A good part of them being French, I don't see any problem with that.
Most influential Nation in history?
- Thread starter carmen510
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Thorgalaeg
Deity
In fact AFAIK France generally treated his colonies, above all Argelia, in a much more "constructive" way than Britain. It was mainly becuase while for Britain his colonies were mainly a business, France final intentions was to "annex" Argelia as part of France. Which system is more positive is a matter of opinion of course.
aronnax
Let your spirit be free
That reminds me, why hasnt French Guiana clamoured for independence yet?
Look at the living standards in French Guyanne, then at Surinam, English Guiana and Brazil.
France was not perfect in the colonies, but from the main colonial powers, it was the one that accepted the most natives integration: if they followed French customs, then they could be considered equal.Wikipedia said:
aronnax
Let your spirit be free
Are you sure? Hmmm a black African in the French Court as rich noble of the 1700.....I can imagine that
Colonization in black Africa really started at the end of the 19th century, so no, I can imagine a black African in the French court in 1700
aelf
Ashen One
You see how much of the French Empire is desert compared to the British disease-ridden jungle
The dersert in French lands are like a good 70 - 80%
while for the British only are good 40%-50%
Aren't we talking about Africa?
And it's an indisputable fact that Britain was the biggest colonial power due to its maritime and commercial strength. But how does a comparison make France useless? France had the second largest empire. Compare that to Germany's, for example.
And if you want to talk about wars, Germany lost WW1 and WW2 badly, as well as getting its ass kicked a good number of times during the Napoleonic Wars. Wow, they suck. They must be ashamed of their inferior military skills. If my country lost 90% of its wars like Germany, I would go to a corner and cry all day.
That's not how people look at it. The disparaging view of the French is an Anglo-American bias, and you lapped it all up, unsurprisingly. What is Singapore but a pawn of the British and then of the US?
A pawn? Not even sure. At least a pawn can become a queen if you bring it to your opponent first row.
biggamer132
King
And yet most of Africa is still gripped in extreme poverty.
I won't deny that the colonial policies of some powers, especially the French in parts of Africa and the English in India, had some positive effects. However, if you look at the issue from a modern point of view, the policies of colonialism have created far more instability than they have prosperity. However, if you look at some other extremely unstable parts of the world, especially the Middle East, conflicts such as those in Iraq, Israel, and Iran (with the revolution and the rise of a radical government) can all be traced back to English and Western interference.
M. Sarkozy does.
Does he? He has nothing against French citizens who respect the laws, whatever their colour and origin.
biggamer132
King
Well, I believe it was him who called predominantly-minority youth "scum" during the riots a couple of years back.
Oruc
Reactionary
Nope!
Both wrong. He said that before the riots.
On the main news channel, you only see a few sentences, Sarkozy saying "we will get rid of the scum"
Keep in mind that before he said that during a visit, there was in this neighboround things like: a bus with a disable man inside was burnt, a bus was stonned and a 18 month child was send to hospital... When he said "scum", he was speaking of the youngsters who did that.
1h22min of video, explaining the case (journalist work afterward, who tried to see what really happened.
http://www.france5.fr/asi/007548/10/129836.cfm
Excerpt:
The visit of the minister did not end with the visite at the police office, as the news said, it continued for a long time.
A witness
"I was at my balcony when Mr Sarkozy exited the police office, and started to talk with people. He asked question about insecurity, how long we have been living here, how we felt... he asked me to get down and we talked in the hall. It last 30-45 minutes, and then he talked 30 minutes more with the youngsters in the small park in front of the building".
From a youngster "There was a lot of people, fathers, children with pyjamas, asking questions. The talked about uneomplement, discrimnation, social infrastructures, and many other things."
Two othrers "We were there, and the minister of the Interior was going to his car, the door was opened, he was leaving, and we said: Sarkozy, you come here, but you didn't talk with us. He answered: No problem, come if you want to talk, then we talk during 30 minutes... It had nothing to do with what we watched on TV, it was completly different.
The journalist : "all the news channel filmed these talked, but none broadcasted it".
A youngster, about the "scum" :
"At this time, there was a inhabitant, at her windows, with the shutters haf closed, just enough to see what happened".
She was saying that she felt unsafe, with all the scum here (reference to the bus), and Sarkozy answered that to allow the people to live there safely, he intented to get rid of the scum.
Now tell me, if the head of the police in your city visit a part of the city where a bus was burnt, a children injured, talk to the people there, to know who they feel about that, and says to one of the inhabitants the guys who did that are criminal, or scum? Where is the problem? What are they? Angels?
On the main news channel, you only see a few sentences, Sarkozy saying "we will get rid of the scum"
Keep in mind that before he said that during a visit, there was in this neighboround things like: a bus with a disable man inside was burnt, a bus was stonned and a 18 month child was send to hospital... When he said "scum", he was speaking of the youngsters who did that.
1h22min of video, explaining the case (journalist work afterward, who tried to see what really happened.
http://www.france5.fr/asi/007548/10/129836.cfm
Excerpt:
The visit of the minister did not end with the visite at the police office, as the news said, it continued for a long time.
A witness
"I was at my balcony when Mr Sarkozy exited the police office, and started to talk with people. He asked question about insecurity, how long we have been living here, how we felt... he asked me to get down and we talked in the hall. It last 30-45 minutes, and then he talked 30 minutes more with the youngsters in the small park in front of the building".
From a youngster "There was a lot of people, fathers, children with pyjamas, asking questions. The talked about uneomplement, discrimnation, social infrastructures, and many other things."
Two othrers "We were there, and the minister of the Interior was going to his car, the door was opened, he was leaving, and we said: Sarkozy, you come here, but you didn't talk with us. He answered: No problem, come if you want to talk, then we talk during 30 minutes... It had nothing to do with what we watched on TV, it was completly different.
The journalist : "all the news channel filmed these talked, but none broadcasted it".
A youngster, about the "scum" :
"At this time, there was a inhabitant, at her windows, with the shutters haf closed, just enough to see what happened".
She was saying that she felt unsafe, with all the scum here (reference to the bus), and Sarkozy answered that to allow the people to live there safely, he intented to get rid of the scum.
Now tell me, if the head of the police in your city visit a part of the city where a bus was burnt, a children injured, talk to the people there, to know who they feel about that, and says to one of the inhabitants the guys who did that are criminal, or scum? Where is the problem? What are they? Angels?
aelf
Ashen One
A colony, even a Crown Colony, can pass off as nothing but a pawn. And if you look at the global political alignment, Singapore had to play its cards wisely among Non-Aligned countries but had never really disguised its pro-American (and pro-Israeli) leanings. And I don't believe it has ever opposed the US once, exept for the Michael Fay incident (in which the local ruling party had its honour, and much of its law-making power, at stake).
Yes, it can become a queen. But in the global game of chess, that is a lot more easily spoken than done
Militarily speaking, Singapore models itself on Israel.
However, I think it's a bit harsh to criticise Singapore for being a "pawn". The place is the size of the Isle of Wight. And I'd say it has far more influence and power - of the economic variety - than you'd expect of such a tiny country. Plus, of course, per capita, it is one of the most prosperous countries in the world, with one of the longest average lifespans, everything there is efficient and works properly, the streets are clean and safe, the parks are beautiful, the grass is green and the girls are pretty. It's certainly one of the best places in the world to live. I suspect that it will become more influential in the future as a model of how to run a city or indeed a country.
However, I think it's a bit harsh to criticise Singapore for being a "pawn". The place is the size of the Isle of Wight. And I'd say it has far more influence and power - of the economic variety - than you'd expect of such a tiny country. Plus, of course, per capita, it is one of the most prosperous countries in the world, with one of the longest average lifespans, everything there is efficient and works properly, the streets are clean and safe, the parks are beautiful, the grass is green and the girls are pretty. It's certainly one of the best places in the world to live. I suspect that it will become more influential in the future as a model of how to run a city or indeed a country.
And Singapore airline has the prettiest female flight attendant in the world
I was not speaking of the most spoken languages, but the most influential, where French can be seen as the second, with Spanish very close behind. And Spanish is likely to become second soon.
Summary here
http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm
Full detail here
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm
That's common law that comes from Britain (red), not civil law(blue)
Civil law is mainly based from the Roman civil law, and then can be divided in 3 main groups depending on their origin
French civil law: in France, the Benelux countries, Italy, Spain and former colonies of those countries;
German civil law: in Germany, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Japan, South Korea and the Republic of China;
Scandinavian civil law: in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Finland and Iceland inherited the system from their neighbors.
Obviously, French civil law is the "recent" (i.e. after Roman) origin of the legal system of more countries than the other systems.
And here in red, you have the countries which are NOT using the metric system
On that topic, you cannot deny the influence of France compared to USA or Britain.
@Sofista: I'm aware of this joke, but I'm not sure Aronax was joking
wow @ the civil law bit, france has been really influential there
for language, wouldn't a population argument be better? Sand doesn't speak much.
France is on a par with Britian and ( above the US IMO) obviously, but I would still say britian has more influence, hmm, then again paris was trhe centre of a lot of european philosophy. They are quite equal.
