Candide

What are the most important political events to have shaped ‘French national identity’?

The term ‘national identity’ means what distinguishes France from other countries in their and others eyes, it can also be seen as an aspiration e.g. what France would like to be. The French are a patriotic nation who are very proud of their culture. Their history has included many long and violent wars; many times they have nearly been taken over by other countries. In this essay I will attempt to demonstrate the major events to have created the identity of the French people that we see today.

It is difficult to know where to begin when discussing which were the most important political events to have shaped France. However a good starting point is the French Revolution. Before the revolution French society was very different. France was a feudal society with the monarchy having absolute power; the church and the state were very closely linked. The French had financed the American war of independence against the English; as a result of this the monarchy was bankrupt. In February 1787 the controller general of finances introduced heavy taxation of the noble classes in order to solve the debt problem of the monarchy, however this move alie

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This determination by the government not to relinquish another part of their empire almost brought the country to civil war. The Vichy regime, whose leader was Phillipe Pétain, was supposed to be above politics and to be concerned only with the national interest. In the 1780s famine struck France, the peasants were starving. There was a lack of stability in the government, and the government changed hands several times. Even in the political arena women were massively under-represented, under De Gaulle’s parliament in 1968 fewer that 2% of the deputies were women and even as late as 1993 there were only 35 women in the national assembly. As a result of this the National Assembly began to construct a new regime, ‘Declaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen’, the basic principle of this was “all men are born free and equal in rights”. Many of these became French Nationals.

Algeria had been a French colony since 1830. However Pétain had always sought power and thought that collaboration with the Nazis would give him what he wanted. Immigration has for many years been a contentious issue in France, Immigrants have tended to be a scapegoat for all the ills in society, for example unemployment, overcrowding, crime. Today you can still see the effects of the revolution in the spirits of the French people, they are always ready to stand up for their beliefs and will protest if they believe they have been done an injustice. Many people see the French as a racist nation, which can be partly attributed to their views on immigration.

In 1852 the second empire was established by Emperor Napoleon III, this era was characterised by a “stable, authoritarian government” , the country was prosperous during these two decades however he was finally defeated by the Franco-German War (1870-71) and in 1875 the Third Republic was created. France had already lost its colonies in Indo-china, Tunisia and Morocco and therefore when the inhabitants of Algeria began demanding independence the French were determined not to lose another colony. The French people had united to take control of their country; their slogan was ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fratenité’.

Approximate Word count = 2016
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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