Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 11, 2006



The military history of France represents a massive panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years over areas encompassing modern France, Europe, and European territorial possessions overseas. Gallo-Roman conflict predominated from 400 BCE to 50 BCE, with the Romans emerging victorious in the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. After the decline of the Roman Empire, a Germanic tribe known as the Franks took control of Gaul by defeating competing tribes. In the eighteenth century, global competition with Great Britain led to defeat in the French and Indian War, where France lost its North American holdings and India, but consolation came in the form of the American Revolutionary War, where massive French aid led to America's independence. Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous war in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, but by 1815 it had been restored to its pre-Revolutionary borders. Following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Franco-German rivalry reasserted itself again in World War I, this time France emerging as the winner. Tensions over the Versailles Treaty led to the Second World War, where it was humiliated in the Battle of France. The Allies eventually emerged victorious over the Germans, however, and France was given an occupation zone in Germany. Today, French military intervention is most often seen in its former colonies and with its NATO allies in hot spots around the world. (continued...)

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