As a French, the fact that no white flag was mentioned in these comments like it would have inevitably on reddit shows the quality of the chaps in here.
France has shown themself to be made of much sterner stuff in the last couple decades then the stereotypes and jokes like to make out. I mean that's not going to stop the English from making fun of France, but they still have nobility like this was 1650 or something.
The French have always been pretty strong. I don't know what history you read, but they've pretty consistently had one of the strongest militaries in the world. Sure, they surrendered quickly on WWII, but the people kept fighting even then when their government was occupied. They were one of the first nations to aid the United States also and have always been pretty active.
Is this all good? Idk. Besides resisting the Nazis after the occupation, I would very much argue much of this is bad (or at best self-serving). It's nation-state shit. It's never out of marality. They're strong though.
I said it was a stereotype. Overcoming that popular stereotype has been a lot harder than actually having a good military. And demonstrating that you have a good military is different than having one at all. Right or wrong, in the minds of many Americans they didn't start seeming strong until after 9/11.
Yep, you're right. After a quick search, it looks like the American Revolution started in 1765, and the French Revolution started in 1789.
However, I know French policies and political development had a profound impact on the ideas central to liberal democracies, as it could also be said of American policies and political development.
I don't really care about glorifying past military victories but rather about the fact that the white flag internet meme appeared when the French government refused to follow the USA into Irak War II. https://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/07/villepin.transcript/