Posted by
Jack Le Moine on Monday, September 14, 2009 10:54:17 PM
Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? The military history of France is most of the military history of the world. Here’s a list of the major French wars. Titles link to summaries of the wars. Since so much is happening this month, I’m backdating the summaries. (These also fill holes in my blog, too – grin!) Click on the map to see a detailed topographical map of France. Check back often as I work my way through this. ** = still unfinished.
Some of these wars are more historical periods than a war. Constant warfare during a period just merge in our collective, historical memory as just one big long war. This is especially true of the Dark Ages. To be consistent, the wars against Germany (Franco-Prussian, WWI , and WWII) could be considered as one long war broken up by intermittent peace, too. Indeed, the “100 Years War” was a collection of wars, rather than just one. I offer this scheme, as a logical way to understand the major wars of French history.
Note, to what extent this list encompasses most of the major wars of human history since Caesar.
P.S. No summary of French military history could be complete without something on the storied
French Foreign Legion. Here's Wikipedia's
article.