Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Difference between revisions

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Line 6: The popular stereotype that the French suck at war. They surrendered to the Germans fairly early in [[World War II]] and would spend the next several years under the rule of the most infamous fascist regime in western history. Some people [[Kick the Dog\|consider this a source of comedy]], making it into a sort of [[Never Live It Down]] event. At least, if you ask American and British popular culture, especially since the [[Newer Than They Think\|mid-90's or so]]. This is a specific and very common example of an [[National Stereotypes\|National Stereotype]]. The French, so the story says, are useless at war, will surrender at ~~thhttps://allthetropes.org/w/index.php?title=Cheese-Eating_Surrender_Monkeys&action=edite~~the drop of a hat, and need to be bailed out by the Americans/British in any major conflict. Perhaps the historical enmity and mutual prejudices between the English and the French have been unthinkingly adopted by American culture, even though the French helped the former British colony during its War of Independence. The Law of Chronological Superiority isn't helping either: this trope isn't necessarily the prevailing opinion, but it is the most ''recent'' one, as France has not fought any major war since the one that earned them this label. In truth, France has spent most of its history as the most organized, centralized, populous, militarily capable, and economically powerful nation in Europe. Just to give one example (admittedly major), the reason why the French were allowed into the Congress of Vienna at the end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] (after being ''completely and utterly defeated'') as a full party (contrast [[Imperial Germany]] at [[World War I\|Versailles]]) was because every other party was absolutely terrified they would simply ''up and conquer Europe a second time,'' as they had under Napoleon. Even so, the French have a somewhat troublesome tendency to win battles but lose wars, as with Napoleon and Louis XIV. The French also fought a large number of wars, especially under their Sun King, that ended in draws or even victories that simply were not worth the cost, especially in the debt the French state accrued, debt it never found a tenable means of servicing. Nevertheless, France was and remains the military terror of Europe (possessing by far the largest military in the European Union), with France factoring most prominently into every single other European nations' strategic considerations. Contrast [[Gauls With Grenades]]. {{examples}}▼ ▲{{examples}} == Anime & Manga == * ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]:'' Sort of a [[Zig-Zagging Trope]] for [[Anthropomorphic Personification\|France]], depending on the time period. England even refers to him by the trope name in the dub.