Comment by woofie11

6 years ago

Supposed?

The white flag was literally the national standard of France for a while.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flag#Ancien_R%C3%A9gime_...

France's second-greatest or third-greatest national hero literally sacrificed all the women and children to save himself (and failed to save himself, at that):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alesia#Siege

Not to mention France's betrayal of Poland at the start of WWII (there was a mutual defense pact, which France satisificed trying to not annoy Germany):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#War_breaks_out_in...

Failing to face Germany together, France then promptly got conquered itself, providing scant resistance even when attacked. It then collaborated with the Nazis.

Then there are the English raiding parties into France. Remember the Black Prince? Heh. France was way bigger, but way cowardlier. The "flower of European chivalry" was killed altogether by a bunch of poor peasants from England because it turned out the French knights had zero discipline.

The only time when France had its military act together was during the time of Napoleon. Otherwise, it had a modest success by bullying technologically-inferior places during the age of colonialism.