What made this nation so historically successful?
>>767920
IIRC, they had a fuckhuge population in comparison to the rest of europe until the mid 19th century.
>>767920
The french people
they had 5 times more population than spain; they are the middle ages china/india/brazil
>>767920
They control a really large area meaning a lot of resources. They are also well positioned, being on both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meaning easy trade with people all across Europe.
>>767920
The earliest Northern European nation to clear its forests and exploit new farming technology, which helped build the prototype for the Industrious Western European city in the Middle Ages that was exported with Karling rule.
>>767920
Large population.
Dynastic stability.
God-tier rulers (Philip II, Louis XIV, etc.)
Few rivals on similar conditions.
>>767970
But there was a time that Spain's people were more numerous than the Franks. How did they manage that?
MASS MUSLIM IMMIGRATION
>>768094
Spain's population, like much of the Mediterranean, relied on Roman grain shipments crisscrossing the sea to support major urban centers and its legions. When the WRE collapsed, Spain reverted back to its previous state.
Meanwhile France cleared away much of its north creating an entirely new breadbasket for itself, which only grew as Northern Germany was also cleared and North Sea trading began colonizing Eastern Europe for even more grain.
manpower bonus's in their national idea line, provinces with a high base tax rate
>>768234
t. mana pro
>>768234
Beware the big blue blob
>>767920
ancient atlantis probably built on the shores of france from a time with more glaciers and greater land expansion mass
>they could swim
>>767920
>nation
Nice meme.
Succesful in comparison to...? Great Britain ruled the world, Spain was a unrivalled naval power at a time, Italy Europe's cultural power hub and the HRE (later Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Czechia, Switzerland, Northern Italy and a huge chuck of France) an uncontested empire in terms of power and size for the longest time of its existence.
>>770367
you're retarded
>>770367
Worst bait I've seen this morning desu
>>767920
In addition to other things said ITT, they also had one dynasty (and its offshoots) rule for 1000 years.
This allowed to centralize the state more efficiently than other continental European countries because nobles couldn't blackmail a new king, like it was done in HRE and Poland-Lithuania.
-most fertile land in Europe
-with this fertile land comes large populous since people aren't dying in droves
-It also makes them rich as fuck so they can buy the best knights, weapon's, accessories,etc.
-To the west and North of them is fucking ocean and Spain is dealing with muslims for most of the middle ages so all they had to deal with is Germany
-Germany and Italy are constantly in-fighting so the more unified France can easily take shit from them
>>771449
>-most fertile land in Europe
actually it's ukraine but france too is fertile
for a long period of time, france was the china of europe, they have the biggest demography
>>771449
Great bait mate.
To the northwest is England, and because of The Norman invasion, England was heavily involved in France from 1066 to 1453.
>>768037
Also well defined natural borders
>>771468
>The Norman invasion, England was heavily involved in France from 1066 to 1453.
You mean France conquered England, colonized it and installed French rulers?
>>771457
it had the benefit of not only being fertile but also not suffering horrible cataclysmic events like the Ukraine or North Africa
they were in a good position of being threatened enough to not be complacent but a secure enough position for not much to happen to them. worst that happened to them externally was the 100 years war were the belligerents fought to get the land so they didn't damage it as much.
>>771468
who were essentially their vessels for most of the middle ages
The great feats of the enlightenment period was mostly them profiting off their success in the during the middle ages and the renaissance.
>>771468
Please it basically was France warring with itself
>>768275
They changed it's colour
It's now the baby blue blob
Normans, from the north took france from roman refugees(viking style) and later they had an organized self governed religion.
The normans came in pagan but adopted the local religion Christianity for power/control, they also invented the idea of a last name/first name.
My last name literally means pagan and has been around since that era. reasoning being it is easier to collect taxes i assume if you don't have to summon all the people known by john living in Normandy and get one to fess up.
Post Norman, after 1k a.d. the king of france literally stole the treasures from the crusades so i imagine that helped a good deal.
people saying france was never attacked are wrong, very wrong *charles martel vs muslims, *viking raids, SPAIN. ENGLAND.
They didnt become the dominant military in europe for most of a millennium by being complacent farmers.
>>767920
Centralized monarchy
large population under a centralized state.
>>767970
One of these is not like the others
>>767920
>french
>successful
>>772277
Not a part, but yeah England use to possess Guyenne because of Anglo-gasconne alliance.
>>770367
>Great Britain ruled the world
Try the third world
>Spain was a unrivalled naval power at a time, Italy Europe's cultural power hub
Hagrid
>HRE (later Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Czechia, Switzerland, Northern Italy and a huge chuck of France) an uncontested empire in terms of power and size for the longest time of its existence.
Lmao
HRE and Power in the same sentence is a pleonasm
