Why are Americans so anti- French?

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by paiktis22
It did lead to the overthrow of monarchy and set the foundations for the modern nation state by which all european countries operate and on which basis they are formed. (yes even the UK although it doesn't like to hear it and prefers to talk about... westphalia (sp?)

Apart from that the ideals of humanism were unprecedented in their wide scope.

I think you will find Cromwell laid the foundations for the British nation, as when James II returned he had his powers serverly limited by parliament.

We were a constitutiosnl monarchy before teh French revolution

[KrazyHorse]

Stop using that. While partly true, it is not completely so.

Nationalism is more than the mere statement of national sovereignty in internal affairs. It is a movement of thought among the general population which was not accomplished overnight.

[Akka]

Originally posted by TheStinger


The french were not even culturally dominant in Europe,

Im music they certainly wern't dominant.
In painting tehy had many good artists but so did The Netherlands,Spain and Italy.
In literature they are at least equalled by Britain.

How then are they culturally dominant

Frenchs were even more dominant in the XVIIIth century than Americans are actually.

France was the CENTER of culture in Europe. All kings were trying to imitate the french court.
All philosophers of the time were frenchs (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot...), and they were the main vectors of new humanists ideas.

French was the language for every man in high spheres of power. Most nobles were in fact much more fluent in french than in their own domestic language (there is a quote from this time where it is said that Prussian officers were talking german "only to their orderly and horse").

The "century of lights" had its name because of the new ideas and arts that were coming from the french royal court.

All this withered away slowly after the end of the first french empire, and with the rising of England to the first world place, and english took more and more importance (mainly after the WW2 when the power balance shifted brutally to the USA side).

You get the prize for making the best post this thread.

Hands Akka the prize

Are you aware that you are giving a prize to a left-winger French ?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Akka le Vil
Are you aware that you are giving a prize to a left-winger French ?

Nobody is perfect.

[Akka]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Nobody is perfect.

... but me

(sorry, this was just too tempting)

[Bereta_Eder]

hehe talking about France look what I found:






France's air force aerobatic team, the Patrouille de France, on Saturday Sept. 7, 2000, flies over the statue of the warrior-king Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki bay, Greece. France is the honored country at the 67th annual Thessaloniki International Trade Fair and the team was in the northern port as part of the opening ceremonies. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

(a fact which nobody actually knows here )

[Guest]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Just don't get me started on Australians.

Ok, How are the sheep?

[Guest]

Originally posted by Pandemoniak


Hey... What is the diplomatic language nowadays ???

Oh, its french... Maybe our language is more subtle than english then...

So subtle that effectively nothing has been done dipllomatically for all the years since it's adoption. It's no mistake, the diplomats knew that if they chose french, no one else would understand them and thus they could sucessfully stretch out netgotiations for years, thus protecting their phoney baloney jobs.

And why no one is answering at M. Brillat Savarin ?

Because no one knows who or what he, she or it is!

[Richelieu]

Honni soit qui mal y pense...

[Adalbertus]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Just don't get me started on Australians.

Speaking of Australians, Paiktis has posted a very nice picture of Alexander's Horse.

[Bereta_Eder]

He always has this "blaze" expression

[Arrian]

Most of it is just kidding around. There isn't real hatred of France or French people here. A bit of contempt, maybe, but not hatred.

In a nutshell, we're both arrogant and like to do our own thing. And keep in mind that our mother country doesn't exactly have a history of warm and fuzzy relations with the Frogs.

-Arrian

[Boris Godunov]

Any culture that loves Jerry Lewis and eats frogs must be hated.

[Bereta_Eder]

i concure about jerry luis and it is the legs of the frogs not the frogs themsleves.

[rah]

It's simple.
The women don't shave.

And they are rude to American tourists that don't speak French. And since that ends up being 99% of Americans, we all just assume they hate us and deserve to be hated back.

RAH