@Varangian Yes, but Denmarks entry into recorded history was Viking pillaging, subjugating, occupying and exacting tribute from much of England, and even setting up a Scandinavian empire; Frances into recorded history was Julius Cæsars book about how he completely overran the whole country, and it pretty much continued the same way until... what time it now? The greatest of Frances few successful wars was regaining independence England, and even that took nearly 130 years despite the advantage of an interior supply line against occupiers forced to cross an ocean.
Nothing against the French (after all, the second greatest of their few successful wars was blockading the British fleet to prevent it landing reinforcements at Yorktown) but, from a military perspective, their two millennia history has been almost uniformly disastrous, and the only consistently successful French general I know of was Charlemagne (for all his reputation, even Louis XIV was a bit hit and miss.) So, y'know, every thousand years or so there is a truly formidable French commander; the rest of time, the Arc de Triomphe feels slightly ironic.
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@Varangian Yes, but Denmarks entry into recorded history was Viking pillaging, subjugating, occupying and exacting tribute from much of England, and even setting up a Scandinavian empire; Frances into recorded history was Julius Cæsars book about how he completely overran the whole country, and it pretty much continued the same way until... what time it now? The greatest of Frances few successful wars was regaining independence England, and even that took nearly 130 years despite the advantage of an interior supply line against occupiers forced to cross an ocean.
Nothing against the French (after all, the second greatest of their few successful wars was blockading the British fleet to prevent it landing reinforcements at Yorktown) but, from a military perspective, their two millennia history has been almost uniformly disastrous, and the only consistently successful French general I know of was Charlemagne (for all his reputation, even Louis XIV was a bit hit and miss.) So, y'know, every thousand years or so there is a truly formidable French commander; the rest of time, the Arc de Triomphe feels slightly ironic.