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[–] 8 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

Middle aged American here, and when I was a kid the culture around me regarding france was basically “lol they surrender.”

Copied from my earlier comment elsewhere:

Have an extensive history of military might, from rampaging barbarian hordes, to a continent-conquering emperor, to a foreign legion famed as being one of the most badass fighting forces in the world, and nobody bats an eye. But get embarrassingly outflanked one time, and you never hear the end of it!

explanation since the comm isn't History Memes this time


  • "rampaging barbarian hordes" -- the Gauls
  • "continent-conquering emperor" -- Napoleon
  • "foreign legion" -- the French Foreign Legion
  • "embarrasingly outflanked" -- the failure of the Maginot Line in WWII
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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    There was the loss in WWII, but there was also the loss of all their colonies after WWII. Some of them they fought for and lost like Vietnam and Algeria. The reputation of the French for losing wasn't accurate, but it also wasn't based on nothing.

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