He led the nation to defeat in the [[Great War]] and its [[History of France#Occupation of France (1938-1941)|occupation]] by enemy forces. In 1945, the [[History of France#Cavendish Affair|Cavendish Affair]] rocked France and contributed to a climate of political distraught which culminated in the [[History of France#Second elections & the Charenton Coup|Charenton Coup]] of 1950. |
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===== French Succession Crisis of 1714 ===== |
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The unfortunate death of Louis the Great Dauphine, King Louis XIV's eldest son, had caused changes in the French line of succession. Next in line was the Great Dauphine's brother, Philip d'Anjou. In our timeline, however, after the Bourbon Philip d'Anjou obtained the Spanish throne during the War of the Spanish Succession, the Austrian-British coalition brokered for Philip d'Anjou's renouncement of the French throne to prevent a united Spain-France from ever developing. The Spanish had installed Karl VI (Carlos III) as the successor of Carlos II and therefore had Philip d'Anjou retain his right to inherit the French throne. |
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Upon his father's death in 1714, Philip d'Anjou became King of France, ruling as Philip VII. France under his rule would see an increased resentment against the British and the Austrians (whom he believed had manipulated and strong-armed him out of his right to inherit the Spanish throne back in the Spanish Succession Crisis). Under his rule, the colonial venture in North America was expanded, and more settlers were sent to prevent French claimed territory from being absorbed by Britain and the Dutch Republic. |
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===== Relations with the Prussians ===== |
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Philip VII also sought closer ties with Prussia, a burgeoning German power that threatened and challenged Austria. In 1748, Prussia's Frederick II had confided to Philip VII about his desire of taking the region of Silesia from the Austrians. Philip VII pledged his support to Frederick II, eventually leading to the Great Silesian War (1750-1755) and the ultimate demise of France and Philip VII's prestige. |
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==== Great Silesian War (1750-1755) ==== |
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{{Main|Great Silesian War}} |
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==== Augustinian period (1786-1814) ==== |
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The [[French Revolution]] was a revolutionary movement that hit France in the late 18th century. This unrest caused King Philip VII de Bourbon to flee to [[New France]] and re-establish the French monarchy there. In Europe, Henri d'Anjou was proclaimed by the National Assembly as the new King of France. However, he was executed after the Assembly revealed that he was in correspondence with [[Austria]] to restore the old regime. The position of the king was dissolved and the National Assembly's President, [[Augustine Spiga]], proclaimed himself as Director of the French Republic in 1795. |
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Spiga would then start a revolutionary campaign to expand French influence and propel French territorial ambitions. Under his rule, France subjugated the Dutch Republic, Austria, and the various German principalities with the aid of the Russians. The fall of the Dutch Republic directly caused the [[History of New Netherland#New Netherland Independence War|independence of New Netherland]] and unrest in several Dutch colonies. |
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===== Treaty of Vienna ===== |
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France would face defeat at the hands of the Ottoman Empire after an unsuccessful French campaign to conquer the city of Constantinople. The Treaty of Vienna was signed in 1814. Despite France's defeat, the revolution had shaken up the old order of Europe and redrew its boundaries. The German Confederation would be created, and the kingdoms of [[Hanover]], [[Saxony]], and [[Pomerania]] would be restored and expanded. The [[Netherlands|Kingdom of the Netherlands]] was also established. |
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==== Communard period ==== |
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New egalitarian ideas compilled into an ideology called communardism rocked France in the 1870s. Coming from France's intellectual circles, the concept of ''communardism'' would win over the French public's following and lead to the bloody murder of King Louis in 1873. The heir died shortly after due to a falling accident. With the Bourbon line dying out, the radical communard party ''Société des Amis de la République'' (often shortened to the ''Société'') occupied the power vacuum. The party leader, Étienne Thévenet, declared the establishment of the Communard Republic of France, espousing hardline communard ideals and rejecting all forms of religion and aristocracy. Thévenet envisions a united Europe that transcends racial and linguistic boundaries, united under the ideals of communardism. |
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As the first step to achieve this, Thévenet looked to the tiny principality of Belgique to the northeast. Belgique was a pre-dominantly French-speaking Wallonian principality and already had a growing communard movement within. Thévenet supported Belgique's communard insurrection in late 1874 with the French treasury, and the revolution became successful. Belgique was incorporated as a new ''département'' of France by Christmas eve of 1874. This chapter of the communard revolution is called the Christmas Uprising and is a regional holiday in the present-day French ''département'' of Belgique. |
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Great Britain began to grow worried about the new government's success. In 1876, attempts by the ''Société'' to spread the revolution to central Europe and the Italian states were made but were stopped by an alliance of European powers led by Austria and Britain. By early 1877, the radical ''Société des Amis de la République'' was removed out of power by the ''Parti Communard de France'' (PCF), a moderate Communard faction, with the support of Great Britain. The PCF established the [[France|3rd French Republic]] and sought peaceful coexistence with the British and other European powers. This led to a mending of relations between the British and France. |
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During the crisis, Great Britain was able to take some colonial possessions of the French in the Americas (Guadeloupe, Martinique, St, Barthélemy, and Martinique) and India (Karikal). However, the new government was allowed to keep its new ''département'' of Belgique, as was the will of the local Wallonian populace.[[File:RTL FranceIn1895.png|thumb|370x370px|French colonial holdings in the early 20th century.]] |
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Loosely built on communard ideals, the new government would continue to lead France. The Communard Republican government of France entered the new century with a handful of colonies around the world, namely: French East Africa, Sainte-Lucie in Southeast Africa, Kampuchea, Sambas, and Sarawak in Southeast Asia, Australie and Novelle Zelande in Oceania. |
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==== The shift towards authoritarianism ==== |
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===== Marshalship of Desmarais ===== |
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In 1910, Saunier appointed [[François Desmarais]] as the Grand Marshal of the French Republican Military. Desmarais was a political ally of Saunier, who previously served as Governor-General of [[Kampuchea]] before returning to France in 1909. Saunier believed that a robust military apparatus was required to protect France's republican institutions. Ironically, Desmarais' appointment saw the increase of the military's role in French governance. Desmarais put down political opposition against Saunier or the Communard Party. Intimidation and political coercion were commonplace throughout the 1910s. During the 1914 elections, [[Hervé Saunier]] was reelected to the presidency, but his victory was widely contested. It was widely believed that Desmarais had intimidated his opponents and the tallying committee to secure his power. Regardless of this, Desmarais' was still widely popular among the public. |
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In 1919, Desmarais and Saunier had a feud over Desmarais' increasing influence. Shortly after this falling out, Desmarais founded ''Le Avant Garde'', a political alliance consisting of anti-British, pro-military nationalists. The political tensions culminated in a coup d'etat staged by Desmarais and the army on September 2, 1919, only a year before the next elections. Desmarais abolished the presidency. Desmarais' popularity with the French people gave him his legitimacy to rule. He would lead as the Grand Marshal of France until he died in 1928. |
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===== Raspberry Rule ===== |
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[[File:RTLCamille Laframboise.jpg|alt=|thumb|204x204px|Grand Marshal of France, Camille Laframboise.]] |
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Before his death, he appointed [[Camille Laframboise]], a military general and political ally of Desmarais, to succeed him as Grand Marshal. Camille Laframboise's domestic policies proved to be harsher than his predecessor, alienating some supporters of L'Avantgarde. Despite this, he was still moderately popular among the communards of France. He was known to be more diplomatically-minded than Desmarais. Under his rule, France warmed relations with Austria due to the common threat of British influence in the European mainland (primarily Italy). Laframboise was known to the west as ''Le Maréchal''; he and his strongman persona was commonly the subject of political mockery and caricature in British and Italian spheres of influence. |
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==== The Great War ==== |
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{{Main|The_Great_War#French_Communard_intervention_and_invasion_of_Savoy-Piedmont_(July-August_1935)|l1 = French role in the Great War}} |
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== Government and Politics == |
== Government and Politics == |
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==== Communard period ==== |
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===== Rise of Anglophobia ===== |
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In Europe, France's diplomatic situation was precarious. By 1900, they were still friendly and indebted to the British for helping them establish their government in the 1870s. However, constant British intervention in areas of France's sphere of interest started to strain relations. This was further exacerbated when Britain sanctioned and supported the Venetian annexation of the Papal Adriatic in 1908. This catalysed the shift towards an anti-British political climate only a few months before the French National Elections. |
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In November 1908, [[Hervé Saunier]], a staunch anti-British writer and professor from Paris, was proclaimed as France's new president. Saunier was known as more of a theorist than a statesman, more concerned with the ideological aspects of running France. As such, Saunier often delegated duties and appointed fellow party members to run the government's various institutions, also creating new ones during his tenure. |
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== Demographics == |
== Demographics == |
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== Culture == |
== Culture == |
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== Imperialism == |
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==== In the Americas ==== |
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During the French revolution and the subsequent regime of Austinu Spiga, the British empire briefly took control of the prosperous but turbulent French island colony of [[Saint-Domingue]]. The British found the colony hard to manage, with the free black, mixed-race, and white Francophone populations resentful of British rule. During the Congress of Vienna, Britain returned the island to the French. When the French returned to the colony, they found the islanders increasingly rebellious. After an aborted revolution in 1815, French Authorities acceded to the demands of the colonials of increased autonomy of internal affairs, increased representation of the colony in the form of a locally elected governor and full equal rights to mixed-race Domingues. |
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In 1832, after a slave revolt in Saint-Domingue was put down, the French colonial governor implemented slave protection laws to improve working conditions for slaves on sugar plantations and decrease the risk of slave revolts. During the 1850s, abolitionist sentiments swept the colony, and after a massive slave revolt spurred on by news of [[South Tussenland#South Tussenland Revolution (1849) and Independence|South Tussenland's independence]], the Governor-General of Saint-Domingue, Jean-Michel de Lepinay, declared all slaves on the island free on March 18th, 1853. The French republic was threatened by this news, as the governor didn't get the approval of manumission from the French Government. In the aftermath, the French navy was sent to Port-au-Prince that summer, but after a week of tension, the French government backed down and ratified the manumission of all slaves in the empire, the abolishment of slavery, and a token payment of restitution to former slaveowners. |
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==== In Oceania ==== |
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In 1810, the Director of revolutionary France, Augustine Spiga, sent out the famous Freycinet expedition to determine the suitability of Australia for French colonization and settlement. The expedition landed on the south-eastern coast of Australia and mapped parts of the region. Two years later, news of the Freycinet expedition moved public support for the colonization of Terra Australis (what the continent of Australia was known at the time). In 1812, revolutionary France attempted to settle a colony along Bellevue Bay. However, after six months, a lack of food supplies and a surge in interpersonal rivalries among the colonists led the bay colony to be abandoned. |
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In the immediate aftermath of the Augustine wars, the French government planned to send another mission to resettle Australia after realizing British ambitions in the region. But, in light of the first French attempt of colonizing the continent, these plans were shelved. After a few years, the French government retooled the initial recolonization plans into a newer plan for a penal colony (which the French lacked since [[Palissandria|losing their Guyanese colony to the Tuscans]]). On May 19th, 1817, 1200 French colonists (including at least 900 convicts) landed near Bellevue Bay and established the first permanent French presence on the continent. Later in 1821, after a series of riots in Paris by revolutionary war veterans, the French government enacted a settlement program that gave large tracts of land to former soldiers to settle in Australia. One early major complaint among French settlers to Australia was the uneven gender ratio of colonists (nine Frenchmen to every French Woman in 1825). This issue led to a high degree of intermarriage with the indigenous peoples of Australia and a sizeable sex trade of wives from Polynesia and Aotearoa among colonists to French Australia. In 1828, France consolidated the Bellevue Bay penal colony and surrounding veteran land grants into the imperial territory of Terre-Australe. Along with this, the French expanded their colonial claims up the east coast of the Australian continent. |
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==== The Canton War ==== |
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{{Main|Canton War}} |
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==== The Saint-Domingue War ==== |
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After the Anglo-French victory in the Canton War nearly bankrupted the French treasury, the French imperial government tried to raise funds by increasing taxes on sugar, coffee, and perfume exports from Saint-Domingue as well as increasing import tariffs on produced goods from the NNL, British colonies, and Mexico. This led to a series of riots against French imperial rule of the nation in the summer of 1859. The aftermath of these riots led to an increase in pro-independence attitudes among the Saint-Domingue middle classes. After a drunk French soldier shot and killed a Domingue woman in March of 1861, riots broke out in Saint Dominigue, spreading to all the major port cities. |
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The rebels hastily organized a militia called the ''Armée Populaire de Saint Domingue''. At the same time, pro-independence black sharecroppers and farmworkers in the island's interior took up arms and sided with the rebels. After only four months of fighting, the insurgents kicked the French military from the island and declared the independence of Saint Domingue to the world on August 16th, 1861. The French tried to regain control of the colony multiple times but were driven off time again; with mounting international pressure, a weak economy, and a semi-volatile internal political situation, the French relented and recognized the independence of Saint Domingue on October 9th, 1862. |
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==== In Africa ==== |
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The French made an early permanent presence in the Niger Delta through mercantilism. Due to the lucrative trade of palm oil and palm kernels. Many French merchants capitalized on this opportunity and would go on to lead the trade in palm oil, which coincided with the collapse of the slave market at the time(1840s). This growing abundance in palm oil exports caused the economy in Igboland and Calabar to transition from subsistence farming to the production of aforementioned resource as a cash crop. The European merchants would face a number of climate hazards and tropical diseases, and there were no centralized institutions dealing with their interests on the mainland. The unpredictability of local rulers, would also create increasing pressure on the French government to appoint a consul in the region. Soon after, the French would create equity courts to settle trade disputes all over the coast. It would only be a matter of time until they’d expand interests in the region. |
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French scientists and explorers were interested in exploring the Niger River, and the presence of settlements in the area. However, every explorer commissioned for the journey faced technical issues for these expeditions and tropical diseases such as malaria further bogged down any substantial progress. With the discovery and cultivation of quinine in the 1850s that could treat malaria, the plant could have allowed for the French Empire to fund a successful expedition. But with the government facing bankruptcy as well as the Saint-Domingue War across the Atlantic, the French were unable to do so. |
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Some private trade organizations worked together to fund an ambitious exploration in 1858, that would be lead by La Rochelle merchant Astor Belmont which would be supported by the work of German explorer Heinrich Barth in the Hausa Kingdoms. This expedition would be a great success, as the exploration and detailed interactions with the cultures of the Niger would lead to a greater interest in the region by the French. This however wouldn’t be escalated to any major extent as a result of the Communard rebellion that shifted French society in the 1870s. |
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== List of leaders == |
== List of leaders == |
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{{Main|List of French leaders}} |
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== See also == |
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* [[History of France]] |
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_France Henry the Great] (r. 1589-1610) |
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* [[New France]] |
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIII Louis the Just] (r. 1610-1643) |
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* [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]] |
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV Louis the Great] (r. 1643-1714) |
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_V_of_Spain Philip VII] (r. 1714-1763) |
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* Philip VIII (r. 1763-1795) |
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==== Directors of the First Republic ==== |
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* [[Augustine Spiga]] (r. 1795-1815) |
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==== [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Grimaldi Valentinois] monarchs ==== |
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* Louis III & XV of (1815-1833) |
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* Louis IV & XVI (1833-1865) |
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* Louis V & XVII (1865-1874) |
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==== Communard leaders ==== |
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== See also == |
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{{Nations of the World}} |
{{Nations of the World}} |
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Latest revision as of 18:00, 20 January 2024
Republic of France République de France | |
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 Flag | |
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| Capital | Paris |
| Largest city | Marseille |
| Official languages | French |
| Recognised regional languages | Arpitan Occitan |
| Religion | Catholic Church Reformed Church of France |
| Demonym | French (français) |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary republic |
| Legislature | Congress of France |
• Upper house | Senate |
• Lower house | National Assembly |
France, officially the Republic of France (French: République de France), is a country primarily located in mainland Europe with overseas territories in Oceania. France borders the Netherlands, Spain, Rhineland, Switzerland, Arpitania, Piedmont, and Genoa.
History
France was defeated in 1669 during the War of Devolution by the Triple Alliance - a coalition of England, the Netherlands, and Sweden. In 1672, the French began the Franco-Dutch War only to lose and concede claims to territory Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1676. In 1700 with the Spanish Succession Crisis, the territories of Milan, Naples, and Sardinia were ceded to France.
Decades later with the death of Louis the Great, King Philip VII ascended to the throne as a result of the French Succession Crisis in 1715. In 1748, the Bourbon monarchy allied with the Prussians. During the Silesian War, France lost several territories in the American theatre, their ports in India, and their Italian subjects. Soon after, Philip VIII ascended to the throne in 1763. During the 1780s, France significantly weakened, eventually culminating in the French Revolution and the Augustine Wars. The House of Bourbon fled to New France in 1795, re-establishing their rule in north America.
In 1815, the House of Bourbon-Grimaldi, a Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon decendent from Phillip I, Duke of Orleans, came to rule the country, commonly known as the Valentinois monarchs. In the early 1870s, the Communard Revolution resulted in the abolition of the monarchy and the annexation of the Duchy of Belgique and the Spanish exclave of Franche-Comte. In 1877, a British-backed coup removed the radical communards in power and installed the moderate PCF. By 1900, France held considerable colonial territories in southeast Asia, Africa, and most notably Oceania.
In 1910, François Desmarais was appointed Grand Marshal of France. He eventually orchestrated the 1919 and abolished the French presidency, leading to a period of military rule. With his death in 1928, the notorious Camille Laframboise rose to power as Grand Marshal. He led the nation to defeat in the Great War and its occupation by enemy forces. In 1945, the Cavendish Affair rocked France and contributed to a climate of political distraught which culminated in the Charenton Coup of 1950.
Government and Politics
Demographics
Culture
List of leaders
See also
