Francophobia
Encyclopedia
Francophobia or Gallophobia (agentive forms Francophobe and Gallophobe, respectively) are terms that refer to a dislike or hatred toward France
, the People of France
, the Government of France
, or the Francophonie (set of political entities that use French as an official language
or whose French-speaking population is numerically or proportionally large). Its antonym
is francophilia
. Francophobia has existed in various forms and in different countries for centuries.
.
). According to Eric Hobsbawm
(1990), only aristocrats and scholars spoke French before the French Revolution
, whilst about two-thirds of the population of the French kingdom spoke a variety of local indigenous languages often referred to as dialects. Henceforth, Hobsbawm argues that the French Nation-state
was constituted during the 19th century, through conscription
which accounted for interactions between French citizens coming from various regions, and the Third Republic
's public instruction laws
, enacted in the 1880s, probably in parallel with the birth of the European nationalisms.
The United Kingdom and France have a long history of conflict, dating from before the Battle of Hastings
, when the Duke of Normandy, a vassal of the French King, raised himself to be King of England. Before becoming King of England, William found conflict with his liege
several times and conquered some neighbouring fiefs. The relationship between the countries continued to be filled with conflict, even during the Third Crusade
. This medieval era of conflict climaxed during the One Hundred Years War, when the House of Plantagenet
fought unsuccessfully for control of French throne
and all but lost the last of their French holdings, which resulted in future English Kings being more culturally English (previously they had largely spoken French and lived in French castles much of the time, Richard the Lionheart who was famous for his feud with the French King Philip
, spent most of his life in France and as little as six months of his reign as King in England).
The modern history of conflict between the two nations stems from the rise of Britain effect into a position as a dominant mercantile and seafaring power from the late 17th century onward. Hostility toward and strategic conflict with France's similar ambitions became a defining characteristic of relations between the two powers. The time between the Glorious Revolution
of 1688 and Napoleon's final capitulation in 1815 has been perceived in Britain as a prolonged Franco-British conflict to determine who would be the dominant colonial power (sometimes called the Second Hundred Years' War
). British hostility to the Catholic Church, which dated back to earlier conflicts with Spain and the Catholic Habsburg
dynasty contributed to attitudes towards the French, because France was also seen as a Catholic
power, while the majority of the British people were Protestants
. Britain assisted continental European states in resisting French ambitions to hegemony during the reign of Louis XIV and of course during the Napoleonic Wars
. Britain also resented France's intervention in the American Revolutionary War
. These repeated conflicts spawned deep mutual antagonism between the two nations, which were only, and partially, overcome by their alliance to contain Imperial Germany in the early 20th century.
The dimensions of this conflict in Britain were as much cultural as strategic. Indeed, British nationalism
in its nascent phases was in large part a contra-France phenomenon and the attitudes involved extended well beyond who won what on various battlefields:
and subsequent years were not well-received by monarchists and aristocrats on the rest of the continent and in Britain. France, the leading European power for two centuries, had suddenly and violently overthrown the feudal
foundations of continental order and, it was feared, the revolution might spread. Objections were many:
These concerns were not unique to Europe. Despite the positive view some Americans
had of The French Revolution, it awakened or created anti-French feelings among some Federalists.
. In particular, the French actions against Spanish civilians during the Peninsular War
drew a large amount of criticism. This is illustrated by The Third of May 1808
painting.
earned it many enemies, among rival colonial countries, especially the British empire, and especially amongst colonized people. On a whole, although French neo-colonialism is denounced under the term of Françafrique
(including by sectors of the French population itself), this does not necessarily lead to "Francophobia.", even in Côte d'Ivoire
where, beyond the provocations of Laurent Gbagbo
, elected with less than 15% of the polls, the vast majority of people feel no resentment towards the French, nor the huge number of Franco-Ivorian citizens, and few towards the former colonizing power, their main target being rather the rests of paternalism
of the French political attitude in Black Africa
, leading to political tensions from time to time.
Before the war's outbreak, the French government had reluctantly acquiesed to the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain
's policy of appeasement
and accepted Hitler's various violations of the Versailles treaty and his demands at Munich
in 1938. The then-Prime Minister of France Édouard Daladier
was under no illusions about Hitler's ultimate goals and initially opposed Chamberlain's policy. He told the British in a late April 1938 meeting that Hitler's real aim was to eventually secure "a domination of the Continent in comparison with which the ambitions of Napoleon were feeble." He went on to say "Today it is the turn of Czechoslovakia. Tomorrow it will be the turn of Poland and Romania...". However, in the end, Daladier could not stand without Chamberlain's support, and Daladier let Chamberlain have his way with the appeasement of Hitler at the Munich Agreement
.
The prime ministers of France between the World Wars were generally more aggressive against German and Nazi interests than that of other Western nations, as France-Germany relations were very poor at the time and France sustained more casualties in World War I than any other nation (except Russia which underwent several revolutions in the middle of the war in 1917) - approximately 1.4 million military and 1.6 million total casualties. French leaders were also acutely aware that the German population and manpower exceed France's by a considerable margin (64 million versus 40 million), a major strategic vulnerability. This strategic vulnerability and France's proximity to Germany caused French leaders to take a harder stance on Germany than the British, for example. The French occupation of the Rhineland
and France's desire to collect the reparations owed by Germany under the Treaty of Versailles
to France, caused British leaders to see French leaders as too stern on Germany.
The French Prime Minister previous to Daladier, Léon Blum
, was acutely aware of the dangers of the German and Nazi rise, and even desired to send military aid to the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War
(the Germans were supporting the opposite Nationalist side in this conflict), but decided against doing so in order to maintain France's alliance to Britain because then-Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
and his staff including Anthony Eden
strongly opposed any aid because of fear of Communism and of war.
However, once war broke out, the quick military defeat of the French Army caused much disillusion across Europe. As a consequence the image and reputation of France as Europe's military superpower was seriously compromised until after the war ended. However, France still participated actively in the final victory, and rebuilt her military after World War II to recover some of her position as a major military power.
, its Pacific nuclear testing in the 1980s, and in interventions in its former African colonies).
However, France's very status and active foreign policy have caused it the attract some negative attention. Some view some of postwar France's leaders to be vocal and independent-minded in their dealings with other major nations. However, the leaders of every nation act primarily for what they deem to be the benefits of their own nations. For example, United States president George Bush generated controversy by his consistent refusal to sign the Kyoto Treaty saying that "Kyoto would have wrecked our economy. I couldn't in good faith have signed Kyoto".
The two French presidents most often perceived to be vocal and independent are Charles de Gaulle and Jacques Chirac.
In total, De Gaulle advocated a strong presence among the great nations and independence towards the United States and the Soviet Union.
, Wallis and Futuna Islands and French Polynesia
. There have been sporadic independence demonstrations in French Polynesia, and briefly in the 1980s a pro-independence insurgency in New Caledonia
, led by the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste. However, this situation is by no means unique to France, as the other overseas European Great Power, the United Kingdom, also owns many British overseas territories
and the controversies they generate.
There is also the issue of nuclear testing
in the Pacific. Since 1960, around 200 nuclear tests have occurred around the Pacific, to the opprobrium of other Pacific states, Australia and New Zealand. The end of the Cold War
led to a French moratorium on nuclear testing, but it was lifted in 1995 by Jacques Chirac
. French security forces have sought to interfere with the activity of nuclear testing protesters. In 1972, the Greenpeace
vessel Vega was rammed at Moruroa
. The following year Greenpeace protesters were detained by the French, and the skipper claimed he was beaten. Also, in 1985 the French secret service bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior
in Auckland
, New Zealand. Greenpeace had been a very vocal opponent of French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Australia ceased military cooperation with France and embargoed the export of uranium
to France.
Protesters demonstrated at the French embassy in Canberra
, while the French honorary Consulate in Perth
was fire-bombed
. The company Delifrance
was forced to downplay its entry into the Australian market. The Herald Sun
ran an article entitled "Why the French are Bastards." A group of Australians ran a full page advertisement in Le Monde
, arguing that the opposition in Australia to French nuclear testing was strong, and that large numbers of ANZAC soldiers who fell in France's defence in the First World War. Some authors in the French press replied by discussing Australia's own human rights record
, and its supposed ambitions to dominate the Pacific (one cartoon by Plantu portrayed an Australian wearing a very British bowler hat
).
(called Operation Daguet
) and the French presence in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom), the opposition of French President Jacques Chirac
to the 2003 Iraq War led to a significant rise in anti-French sentiment in the United States, epitomized by a movement to rename french fries
to freedom fries
. In March 2003, the cafeteria of the United States House of Representatives
had its French fries and French toast renamed to freedom fries and toast, at the direction of Representatives Bob Ney
(R-Ohio) and Walter Jones
(R-North Carolina). Representative Ney chaired the Committee on House Administration and had authority over the menu in the House cafeteria.
The freedom fries renaming was not without controversy or opposition. Timothy Noah
of Slate
noted that the move was "meant to demonize France for its exasperating refusal to support a war against Iraq". He compared the renaming to the renaming of all things German in World War II, but argued that the freedom fries episode was worse because "Germany, after all, was America's enemy, whereas France is America's NATO ally." The episode occurred despite the fact that neither french fries nor french toast are typically French (see origins of french fries
and french toast
), with American people and politicians being driven intentionally or unintentionally by the name confusion
.
The swell of anti-French sentiment in the United States resulting from 2003 episode was marked. Many media personalities and politicians openly expressed anti-French sentiments. According to a survey organized by the CSA
and the French-American Foundation
, 41% of Americans had a good opinion about France in 2007.
Recently, there have been a few instances of friction between France and the Republic of Ireland
over political and economic issues that led to expressions of Irish francophobia. One of these was when Ireland rejected the Lisbon treaty in a referendum in 2008 and Nicolas Sarkozy commented that Ireland "must vote again" - as it indeed did the following year. Another source has been the French criticism of Ireland's low corporate taxation rate and the perceived French resistance to conceding an interest rate reduction on the IMF/ EU loan arrangement until Ireland "moves" on this rate, which was perceived as interference.
Francophobia in Ireland rose in the aftermath a controversial FIFA World Cup playoff
game between the two countries, leading to protests outside the French Embassy in Dublin. Irish businesses exploited the occasion in a mostly light-hearted way, with promotions offering discounts for every goal scored against France and special reductions to celebrate the elimination of France from the tournament.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the People of France
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
, the Government of France
Government of France
The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...
, or the Francophonie (set of political entities that use French as an official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
or whose French-speaking population is numerically or proportionally large). Its antonym
Antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
is francophilia
Francophile
Is a person with a positive predisposition or interest toward the government, culture, history, or people of France. This could include France itself and its history, the French language, French cuisine, literature, etc...
. Francophobia has existed in various forms and in different countries for centuries.
Use of the term
Given its lengthy history and various changes in relative international status, properly qualifying hostility toward France and its people with one term is difficult. Francophobia is used here as it is the historically understood term for the most pronounced and longest running hostility toward things French — that of the United Kingdom from the 17th to 19th centuries, though it continues very much to the present day amongst the general populace. Francophobe and Francophile, along with the now archaic Gallophobe and Gallophile, would have been well understood to British commentators of the period and the former terms are still easily grasped today. In the contemporary United States, anti-French sentiment is more likely to be used to describe the recent upsurge in that country of animosity toward the French. In former French colonies, meanwhile, resentment may fall under the larger rubric of anti-colonialismColonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
.
France as continental hegemon
Though French history in the broadest sense extends back more than a millennium, its political unity dates back from the reign of Louis XI, who set up the basis of nation-state (rather than a dynastic, transnational entity typical of the late Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
). According to Eric Hobsbawm
Eric Hobsbawm
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm , CH, FBA, is a British Marxist historian, public intellectual, and author...
(1990), only aristocrats and scholars spoke French before the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, whilst about two-thirds of the population of the French kingdom spoke a variety of local indigenous languages often referred to as dialects. Henceforth, Hobsbawm argues that the French Nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
was constituted during the 19th century, through conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
which accounted for interactions between French citizens coming from various regions, and the Third Republic
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
's public instruction laws
Jules Ferry laws
The Jules Ferry Laws are a set of French Laws which established free education , then mandatory and laic education . Jules Ferry, a lawyer holding the office of Minister of Public Instruction in the 1880s, is widely credited for creating the modern Republican School...
, enacted in the 1880s, probably in parallel with the birth of the European nationalisms.
Anti-French sentiment in the United Kingdom
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
, when the Duke of Normandy, a vassal of the French King, raised himself to be King of England. Before becoming King of England, William found conflict with his liege
Henry I of France
Henry I was King of France from 1031 to his death. The royal demesne of France reached its smallest size during his reign, and for this reason he is often seen as emblematic of the weakness of the early Capetians...
several times and conquered some neighbouring fiefs. The relationship between the countries continued to be filled with conflict, even during the Third Crusade
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin...
. This medieval era of conflict climaxed during the One Hundred Years War, when the House of Plantagenet
House of Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet , a branch of the Angevins, was a royal house founded by Geoffrey V of Anjou, father of Henry II of England. Plantagenet kings first ruled the Kingdom of England in the 12th century. Their paternal ancestors originated in the French province of Gâtinais and gained the...
fought unsuccessfully for control of French throne
English claims to the French throne
The English claims to the French throne have a long and complex history between the 1340s and the 19th century.From 1340 to 1801, with only brief intervals in 1360-1369 and 1420–1422, the kings and queens of England, and after the Acts of Union in 1707 the kings and queens of Great Britain, also...
and all but lost the last of their French holdings, which resulted in future English Kings being more culturally English (previously they had largely spoken French and lived in French castles much of the time, Richard the Lionheart who was famous for his feud with the French King Philip
Philip II of France
Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
, spent most of his life in France and as little as six months of his reign as King in England).
The modern history of conflict between the two nations stems from the rise of Britain effect into a position as a dominant mercantile and seafaring power from the late 17th century onward. Hostility toward and strategic conflict with France's similar ambitions became a defining characteristic of relations between the two powers. The time between the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
of 1688 and Napoleon's final capitulation in 1815 has been perceived in Britain as a prolonged Franco-British conflict to determine who would be the dominant colonial power (sometimes called the Second Hundred Years' War
Second Hundred Years' War
The Second Hundred Years' War is a periodization used by some historians to describe the series of military conflicts between the Kingdom of England and France that occurred from about 1689 to 1815. The term appears to have been coined by J. R...
). British hostility to the Catholic Church, which dated back to earlier conflicts with Spain and the Catholic Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
dynasty contributed to attitudes towards the French, because France was also seen as a Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
power, while the majority of the British people were Protestants
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
. Britain assisted continental European states in resisting French ambitions to hegemony during the reign of Louis XIV and of course during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. Britain also resented France's intervention in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. These repeated conflicts spawned deep mutual antagonism between the two nations, which were only, and partially, overcome by their alliance to contain Imperial Germany in the early 20th century.
The dimensions of this conflict in Britain were as much cultural as strategic. Indeed, British nationalism
British nationalism
Far right politics in the United Kingdom have existed since at least the 1930s, with the formation of fascist and anti-semitic movements. It went on to acquire more explicitly racial connotations, being dominated in the 1960s and 1970s by self-proclaimed white nationalist organisations that oppose...
in its nascent phases was in large part a contra-France phenomenon and the attitudes involved extended well beyond who won what on various battlefields:
- A growing group of British nationalists in the 17th and 18th centuries resented the veneration that was often accorded French culture and the French languageFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. - France was the strongest CatholicRoman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
power and "Anti-CatholicAnti-Catholicism in the United KingdomInstitutional Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom has its origins in the English and Irish Reformations under Henry VIII and the Scottish Reformation led by John Knox...
" suspicions were always strong in Britain. - The permeation of anti-French sentiment throughout society - as epitomised by the apocryphal story of the HartlepoolHartlepoolHartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...
monkey hangerMonkey hanger"Monkey hanger" is an affectionate term by which Hartlepudlians are often known.According to local folklore, the term originates from an incident in which a monkey was hanged in Hartlepool. During the Napoleonic wars, a French ship of the type chasse marée was wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool...
s, whose belief that the French were literally inhumanInhumanInhuman may refer to:*Inhuman, a member of the fictional Marvel Comics race, the Inhumans*Inhuman , an album by Desecration*Inhuman Games, a game companyIt may also refer to:*Inhuman Condition, an EP from the band Massacre...
led them to have allegedly executed a pet monkeyMonkeyA monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
in the belief that it was an invading Frenchman (although the story is based upon the disputed premise that those involved had never seen a Frenchman before).
The French Revolution
The revolutionary ideas that emerged in France in 1789 during the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and subsequent years were not well-received by monarchists and aristocrats on the rest of the continent and in Britain. France, the leading European power for two centuries, had suddenly and violently overthrown the feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
foundations of continental order and, it was feared, the revolution might spread. Objections were many:
- That the legitimacy of hereditary monarchyHereditary monarchyA hereditary monarchy is the most common type of monarchy and is the form that is used by almost all of the world's existing monarchies.Under a hereditary monarchy, all the monarchs come from the same family, and the crown is passed down from one member to another member of the family...
had been vitiated. - That violent, uneducated peasants and urban poor had gained power over their traditional social masters.
- That the revolution was anti-religiousAnti-clericalismAnti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
. - That the revolution aspired to continental hegemony, in effect that liberté, egalité, fraternité would be limited to the French, while the Spanish, Italians, etc. would be under French domination. Thus the nationalismNationalismNationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
created in France during the revolution spread to other nations under French occupation, leading to resistance movements and guerillas opposed to the French. - That the revolution would (and eventually did) result in a reign of terrorReign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
terminating in despotismDespotismDespotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy...
(under Napoleon), thus failing to live up to aspirations of liberty (Reflections on the Revolution in FranceReflections on the Revolution in FranceReflections on the Revolution in France , by Edmund Burke, is one of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution...
).
These concerns were not unique to Europe. Despite the positive view some Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
had of The French Revolution, it awakened or created anti-French feelings among some Federalists.
The Age of Napoleon
Goya painted several famous pictures depicting the violence of the Peninsula wars during the Napoleonic EraNapoleonic Era
The Napoleonic Era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory...
. In particular, the French actions against Spanish civilians during the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
drew a large amount of criticism. This is illustrated by The Third of May 1808
The Third of May 1808
The Third of May 1808 is a painting completed in 1814 by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. In the work, Goya sought to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the occupation of 1808...
painting.
France as imperial power
France's colonial empireFrench colonial empires
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
earned it many enemies, among rival colonial countries, especially the British empire, and especially amongst colonized people. On a whole, although French neo-colonialism is denounced under the term of Françafrique
Françafrique
Françafrique is a term that refers to France's relationship with Africa. The term was first used in a positive sense by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d'Ivoire, but it is now generally understood to denounce the neocolonial relationship France has with its African backyard...
(including by sectors of the French population itself), this does not necessarily lead to "Francophobia.", even in Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
where, beyond the provocations of Laurent Gbagbo
Laurent Gbagbo
Laurent Koudou Gbagbo served as the fourth President of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 until his arrest in April 2011. A historian by profession, he is also an amateur chemist and physicist....
, elected with less than 15% of the polls, the vast majority of people feel no resentment towards the French, nor the huge number of Franco-Ivorian citizens, and few towards the former colonizing power, their main target being rather the rests of paternalism
Paternalism
Paternalism refers to attitudes or states of affairs that exemplify a traditional relationship between father and child. Two conditions of paternalism are usually identified: interference with liberty and a beneficent intention towards those whose liberty is interfered with...
of the French political attitude in Black Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
, leading to political tensions from time to time.
France in Africa and Asia
- Africa - France's intervention in the civil war in Côte d'IvoireCivil war in Côte d'IvoireThe Ivorian Civil War was a conflict in Côte d'Ivoire that began on 19 September 2002. Although most of the fighting ended by late 2004, the country remains split in two, with a rebel-held north and a government-held south. Hostility increased and raids on foreign troops and civilians rose...
has triggered anti-French violence by the "Young PatriotsCongrès Panafricaine des Jeunes PatriotesThe Congrès Panafricain des Jeunes et des Patriotes , commonly known as Young Patriots, of Côte d'Ivoire is the name given to a youth movement supportive of the former President of Côte d'Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo and his ruling Ivorian Popular Front party...
" and other groups.
- Asia - The French colonists were given the special epithet thực dân (originally meaning colonist, but evolving to refer to the oppressive regime of the French) in VietnameseVietnamese languageVietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
; it is still universally used in discussions about the colonial era. After the French were pushed out of Vietnam, those who collaborated with them (called tay sai – agents) were vilified. Those who left for France with the French were known as Việt gian (Viet traitors) and had all their property confiscated. Although anti-French feelings in VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
have abated, the use of words like thực dân (colonist) to describe the French is still normal.
France and World War II
The Second World War had an effect on the modern French image abroad.Before the war's outbreak, the French government had reluctantly acquiesed to the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
's policy of appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
and accepted Hitler's various violations of the Versailles treaty and his demands at Munich
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
in 1938. The then-Prime Minister of France Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.-Career:Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck and large shoulders and determined...
was under no illusions about Hitler's ultimate goals and initially opposed Chamberlain's policy. He told the British in a late April 1938 meeting that Hitler's real aim was to eventually secure "a domination of the Continent in comparison with which the ambitions of Napoleon were feeble." He went on to say "Today it is the turn of Czechoslovakia. Tomorrow it will be the turn of Poland and Romania...". However, in the end, Daladier could not stand without Chamberlain's support, and Daladier let Chamberlain have his way with the appeasement of Hitler at the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
.
The prime ministers of France between the World Wars were generally more aggressive against German and Nazi interests than that of other Western nations, as France-Germany relations were very poor at the time and France sustained more casualties in World War I than any other nation (except Russia which underwent several revolutions in the middle of the war in 1917) - approximately 1.4 million military and 1.6 million total casualties. French leaders were also acutely aware that the German population and manpower exceed France's by a considerable margin (64 million versus 40 million), a major strategic vulnerability. This strategic vulnerability and France's proximity to Germany caused French leaders to take a harder stance on Germany than the British, for example. The French occupation of the Rhineland
Occupation of the Rhineland
The Occupation of the Rhineland took place following the armistice and brought the fighting of World War I to a close on 11 November 1918. The occupying armies consisted of American, Belgian, British and French forces...
and France's desire to collect the reparations owed by Germany under the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
to France, caused British leaders to see French leaders as too stern on Germany.
The French Prime Minister previous to Daladier, Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
, was acutely aware of the dangers of the German and Nazi rise, and even desired to send military aid to the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(the Germans were supporting the opposite Nationalist side in this conflict), but decided against doing so in order to maintain France's alliance to Britain because then-Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
and his staff including Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
strongly opposed any aid because of fear of Communism and of war.
However, once war broke out, the quick military defeat of the French Army caused much disillusion across Europe. As a consequence the image and reputation of France as Europe's military superpower was seriously compromised until after the war ended. However, France still participated actively in the final victory, and rebuilt her military after World War II to recover some of her position as a major military power.
France as vocal major power
Post-World War II France is a major world power with nuclear armed forces comparable in size, technology, and global reach to that of the United Kingdom, and greater than those of modern Germany or postwar Japan - all nations which have rarely been claimed to be merely "middle powers". France also has a permanent seat on the United Nations, and one of the largest economies in Europe (its GNP and GDP per capita are comparable to those of the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States). It is very active in international affairs in locations overseas (such as its continuing participation in AfghanistanAfghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, its Pacific nuclear testing in the 1980s, and in interventions in its former African colonies).
However, France's very status and active foreign policy have caused it the attract some negative attention. Some view some of postwar France's leaders to be vocal and independent-minded in their dealings with other major nations. However, the leaders of every nation act primarily for what they deem to be the benefits of their own nations. For example, United States president George Bush generated controversy by his consistent refusal to sign the Kyoto Treaty saying that "Kyoto would have wrecked our economy. I couldn't in good faith have signed Kyoto".
The two French presidents most often perceived to be vocal and independent are Charles de Gaulle and Jacques Chirac.
De Gaulle's presidencies and Gaullism in the 1960s
The policies of Charles de Gaulle during his second presidency (1961–1970) included several actions that some critics have held against him.- De Gaulle advocated a stance that France should act partially as a third pole between the United States and Soviet Union, while remaining within the political structure of NATO, actively supporting European organizations such as the European Economic CommunityEuropean Economic CommunityThe European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
, and maintaining close ties with other western European nations (especially postwar West Germany). This viewpoint was not unique to De Gaulle or to the French, because many other nations sought varying degrees of non-aligned status with reference to the two major blocs (United States/NATO and the Soviet bloc). India, China, Indonesia, and many other nations formed the Non-Aligned MovementNon-Aligned MovementThe Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...
, and Yugoslavia pursued a largely independent course from Moscow from 1961 until its dissolution in 2003. - De Gaulle decided to end the presence of NATO bases on French soil, and withdrew France from the military structure of NATO. However, France remained within NATO's political structure.
- De Gaulle opposed the UK's application to join the EEC in 1962 and 1965. However, the next French President Georges PompidouGeorges PompidouGeorges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...
reversed De Gaulle's position and supported the UK's admission in 1973. French Presidents since De Gaulle have generally pursued fairly close relations with British leaders, including Jacques ChiracJacques ChiracJacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
working with Tony BlairTony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
even during the Iraq War. - While visiting Montreal, Canada for the World Fair in 1967, De Gaulle brought support to the Quebec sovereignty movementQuebec sovereignty movementThe Quebec sovereignty movement refers to both the political movement and the ideology of values, concepts and ideas that promote the secession of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada...
, with a speech "Vive le Québec libre!Vive le Québec libre speech"Vive le Québec libre !" was a controversial phrase in a speech delivered by French president Charles de Gaulle in Montreal on July 24, 1967.De Gaulle was in Canada on an official visit under the pretext of attending Expo 67...
". This speech was highly regarded by the Quebec independence movement. However, it was widely criticized even in the French press, and it was opposed by many French and French-Canadians including the future-Canadian prime minister, Pierre TrudeauPierre TrudeauJoseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
, a French-Canadian from Montreal.
In total, De Gaulle advocated a strong presence among the great nations and independence towards the United States and the Soviet Union.
Anti-French sentiment in Australia and New Zealand
France controls several islands in the Pacific Ocean New CaledoniaNew Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
, Wallis and Futuna Islands and French Polynesia
French Polynesia
French Polynesia is an overseas country of the French Republic . It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory...
. There have been sporadic independence demonstrations in French Polynesia, and briefly in the 1980s a pro-independence insurgency in New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
, led by the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste. However, this situation is by no means unique to France, as the other overseas European Great Power, the United Kingdom, also owns many British overseas territories
British overseas territories
The British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories...
and the controversies they generate.
There is also the issue of nuclear testing
Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
in the Pacific. Since 1960, around 200 nuclear tests have occurred around the Pacific, to the opprobrium of other Pacific states, Australia and New Zealand. The end of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
led to a French moratorium on nuclear testing, but it was lifted in 1995 by Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
. French security forces have sought to interfere with the activity of nuclear testing protesters. In 1972, the Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
vessel Vega was rammed at Moruroa
Moruroa
Moruroa , also historically known as Aopuni, is an atoll which forms part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean...
. The following year Greenpeace protesters were detained by the French, and the skipper claimed he was beaten. Also, in 1985 the French secret service bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior
Rainbow Warrior (1978)
The Rainbow Warrior was a former UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food trawler later purchased by the environmental organisation Greenpeace...
in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand. Greenpeace had been a very vocal opponent of French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Australia ceased military cooperation with France and embargoed the export of uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
to France.
Protesters demonstrated at the French embassy in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, while the French honorary Consulate in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
was fire-bombed
1995 bombing of the French Consulate in Perth, Western Australia
On 17 June 1995, the French Consulate in West Perth, Western Australia was firebombed and destroyed in the only act in the history of Western Australia regarded as politically motivated terrorism...
. The company Delifrance
Délifrance
Délifrance is a bakery company that serves "French style" bakery products in over 50 countries on five continents. It has been in operation for more than 25 years....
was forced to downplay its entry into the Australian market. The Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
ran an article entitled "Why the French are Bastards." A group of Australians ran a full page advertisement in Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, arguing that the opposition in Australia to French nuclear testing was strong, and that large numbers of ANZAC soldiers who fell in France's defence in the First World War. Some authors in the French press replied by discussing Australia's own human rights record
Stolen Generation
The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments...
, and its supposed ambitions to dominate the Pacific (one cartoon by Plantu portrayed an Australian wearing a very British bowler hat
Bowler hat
The bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...
).
Anti-French sentiment in United States
Despite a large French contribution to the 1991 Iraq Gulf WarGulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
(called Operation Daguet
Opération Daguet
Opération Daguet was the codename for French operations during the 1991 Gulf War...
) and the French presence in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom), the opposition of French President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
to the 2003 Iraq War led to a significant rise in anti-French sentiment in the United States, epitomized by a movement to rename french fries
French fries
French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...
to freedom fries
Freedom fries
Freedom fries is a political euphemism for French fries used by some people in the United States as a result of anti-French sentiment during the controversy over the U.S. decision to launch the 2003 invasion of Iraq. France expressed strong opposition in the United Nations to such an invasion...
. In March 2003, the cafeteria of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
had its French fries and French toast renamed to freedom fries and toast, at the direction of Representatives Bob Ney
Bob Ney
Robert William Ney is an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned...
(R-Ohio) and Walter Jones
Walter B. Jones
Walter Beaman Jones, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district encompasses the Outer Banks and areas near the Pamlico Sound. Jones' father was Walter B. Jones, Sr., a Democratic Party congressman from the neighboring 1st district...
(R-North Carolina). Representative Ney chaired the Committee on House Administration and had authority over the menu in the House cafeteria.
The freedom fries renaming was not without controversy or opposition. Timothy Noah
Timothy Noah
Timothy Robert Noah is an American journalist. He is a senior editor of The New Republic, where he writes the TRB column and a political blog...
of Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
noted that the move was "meant to demonize France for its exasperating refusal to support a war against Iraq". He compared the renaming to the renaming of all things German in World War II, but argued that the freedom fries episode was worse because "Germany, after all, was America's enemy, whereas France is America's NATO ally." The episode occurred despite the fact that neither french fries nor french toast are typically French (see origins of french fries
French fries
French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...
and french toast
French toast
French toast or Eggy Bread, is a food made with bread and eggs. It is a Christmas time dessert in Portugal and Brazil.Where French toast is served as a sweet dish, milk, sugar, or cinnamon are also commonly added before frying, and it may be then topped with sugar, butter, fruit, syrup, or other...
), with American people and politicians being driven intentionally or unintentionally by the name confusion
Mental confusion
Confusion of a pathological degree usually refers to loss of orientation sometimes accompanied by disordered consciousness and often memory Confusion (from Latin confusĭo, -ōnis, noun of action from confundere "to pour together", also "to confuse") of a pathological degree usually refers to loss...
.
The swell of anti-French sentiment in the United States resulting from 2003 episode was marked. Many media personalities and politicians openly expressed anti-French sentiments. According to a survey organized by the CSA
CSA
-Agriculture, Farming, and Food:* Community Supported Agriculture* Community Shared Agriculture-Politics, Administration and Military:* Confederate States of America* Canadian Securities Administrators* Canadian Space Agency* Canadian Standards Association...
and the French-American Foundation
French-American Foundation
The French-American Foundation is the principal non-governmental organization linking France and the United States at leadership levels and across the full range of the French-American relationship....
, 41% of Americans had a good opinion about France in 2007.
Anti-French sentiment in The Republic of Ireland
Historically, relations between French and Irish have been generally positive, as both peoples shared a common religion, Roman Catholicism, and a powerful common Protestant enemy, England (later the United Kingdom). French kings during the 16th to 19th centuries often supported Irish and Scottish interests against English advances in Ireland and Scotland.Recently, there have been a few instances of friction between France and the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
over political and economic issues that led to expressions of Irish francophobia. One of these was when Ireland rejected the Lisbon treaty in a referendum in 2008 and Nicolas Sarkozy commented that Ireland "must vote again" - as it indeed did the following year. Another source has been the French criticism of Ireland's low corporate taxation rate and the perceived French resistance to conceding an interest rate reduction on the IMF/ EU loan arrangement until Ireland "moves" on this rate, which was perceived as interference.
Francophobia in Ireland rose in the aftermath a controversial FIFA World Cup playoff
France vs Republic of Ireland 2010 FIFA World Cup play-off
The France vs Republic of Ireland 2010 FIFA World Cup play-off, dubbed by the media as the Hand of Frog affair, was a controversial association football game played on 18 November 2009 in the Stade de France outside Paris between the national teams of France and the Republic of Ireland...
game between the two countries, leading to protests outside the French Embassy in Dublin. Irish businesses exploited the occasion in a mostly light-hearted way, with promotions offering discounts for every goal scored against France and special reductions to celebrate the elimination of France from the tournament.
See also
- 112 Gripes about the French112 Gripes about the French112 Gripes about the French was a 1945 handbook issued by the United States military authorities to enlisted personnel arriving in France after the Liberation...
- AnglophobiaAnglophobiaAnglophobia means hatred or fear of England or the English people. The term is sometimes used more loosely for general Anti-British sentiment...
- Anti-French sentiment in the United StatesAnti-French sentiment in the United StatesAnti-French sentiment in the United States is the manifestation of Francophobia by Americans. It signifies a consistent hostility toward the government, culture, and people of France that employs stereotypes.-Understanding anti-French sentiments:...
- Cheese-eating surrender monkeysCheese-eating surrender monkeys"Cheese-eating surrender monkeys", sometimes shortened to "surrender monkeys", is a derogatory description of French people that was coined in 1995 by a writer of the television series The Simpsons. The phrase has since entered two Oxford quotation dictionaries...
- Foreign relations of FranceForeign relations of FranceA charter member of the United Nations, France holds one of the permanent seats in the Security Council and is a member of most of its specialized and related agencies.-Nicolas Sarkozy:...
- Franco-American relationsFranco-American relationsFranco-American relations refers to the international relations between France and the United States. Its groundwork was laid by the colonization of parts of the Americas by the European powers France and Great Britain...
- Freedom friesFreedom friesFreedom fries is a political euphemism for French fries used by some people in the United States as a result of anti-French sentiment during the controversy over the U.S. decision to launch the 2003 invasion of Iraq. France expressed strong opposition in the United Nations to such an invasion...
- Germanophobia
- Pardon my FrenchPardon my French"Pardon my French" or "Excuse my French" is a common English language phrase ostensibly disguising profanity as French. The phrase is uttered in an attempt to excuse the user of profanity or curses in the presence of those offended by it under the pretense of the words being part of a foreign...
- Quebec bashingQuebec bashingAnti-Quebec sentiment is opposition or hostility toward the government, culture, or the francophone people of Quebec.The term Quebec bashing is used in the French-language media to refer to what is perceived and depicted by Quebec nationalists as defamatory anti-Quebec coverage, in the...
- XenophobiaXenophobiaXenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...