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The world isn't "fair" or "correct" and it's bad guys all the way down. The French empire just tends to be one of the worst [1][2][3][4] with a sprinkle of mod

The world isn't "fair" or "correct" and it's bad guys all the way down. The French empire just tends to be one of the worst [1][2][3][4] with a sprinkle of modern state sponsored terrorism [5] for good measure. You can take solace that they're in good company in continental Europe, I guess? There are no saints here, but to act like France isn't completely responsible for it's empire building is obscene. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti_indemnity_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti_indemnity_controversy - crippled Haiti economically in revenge for independence for over a century. Still hasn't recovered. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamileke_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamileke_War - fought against Cameroon's independence [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagasy_Uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagasy_Uprising - found against Madagascar's independence, massacring much of the managerial class that ran the country, crippling it [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Indochina_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Indochina_War - Bloody fight against independence all of their Asian colonies resulting in hundreds of thousands dead, leading to the rise of communism in Vietnam and the subsequent wars in Indochina. [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior - French intelligence agents bombed a Greenpeace boat in New Zealand in 1985

sofixa 3y ago
> crippled Haiti economically in revenge for independence for over a century. Still hasn't recovered. It wasn't in revenge, it was purely economic cold blooded compensation. Haiti was unrecognised by the world (some like the US were afraid of their own slaves getting ideas, others didn't want to offend France), and France was willing to do that if compensated monetarily for the loss of property (including slaves). Had Haiti not taken the deal, it probably would have spent a few more decades fully isolated and unable to trade, which is unlikely to have improved their situation. > French intelligence agents bombed a Greenpeace boat in New Zealand in 1985 It's funny how crazy that sounds on the surface, but is totally true. With the benefit of hindsight personally I can say that Greenpeace have been a force for bad more than good (their, and many others like them, short sighted and frankly stupid anti-nuclear stance has set humanity many decades back in the carbon reduction game, and we're all paying for it; what's even more annoying is that they never changed their stance, even when it meant increasing coal or gas usage, and related very problematic dependencies on Russia), so while they didn't deserve getting their ship bombed, they don't deserve to be underlined as some sort of holy thing that nobody could ever imagine someone doing bad things to. > Bloody fight against independence all of their Asian colonies resulting in hundreds of thousands dead, leading to the rise of communism in Vietnam and the subsequent wars in Indochina. Communism was already on the rise against the Japanese, can't attribute that mostly to the French. But yep, they made the situation worse and set the stage for the American intervention which made everything even worse.

sofixa 3y ago

> crippled Haiti economically in revenge for independence for over a century. Still hasn't recovered. It wasn't in revenge, it was purely economic cold blooded compensation. Haiti was unrecognised by the world (some like the US were afraid of their own slaves getting ideas, others didn't want to offend France), and France was willing to do that if compensated monetarily for the loss of property (including slaves). Had Haiti not taken the deal, it probably would have spent a few more decades fully isolated and unable to trade, which is unlikely to have improved their situation. > French intelligence agents bombed a Greenpeace boat in New Zealand in 1985 It's funny how crazy that sounds on the surface, but is totally true. With the benefit of hindsight personally I can say that Greenpeace have been a force for bad more than good (their, and many others like them, short sighted and frankly stupid anti-nuclear stance has set humanity many decades back in the carbon reduction game, and we're all paying for it; what's even more annoying is that they never changed their stance, even when it meant increasing coal or gas usage, and related very problematic dependencies on Russia), so while they didn't deserve getting their ship bombed, they don't deserve to be underlined as some sort of holy thing that nobody could ever imagine someone doing bad things to. > Bloody fight against independence all of their Asian colonies resulting in hundreds of thousands dead, leading to the rise of communism in Vietnam and the subsequent wars in Indochina. Communism was already on the rise against the Japanese, can't attribute that mostly to the French. But yep, they made the situation worse and set the stage for the American intervention which made everything even worse.