Across the Channel

France and England were historically arch-rivals for influence, and arch-enemies in several wars.  From the 1200s for 250 years, much of today’s France was controlled by the English king.  The Hundred Years War they fought was all about who was the rightful king of France – the guy who ruled a third of today’s French territory from Paris or the English king in London with a claim via marriage or heredity.  Joan of Arc made her fame, and died during the 100 Years War.

Through the religious wars of the 1600s, and the great world conflict of which our French & Indian War was but one theatre, and the essential help France gave the colonists in our American Revolution, England and France were on opposite sides.  Then, with the 1789 French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, England lined up alongside Russia, Austria, and Prussia to challenge Napoleon’s dominating French armies, which they finally defeated in 1815.  (They tried to put revolutionary ideas back in the bottle, but it only worked for a while.)

This may seem strange today, but the background noise of that long-standing animosity is still there in certain attitudes, benign by historical comparison.  It was World War I and the rise of Germany that changed the allegiances.  When Germany invaded Belgium in 1914 (their target was Paris) England declared war and joined France as an ally.  Their eventual victory brought 20 years of peace, until they joined forces again to defeat Nazi Germany.

Today, England and France – once the world’s great powers – play a different role in world politics.  Still important but no longer dominant, they are faithful allies and together with the “new” Germany (of the post Cold War era) are leaders among the nations of Europe.  This region of 450 million people constitutes the largest economic bloc in the world, and these three friends have put old troubles behind to work for continental prosperity and security.