France

**France**, officially the **Kingdom of France** (French: *Royaume de France*) is a sovereign country in Western Europe with territories and possessions across the five continents. In its mainland, France is bordered to the north by the English Channel and British Flanders, to the northeast with the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Prussia, and Bavaria, to the east with Baden, Switzerland and the United Provinces of Italy, and to the south with Spain and Andorra.

As the world's second largest colonial empire, France holds control over a great deal of territories, mainly in Africa and Asia, like French Algeria or French India. Politically, France is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy with Philippe VIII as its monarch.

## History

### Enlightenment, Revolution and Napoleonic Wars

The War of the Spanish Succession, which saw France confirmed as the greatest power in Europe, allowed a branch of the House of Bourbon to sit in the Spanish throne. The France of the 18th century was characterized by a de-escalation of tensions with its neighbors dating from the continuous wars of Louis XIV against the House of Habsburg, the English and the Dutch. France began to invest more in expanding its fleet and attending colonial affairs, turning islands like Saint Domingue or Guadeloupe into sugar mines that provided enormous wealth to the kingdom, and opening the doors of India during the Carnatic Wars, which left the south of the subcontinent in French hands. For its part, the monarchy continued with the absolutism of Louis XIV, although kings such as Louis XV or Louis XVI delegated government tasks to certain ministers, they continued to possess the supreme authority of the kingdom and controlled foreign policy, which went through phases of conflict such as the Seven Years' War or the War of the Polish Succession. The Seven Years' War saw France lose its possessions in North America by ceding Canada to the British and Louisiana to the Spanish, while the naval superiority of Great Britain seemed to be confirmed, so France attempted to weaken the British monarchy in the next conflict.

This was the First American Revolution, in which the 15 colonies on the east coast of North America rose up against royal authority and proclaimed their joint independence under the United States of America, a confederation with a weak and ineffective government in which the states acted practically like independent states, although they actively cooperated to confront the British reconquest attempts. The battle of Saratoga stands out, in which the American militias defeated the British from Burgoyne and gave hope of triumph to the rebellion, causing France (a country that did not have notable colonies that could rise up) declared its support for the rebellion and sent troops and supplies to North America, plus advisers like the Marquis de La Fayette. Later Spain and the Netherlands entered the conflict, and in 1783 the United Kingdom was forced to sign the Peace of Paris, in which it recognized the independence of the United States and gave small possessions to the victors. France barely regained the island of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and some extended fishing rights in the banks of Newfoundland in exchange for a large investment in the conflict, which caused the national treasury and reserves to remain at a minimum despite the credit that flowed from India and the Caribbean.

A series of poor harvests in the late 1780s spread discontent among citizens, and prices for basic goods like bread soared. Faced with the crisis that the kingdom was going through, the then King Louis XVI decided to convene the States General, a kind of assembly made up of the three estates (nobility, clergy and common people) that had to advise the king when making decisions and did not possess a real power. However, this body had not been invoked since the time of Louis XIV more than a century ago, and the representatives of the third estate (the vulgar) were constantly blocked by the vote against the nobility and the clergy. Seeing that the situation was leading nowhere, the representatives of the third estate left the session and formed the "National Assembly", which had to be convened in a ball game room because the king had closed the state room. This national assembly declared that it would legislate even without the support of the first and second estates, and after obtaining sufficient support, Louis XVI agreed to carry out limited reforms against his will. On July 12, news spread that the king planned to use the Swiss guard to force the dissolution of the assembly and protesters took to the streets, the king ordered the French Guard to disperse them, to which the soldiers refused. On July 14, protesters stormed the Bastille prison-fortress, and the situation seemed to calm down with the entry of the king to the capital, where he accepted a tricolor cockade, symbol of the revolutionaries.

At that time began the development of a constitution under the mandate of La Fayette, known as "Declaration of the rights of man and the citizen", which would serve as the basis for the future constitution of 1791, although it contained several sections considered radical by the nobility and a good part of the public. The period between 1789 and 1791 was marked by relative calm and a feeling of jubilation that was exhibited at the Federation Festival on July 14 (future national day), although discontent and divisions increased, and the previously united assembly. The national government was beginning to split between different groups with different ambitions, with tensions also within the army that were reflected in the Nancy mutiny of 1790.

Through secret communications that involved his brothers (future kings Louis XVIII and Charles X) Louis XVI agreed to flee to Montmédy, where he would meet with the loyalist General Bouillé and 20,000 soldiers under his charge to depose the national assembly with the support of Austria. The royal family left the palace on the night of June 20, 1791, but the king was recognized, arrested and sent to Paris (his brothers managed to escape). The assembly saw this as treason and began to demand oaths of allegiance and to prepare for a possible conflict with Austria, and while they kept Louis XVI as king, he was forced to swear allegiance to the constitution and was again arrested in the Tuileries. Shortly afterwards the kings of Prussia and Austria agreed in Pillnitz's declaration to support Louis XVI, which caused a wave of support for the assembly fearing an invasion (actually in Pillnitz the partition of Poland was discussed, but the pressure of the future Charles X made both rulers agree to their support for the House of Bourbon). The figure of the king became one of suspicion, and despite having agreed to swear in the new constitution of 1791, he was kept locked up in the Tuileries and under constant surveillance, denied the possibility of establishing contact with the outside. On August 10, 1792 there was the coup de grace to the monarchy when 20,000 rebels stormed the royal palace and captured the king, declaring his position as "temporarily relieved of office" and abolishing the de-iure monarchy, proclaiming the French Republic, which had begun its existence at war against a European coalition against it. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793 after a summary trial.

The French national assembly declared war on Austria on April 20, 1792. The declaration of war was followed by one by Prussia, and months later the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and other states also ended up declaring war on France. The beginning of the conflict was marked by an Austro-Prussian invasion of Lorraine and its victory at the Battle of Verdun on September 2, 1792 came as a shock to the French government, which responded with the execution of more than a thousand prisoners. However, the French victory at the Battle of Valmy 18 days after that of Verdun gave the French a break and emboldened them in their cause, the republic being officially proclaimed two days later.

The new republican government imposed draconian measures to keep the population under control and to suppress the royalist uprisings in Provence, Brittany and the Vendée against the mass levies ordered by the government, which required all males between 18 and 25 years to enlist in the armed forces of the republic. This strategy, coupled with a lack of communication between coalition members and pre-existing French military capabilities, led the army to a series of victories, and the year 1792 resulted in the French occupation of the Austrian Low Countries, Savoy, and an important part of Germany. The year 1793 saw the official confirmation of the first coalition and a series of battles for control of the Netherlands, which would result in the French conquest of 1795. On other fronts, the French expanded their zone of occupation into Germany and Italy, also repelling a Spanish offensive in the Pyrenees. That same year marked the beginning of the end of the coalition with the signing of the Peace of Basel, through which Prussia and Spain (which would later ally with France) withdrew from the war and the signing of the Treaty of Campoformio with Austria in 1797, which confirmed French sovereignty over the Rhineland and its puppet states in Holland and northern Italy, left Great Britain the only contender still at war with France.

The conflict saw the rise of an artilleryman going by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte, who expelled the British out of Toulon in 1793 by placing his artillery next to one of the city's cliffs. His reputation and influence grew after his repeated success in campaigns in Italy, and soon would grew to be one of the most important figures in French politics. Due to this he was placed at the front of a French invasion to Egypt which despite initial success, was outflanked and defeated by British forces, with Napoleon managing to escape back to France despite this. By this time, France found itself again at war with the Second Coalition. Despite France managing to resist the initial charges of the coalition, its political system did not, and on the 18th of Brumaire (November 9th), Bonaparte, along with fellow government officials and supporters, launched a coup which elevated him to consul of the republic. The next year French forces defeated Austrian forces in Italy, and conquered Bavaria. Austria again capitulated in 1801, leaving Great Britain in a state of war against France and Spain, which had declared war to the British in 1798 and had invaded Portugal conquering Olivenza. Finally, the Peace of Amiens was signed in 1802.

However, peace was bound not to last long, and Great Britain broke the truce in 1803, starting a new war against France in which Austria and Russia would join, starting the series of conflicts known as Napoleonic Wars. In 1804, Napoleon was crowned as Emperor of the French Empire. Despite their attempts at invading Great Britain, the French were forced to abandon any hopes after the disaster at Trafalgar, which saw the defeat of the Franco-Spanish fleet against the British and the withdrawal of Gravina's squadron amidst the chaos of the battle. Napoleon led an invasion of Austria in 1805, which culminated with the crushing victory of the French forces at the Battle of Austerlitz after the Austrians and Russians fell into Napoleon's trap, causing Great Britain to be left alone against France and Spain again. This new defeat of Austria resulted in the dissolution of the millenary Holy Roman Empire, and the establishment of the French-steered Confederation of the Rhine in what remained of the Holy Roman Empire. Despite a Prussian declaration of war, French forces invaded Saxony before Prussian forces could strike back and crushed the Prussians in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, taking the city of Berlin in which the Emperor proclaimed the Continental System, a system of blockade which had the intention of forcing Great Britain into submission by depriving it of trade with Europe. After securing another victory against Prussians and Russians at Eylau and forcing them into signing peace, the only state left resisting the Continental System was Portugal, which was quickly invaded by French and Spanish forces, with the Portuguese royal family fleeing to Brazil.

Despite this, the French army remained in the Peninsula, with tensions rising until May 2nd, initiating a revolt against French rule with culminated with an unexpected Spanish victory at the Battle of Bailén which pushed French forces back to the north of the Ebro. Napoleon prepared an offensive and invaded Spain in autumn. The Spanish defense was successful, but the numerical, technical, and organizative superiority of the French forces allowed them to reconquer a great part of northern Spain. Despite this, the failure of the Congress of Erfurt and war preparations in Austria forced the French to reduce the number of effectives in the Peninsula, with the Spanish front becoming a secondary theater when a massive front opened in Europe with the start of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809.

At the start, the Fifth Coalition only brought Austria, Spain, Great Britain and Sweden (who had made peace with Russia previously) together, and the Austrian offensive was correctly predicted by Bonaparte, who managed to defeat Austrian forces in a repeat of the campaign. Again, the Austrian army managed to escape and take cover behind the Danube river in the Marchfeld region, and Napoleon decided to cross the river via the island of Lobau. However, the arrival of Russian reinforcements and an effective Austrian performance trapped a notable French force on the wrong side of the river, which was defeated during the day. Napoleon, who for the first time had suffered a major defeat in person, withdrew to Germany, where a Spanish-inspired popular rebellion was gaining ground, and soon Prussia switched sides and joined the coalition forces. Further south, Anglo-Spanish forces managed to overcome French forces in a series of battles in Castile, culminating in the reconquest of Madrid in December 1809 after almost a year of occupation.

Napoleon's behavior changed in 1810, adopting a more conciliatory stance with his rivals, allowing Ferdinand VII to leave his "prison" in Valençay to calm down the conflict in Spain and allow a retreat to the other side of the Pyrinees. Later in April, Napoleon met with Metternich in the city of Frankfurt, where a ceasefire between Austria and France was signed. This treaty was controversial, and Metternich knew it was only a strategy to drive Austria out of the conflict to face the Russians and Prussians, offensive that he started the next month in May. After initial success, the Emperor pushed for further offensives, and he decided to bet and face them head-on before they could consolidate their positions. The subsequent battle of Alberstedt would go down in the annals of history highlighting more than 400,000 men from more than 8 states in a two-day combat, which resulted in the defeat of Napoleon as he lacked sufficient artillery and was outnumbered. Alberstedt was the last nail in the coffin of the French Empire, whose control east of the Rhine vanished at a stroke despite Marshal Berthier's efforts to control the north. Austria, aware of the French failure, declared war again and occupied Swabia and Breisgau, reaching the French border.

Napoleon returned to the capital, but the news of the disaster came faster than he did and the situation in Paris was chaotic, Napoleon succeeding in restoring order by employing the old guard against neo-Jacobin groups who accused Napoleon of having betrayed the values ​​of the revolution. The emperor assumed even greater powers and was forced to resort to repression, ironically fueling the movements against him. When the coalition attacked again in the autumn of 1810, Napoleon had to leave Paris again, and although he managed to win a couple of defensive victories like Gillenferd's, the state of the French army had deteriorated and could no longer hold a war in three fronts. The Emperor suffered a tragic end after a bomb was thrown into his chariot, leaving him badly wounded and ending his and his pregnant wife Josephine's lives hours later. Paris erupted into conflict and neo-Jacobins proclaimed a Second French Republic which tried to negotiate a futile truce with the Coalition, whose "diplomatic" response was the advance of their troops deep into French territory. In December, Pyotr Bagration entered Paris, and by early 1811, all French resistance had collapsed.

### Bourbon Restoration and Revolution of 1830

Among the less-known forces that fought against Napoleon are the royalist troops, military squadrons formed by French citizens who supported the restoration of the Bourbons or simply conservatives, who from the colonies and some points in mainland France fought to restore the legitimate monarch Louis XVIII (brother of Louis XVI and uncle of the brief Louis XVII). The coalition powers, mainly Austria and Spain, supported a restoration of the House of Bourbon, and on the 14th of February of 1811 Louis was crowned as king of France. Charles of Anjou, another brother of the king, had already signed a treaty establishing the eastern border of France, however, these wouldn't be dictated until the Congress of Ratisbon in 1812. The Bourbon Restoration was characterized by a profound transformation of social life in France; while the monarchist sectors attempted to revert all of the changes made during the French Revolution, they largely failed and the new government kept a great deal of the Napoleonic Code in the Constitutional Chart of 1812, rather than a total return to the *Ancien Régime*.

King Louis XVIII, despite his political views akin to conservatism and skipping certain parts of the Charter when it benefited him, turned out to be a rather benevolent ruler, maintaining a certain political balance by cooperating with liberals. Later in 1812, he dissolved the unpopular parliament dominated by ultra-royalists, giving rise to the liberal Doctrinaires. Despite being a moderate ruler, his reign came to an end when he died in 1824. He was succeeded by the absolutist Charles X, who started appointing ultraroyalists as ministers, such as Joseph de Villèle. One of the most notable interventions of Charles X's reign was the international intervention in Greece in favour of the Greek struggle against the Ottoman Turks, which he used as a way to attempt to secure his popularity. However, he simultaneously passed the Anti-Sacrilege Act of 1825, pushing for a re-catholicisation of the country. The monarch also tried to pass a law applying censorship to all means of communication, but it was deemed unconstitutional by the Chamber of Peers, so Charles dismissed its members and appointed a new one, but this new chamber also proved hostile and forced prime minister Villèle to resign, not before passing a law to give compensations to the nobility for property damage during the revolution and another that linked the property of the land to the family's firstborn, essentially restoring hereditary noble rule over the land. Villèle was replaced with Jules Armand de Polignac, a hardcore absolutist, after a brief moderate phase under Martignac. Polignac assisted the king in writing and publishing the "July Ordinances of 1830", which suspended liberty of press, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, withdrew the right of the Deputies to amend law, negated the middle-class traders from vote and called for a new election in September which the Ultraroyalists would surely win.

This triggered a revolution in Paris supported by the middle and lower classes which dethroned Charles X, exiling him to England, and imprisoned Polignac. The looming threat of a new coalition against France and the majority the Doctrinaries held in the assembly resulted in the formation of a regency council which awarded the crown of France to a lesser branch of the Bourbons, the House of Orléans, whose head Louis Philippe would theoretically act as a regent for Charles' son Henry V but that would quickly seize power for themselves. The right of the new monarch to rule was granted by the people and not from God, and king Louis Philippe I agreed to all the new restrictions of royal power.

### The July Monarchy: Reign of Louis Philippe I

The reign of Louis Philippe I started in 1830, after he swiped away the absolutist Charles X and his minister Polignac. His reign started in a wave of popularity as he removed freedom of speech restrictions and crowned himself as "King of the French" and not "King of France" reflecting the will of the people to accept him as monarch. Despite this, corruption and despotism started to rise in the late 30's, and his popularity started to diminish; The elections of 1846 gave an acceptable majority to prime minister François Guizot's government, but the private reunions of the opposition intensified. In an attempt to stop this, the government tried to cancel the freedom of assembly. This repercuted in increased unrest.

The earliest socialist movements were sweeping France, mostly in industrial cities like Lyon (which was home to three mass strikes and revolts in 1831, 1834 and 1839) and was positioning itself with the rest of the French left against Louis Philippe, who fell ill in 1847. Seeing the monarchy as weak and decadent, a revolution attempted to take over Paris in November and proclaim a republic. However, a combination of ill-fated organization and lack of proper equipment resulted in the failure of the revolt, which was crushed on the 28th of November, and their leader, Fréderic Bastiat, was arrested. Louis Philippe wasn't recovering and he abdicated on his nine-year-old grandson Philip VII (Philip's father and heir to Louis-Philippe died in 1842) for health reasons, and Philip's mother Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was proclaimed Queen Regent until her son Philip was 18.

### Revolution of 1852 and Stabilization

The queen regent Helene was more liberal than his father-in-law and dismissed Guizot as prime minister, trying to restore Soult as Prime Minister until his refusal and finally placing the Count of Pelet as a temporary prime minister, calling for elections and dissolving the parliament in 1851. The socialists and republicans believed this was a ploy by Helene to restore absolute rule in France for his son by calling for elections while keeping the electoral census of the latter, so a new uprising captained by Alphonse de Lamartine stormed Paris and headed for the royal palace to oust Helene and his son, being stopped by the Royal Guard. A street battle ensued in which the guards used their bayonets againt the protestors after they attempted to run over the Guard like a stompede. The rebels seemed like they would succeed but reinforcements arrived and pushed them back, eventually crushing the revolt in Paris altogether. Helene, now assisted by Francis (third son of Louis-Philippe and who was really in charge from that moment, his older brother Louis died in Algeria in 1837) made an appeal to reform before the elections, trying to convince that his intentions were actually to further reform the country while he was regent, convincing some of the rebels in Paris to defect, but the rebellion had been succesful in Lorraine, Artois, Lyon and other regions. During the fighting in Paris the republicans assaulted Guizot's house and brutally murdered him.

Francis ordered the army to quell the uprising and fighting broke out in eastern France and in the vincinity of Paris, where the rebels had seized and partly demolished the palace of Fountainebleau before royalist forces took it back on April 27. France collapsed into civil war between the royalists (supported by the conservative bourgeoise, the conservative peasantry and the nobility) and the republicans (supported by the merchants, socialists and left-leaning peasants). The core of the revolt was the city of Lyon, where Étienne Garnier-Pagès had declared the Third French Republic on April 20, raising a blue-red-and-white flag. The republicans there allied with the socialists, rapidly advancing through the Rhône valley, where most industrial workers joined them, and control over Burgundy and Franche-Comté was tenuous at best for both sides. The Republicans laid siege to Marseille on May 18th, but the navy was in Royalist hands in part thanks to Francis' career as a naval officer, which gave him influence over the navy, and kept the city supplied. To the north the Republicans won a battle close to Pailly that almost resulted in them attacking Paris again, but the city was well defended, having thousands upon thousands of troops garrisoning the streets to prevent any more uprisings. By this point the revolts had extended to Central Europe and it seemed most of Europe was fighting a civil war.

Royalist forces secured most of the Atlantic Coast, where Republican presence was minimal and gained control of overseas trade, obtaining British and Spanish support, while the Republicans were aided by no recognised state either directly or indirectly. Britain involved itself directly when Republican forces supported an uprising in Flanders against the British government, forcing British troops to land in mainland Europe after 38 years. Francis allowed the Redcoats to enter northern France and help quell the uprising. By June, the siege of Marseille had been lifted and both Republican pockets were isolated, with Republican defences in Champagne crumbling as the weight of the professional Royalist army cut through their lines. A particularly brutal siege would happen in Charleville-Mèziers, where the whole Republican garrison had to be slaughtered as they refused any kind of truce or surrender. This was followed by the battles of Charleroi and Mons, and culminated in the siege of Brussels by French and British forces, while the Republicans had declared a separate government from that of Lyon, which was crushed on July 24th. The remaining forces in Lorraine and Alsace would surrender in September.

With only the Republic of Lyon standing French forces turned south hoping to attack the city without having to advance all the way from Marseilles or crossing the Auvergne Mountains, which were filled with Republican partisans. A substantial part of the army was left guarding the border with Prussia and Baden, as revolt was also sweeping Germany, but the Prussians refused any assistance in order to crush the Rhenish Republic, which had taken many French Republican leaders. The Battle of Lyon would start on September 28th after extensive preparations. The battle would rage brutally for weeks, but eventually the Royalists imposed themselves. The Battle of Lyon alone saw 63,000 casualties and the conflict was one of the bloodiest of its time for its duration and size. But the Royalists came out on top of, and as a result France turned to economic conservatism while granting some concessions like an extension of the voting recquisites to allow most white males to vote and stablish the so-called "ateliers nationaux" which gave employment to thousands. The state also assumed a high debt which would take more than a decade to pay off and had to rebuild dozens of cities. Francis launched a persecution campaign against many leaders and writers such as Blanc and Proudhon, both fleeing to friendly Louisiana and started to write again in a more rural and calm environment, leading to the rise of socialist movements in the Americas.

Francis and Helene were known for their role in working to modernize the French economy and the rebuilding of Paris. Although at first a restricted democracy after the civil war, the restrictions were lowered and the political system was somewhat revamped in the years to come. Paris grew dramatically in terms of population, industry, finance, commercial activity, and tourism. In 1856 Philippe VII was declared to be of age, and his regency came to an end. The young monarch strived for glory in foreign affairs. After strengthening French control over Algeria in 1858, the French colonization of Africa was intensified, and a French company building the Suez Canal was facilitated, which Britain could not stop.