France (Principia Moderni IV Map Game)

French Republic République française Timeline: Principia Moderni IV (Map Game) OTL equivalent: French Third Republic
Coat of arms
Capital		Paris
Official languages		French
Religion		Roman Catholicism
Demonym		French
Government		Unitary semi-presidential republic
Legislature		Parliament
Establishment
-	Treaty of Verdun	August 10, 843
-	Age of Capetians	987-1328
-	Age of Valois	1328-1832
-	French Revolution	1832-1836
-	French Republic	1836-present
Population
-	1929 estimate	49.5 million (2nd [in Western Europe])

France, officially the French Republic, is a sovereign state in Western Europe. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic, with its seat of power resting in the city of Paris.

History

Regency

At the turn of century, with Charles’s paranoid schizophrenia continuing to become more of a problem, a regency council was established by lords and nobles close to the king, gathering support from some counts, dukes, most of the Estates-General, and Pope Boniface IX. The two regents: Queen Consort Isabeau and Bishop Nicolas du Bosc, immediately started working on reconciling the rivaling Dukes of Burgundy and Orléans, and also encouraging unity among the French people against threats like England.

The regency immediately attempted to act as a mediator in both many national and international situations. In Paris, Regent Queen Consort Isabeau, King Charles VI, Duke Louis of Orléans, and Philip of Burgundy met in Louvre Castle to negotiate terms to end the two Duke's rivalry. At this meeting it was decided that the two dukes would get the special privilege to have advisors to the King. This became the Conseil des Racines in 1403, which contained two advisers from each Duke. The negotiations proved to be somewhat unsuccessful, as a misguided noble of Burgundy still assassinated Duke Louis. This led to two new actions by the regency, the creation of the "Cour de Seine" and the law, "Lex Tuitor". The Cour de Seine is a forum that meets every year in Paris which contains representatives from each vassal (which replaced the Conseil des Racines). While, "Lex Tuitor" established a bodyguard unit for each vassal, and established the Order of the Lily as the King's personal bodyguard. The regents also negotiated another peace and truce between the two parties to prevent escalation to a civil war.

In foreign affairs, the regents were able to persuade the English to back down from their siege of the Scottish capital with an ultimatum to invade the Angleterre, and renew the French Succession Wars. While the French maintained their relations with the Scottish, a new and strong relationship formed between the Castile and France. The regency also minimally participated in the Crusade against Trier, and signed the Treaty of Trier, which most of the forces consisting of Burgundian units. The Kingdom negotiated deals with the smaller nations of Brittany and Navarre to establish them as loose vassals to the French crown in 1406 and 1408.

War of the Two Lilies

In 1412, with the truce with England coming to the end, and seeing the weakness of their Kingdom, Nicolas du Bosc issued a declaration of war to the English crown. This followed with a quick and organized heavy decisive victories and seizures of their fortresses. Raids were also done on the English trade network, and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey were briefly captured by French forces. Small skirmishes happened on the coast, but England couldn't achieve a decisive naval landing. Around 1415, seeing how France was occupied, the Kingdom of Aragon declared war on the French vassal kingdom of Navarre. The Aragonese troops quickly pushed through the Navarran countryside, and arrived at the fortress of Pamplona with thirty thousand men.

After hearing of the news, the regents dispatched forty thousand men under L'Isle Adam to defend the castle. The troops arrived just in time with Aragonese cannons almost destroying the walls around the garrison. The siege looked indecisive, with food supplies being brought to both sides of the battle. The next year with the death of Aragonese King, and one decisive sally, the Aragonese troops withdrew from French lands. The army under Aragon was battered, but not completely destroyed, and the French chose not to follow it, as they thought there would be another way of attackers coming from England. The new King of Aragon, established a ceasefire and in 1417, and peace was negotiated between the two kingdoms, restoring relations. Seeing that the siege of his ally was unsuccessful, Henry V finally bowed into French demands and signed the Treaty of Cherbourg in 1417. After winning these two conflicts the regency cemented their legitimacy to rule the nation.

During the same decade, Charles VI had his third major outbreak where he exiled his own family from Paris and ran through the streets naked. This led to the use of the "Lex Insanus" law and the removal of Charles VI from the royal palace and to Hôtel Barbette with his mistress.

Great European War

In 1854, after narrowly avoiding a large-scale war in the infamous Maghreb Crisis and the Kingdom of Prussia's declaration of war against the Rhineland, Chancellor Roussel would face the National Congress, requesting for immediate action against the Prussians, as well as their ally and main benefactor, the Russian Empire. The National Congress would approve this call for war, and in the summer of that same year, France would effectively declare war upon the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire to better support their ally and prevent the increase of the League of Eagle's sphere of influence.

To begin effectively aiding the Rhineland, a large number of troops were decidedly moved across the English Channel by a large fleet of battleships that would support the front lines of the Prussian-Rhineland battlefield in favor of pushing out the Prussians and ending the stalemate as it occurred. However, the fleet nor the men would never make it to the Rhineland, as Burgundian patrol ships would see the French movement of ships through the English Channel as an invasion (although no French offensive would begin in Burgundy until the next year). The French fleet was destroyed mid-way to the Rhineland, and Burgundy would declare war on France.

The destruction of the French fleet would anger much of the French populous, and soon, an offensive was launched against the Burgundians in an effort to counter the destruction of the French fleet. The offensives would end up being failures, as the French military general François Bazaine had simply unexpected the fortifications that was the Burgundian borders. The failed offensives would decidedly bring about a new plan of action to keep moral steady, which was to move the 1st legion of 700,000 to dig trenches along the border and take on a more defensive-type of positioning as to better decrease French casualties in the case of a failed invasion and to better increase any invading Burgundian forces casualties. Although for the first few years, much of the Franco-Burgundian border remained silent, the Franco-Iberian border would remain in constant conflict with the Iberian and Belkan forces attempting to invade through Aquitania and effectively establish a foothold in the French mainland.

Politics

Government

Under the Old Regime, the Estates-General or States-General (États Généraux) was a legislative and consultative assembly of the different classes (or estates) of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king. It had no true power in its own right, instead it functioned as an advisory body to the king, primarily by presenting petitions from the various estates and consulting on fiscal policy. In France, the first estate comprised the clergymen, the second estate the nobility, and the third estate the commoners (bourgeoisie, artisans and peasants). Historically, during the regency of Charles VI, the Estates-General was given more de facto power.

Following a revolution in the late 18th century, the country was initially a republic before the beginning of the Great European War, however, the rise in radicalist ideas would allow for the Communist Party to gain leadership and a majority over both the presidential title and the National Congress respectively by 1864. With this, the government of France would rapidly change, operating for a time as am authoritarian marsanist-communist state, with the President and National Congress gaining a large un-opposed executive and legislative power through numerous reforms.

Foreign Relations

Having one of the largest populations in the modern world, France is currently a great power and holds large influence over the international arena. It has diplomatically been a part of numerous alliances, including the recent Pact of Steel with the Rhineland, and maintains diplomatic relationships with numerous countries worldwide. France is also a member of the Trans-Atlantic Trade Compact.

Military

France maintains an unified armed legion, composed of the Armed Forces (Forces Armées) and the Imperial Navy (Marine Impériale), forming the two primary branches for the French military. Colonial states of France are allowed to maintain their own war ministry, however, all of the ministry members are to be pre-selected and voted upon by the Armed Forces based in Paris. The largest of these colonial states that maintains a large Armed Forces legion is the state of Nigeria.

The French Armed Forces has undergone numerous reforms and changes since the Six Years War (or France-Burgundian War) of 1836 and the more recent Great European War of 1852. Including a full overhall of standard uniforms, regularly increasing the size of the Armed Forces, and making a secondary national guard forces known as the Local Regiment (Régiment Local) to better handle state-issued problems, the French military has ascended to great heights in terms of training, strategic military tactics, and advanced weaponry. As it stands, the current active Armed Forces's units is sized at 150,000, while the reserve units are sized at 850,000.

Gallery

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