Erzebeth.Rouge
Member
Who wrote that!? Woa! that guy that wrote this bullshit about France's losses clearly looks only at the results! Wasnt Roman empire the best and strongest of all? What about Chinese empire that ruled the world for 1000/2000 years more or less when Europe was still trying to reorganize itself from the dismembering of Rome? Oh yea, back then, what would become France was clearly dominating europe, if not influencing it greatly. France was the principal heir of Roman empire, thanks to Clovis(although screw you for conversion.. ), III-IVth century, then what about Charlemagne 768-814 who expand the frontiers. Wouldnt that be a victory? It started to give clear definition of the actual country anyway!
From 1826 to 1913, France was in control of the vastest colony empire, after Great Britain of course, expending from 100 000km² to 10 500 000 km² territory between these years. They controled most of Africa and a nice chunk of Thailand and suroundings. When USA, between these years, controled... hum.. nothing! until 1913 (310 000km²). Wouldnt you consider that a victory?
Would have USA really have won they independance war if it was for the help of other nations? maybe! why not, i cant tell myself, but instead of being disdainful of the help the country got, why not be thankful instead? USA could still be english for all i care!
What about the influence France got in the world's culture? im not gonna start on that, even if its already started. But to have had that great influence, France needed to be recognized as having an importance, what ever battlefield they gained one day and lost the other in history, war is what it is. Culture is something else. If you want to consider France as a looser reguarding warfare, i think we should better consider what victorious France is in term of cultural influence.
And anyway if you consider France is still around after 2000 years, she must have won a few fights. because she started as a small island (Lutèce, ile de France, Paris) and is one of the largest unified country in europe, is one of the founding members of the united states of Europe, has never believe in american propaganda without a soupçon de méfiance, especially towards the american economic imperialism, it might be one of the many reasons US is not admire of an enduring superior culture.
...especially if we consider all empire comes to an ends....someday...
) But to be fair, Charles Martel's victory at the Battle of Tours was a pretty pivotal event in European history, and Charlemagne was certainly no slouch in the military department. Also, the Brits totally would have been steamrolled in WWII had it not been for the channel. Consider how Rommel's tiny Afrika Korp. kicked their greatly numerically superior asses all over N. Africa until he ran out of supplies.
That's the greatest loss because a single Germanic tribe conquered all of Gaul in a couple of years (and other tribes conquered the rest of western Europe) 
But war is my business, sorry for that! 
