this that means that the European Union actually looks like this
I want to show you wow hey guys welcome back to foreign reacts today I will be checking out a
special video and this one was a requested video uh you know this guy actually requested this video
on two different videos like he really wanted me to do this video so I'm definitely going to do
it today and I'm going to try to make this video available literally today on the on foreign yeah
it's like I I go off a schedule and I'm going to try to break the schedule just for him because
he actually commented this exact same comment on two different videos he said can you also
react France still has an Empire by Johnny Harris I have already given you lots of videos on France
so please can you make a video for that I have proposed to you or the best you can do in all
cases if it's too long or if you find them not interested in it's your opinion not mine but I
strongly recommend them so he recommend these and if I remember I'll you know throw that comment on
the screen but uh I probably won't but I try to remember but the point is I'll be doing your video
right now right now for real for real so uh yeah thank you for for suggesting if you guys want to
leave suggestions in the comment section as well feel free to do that and I'll try to get back to
those as soon as possible but for now let's get right into this video guys France borders
eight countries hey actually no it doesn't it border what the heck this dude just said hey
but then he switched it up on me bro like he had me laughing bro like what way more
than eight countries and in fact the longest border isn't even this one with Belgium or
this one with Spain what about Germany it's this one way over here with Brazil
wow you you played me he played me what is going on here I learned this on Reddit and it quickly
flung me down a giant rabbit hole of some very strange information I then put a call out on
Instagram and asked all of you to tell me what is going on with France and its giant overseas
Empire looking thing I got a bunch of responses so then I did what I always do which is spent the
entire day mapping this every single Island every single administrative boundary every single ocean
border I made an entire behind the scenes by the way for my patrons thank you patrons you guys rock
yeah it was a lot but now I'm on the other side of it and I have some stuff to share with you by the
way this video is sponsored by storyblocks where I get a lot of amazing footage more on that later
okay so this is France but really this is only one version of France they call this version of
France lexagon or the hexagon it's also called La France Metropol or the Metropolitan France it's
the mainland it's the motherland of France the France you probably think of when you think of
France here in Europe but there's another France it's called France or the overseas France and
that one looks like this this France accounts for almost 20 percent of all of France's land
and a whoppy 97 of its ocean territory nearly 3 million French citizens live here this France
is peculiar it includes far-flung Tropical Islands remote archipelagos with penguins
and weird-looking uninhabited atolls all around the world there's lobster fishing and scientific
research and nuclear weapons testing and Military exercises and the mind-blowing fact here is that
because France actually looks like this that means that the European Union actually looks like this
I want to show you wow bro he just keeps messing up my hair probably like what the heck this is
actually a really good video This is actually flat out one of the best videos I've seen probably
over two months right now bro like this is solid borders and pieces of land to try to understand
why this country that should have decolonized six centuries ago has territory all around the world
all right so let's go over to the Netherlands no no no not that Netherlands let's go this way
over to the Caribbean this is a little island that is split in half between the Netherlands
and France it's the only place where these two countries share a border the population
here they're French citizens a few years back they did vote to become semi-independent from
France but even still their French citizens this is France zoom out and you'll see that France
isn't alone this whole neighborhood is full of European Colonial holdovers France has three
other Island groups in this chain two of which are basically the exact same as Mainland France
in their administrative status and then you get down here to France's longest border which is in
French Guiana which is a proper part of France and the European Union and the Eurozone they
use the euro here but remember where we are we're in South America this place was used as a prison
Colony for France most of the time a lot of people were sent here for grueling prison sentences many
died that's a whole other history okay so this is French Guiana and the Caribbean key part of
France honestly people just like to Vacation here because they speak French and it looks like
this anyway let's zoom up north to a teeny tiny Island that is a holdover from the old days when
France was colonizing North America this little piece of France is 4 000 kilometers from France
Metropol but it is a few kilometers off the coast of Canada and it's right smack dab in the middle
of Canadian economic Waters France wanted to hold on to this and have it as their own little Enclave
away from France and so a few years ago they fought with Canada in the international courts
to try to carve out a little bit of economic waters for themselves that looked like this
turns out they ended up only getting this little key-shaped slice of economic Waters
so that they could have a little passageway into their country from international waters
to their little France enclave and that's what it looks like today it's a super weird situation
here on this island they use the euro and they speak French like France French not
Quebec French it is a very French place even though it is right smack dab in the middle of
Canadian Waters okay so the Caribbean and this weird set of islands off of Canada
now let's get to the wild ones the ones that were actually the hardest
for me to get my head around as I was mapping them
if you zoom all the way down here close to Antarctica all of these islands are owned
by France there are people who live on these islands who are French citizens we'll get to
those in a second but first look at this weird looking block I know it's a little bit awkward
thanks Mercator let's look at it a little bit differently here from like an actual bottom up
view this slice of land is claimed by France the Frenchman arrived here in the 1800s and
claimed it for France and they've had people there ever since that's a literal ice wall
even in the 1800s they knew that there was an ice wall The World is Flat okay so France
claims this little bit of Antarctica zoom up just a little bit and you'll get to all
these French islands that have a ton of inhabitants but they're just not humans
there were more King Penguins on these islands than anywhere else in the world and honestly
looking at photos of these islands makes me feel like this is the part of France
I want to visit more than any part of France I mean look at this place and the crest for this
group of islands the official Crest is like really cool looking I mean it's got lobsters
and seals that are like yelling and King Penguins I mean this place is just a wild
freaking Dreamland the only actual people who live on these islands are French military and
science Personnel so why did France hold on to these remote islands near Antarctica
and these ones here in the Indian Ocean well other than the fact that France is
as our friend cgp gray notes the queen of not letting go these islands with a major presence
the queen of not letting go
wow
yo hey man what Indian Ocean military presence where they can put bases they can run patrols
they can just have a presence in this important geopolitical part of the world here are the French
military activities in the region between 2016 and 2019. you can see how these islands give France
immense military presence in the region okay wait I'm just trying to do like a fun geography
explainer I don't need to get into like the military stuff can we just chill out for just one
video can I just not explain the geopolitics sure but don't forget that these islands are also used
to harvest over 16 million euros worth of fish and lobster okay stop I get it military dominance
resource extraction science stuff I get it but wait while we're here I also want to mention
that during the 60s and 70s France literally stole hundreds of children from this island one
of their territories to bring back to France to help boost the declining rural population
okay that's actually pretty effed up um yeah okay so Zoom to another
man you gotta be like me bro like you just got to be like me like you don't mess up ass things that
you know happened in the past you're like dang that really happened okay that's messed up but
whatever we laugh at it now really remote part of the ocean this time the Pacific Ocean so the most
remote ocean in the world and you will see a bunch of teeny tiny islands that are France there are 14
000 kilometers from France Menthol which is like a half a planet away like they're
so remote and to understand why France wants to hold on to these islands just look at the
water boundaries the water boundaries of these 118 islands of French Polynesia are 5 million
square kilometers for context the entire European Union like the landmass the area of the whole
EU is 4.4 million square kilometers so the water boundaries around French Polynesia are huge it is
a lot of water that belongs to France this place is home to Bora Bora and Tahiti and just a bunch
of really beautiful islands so maybe I take back my previous statement this is the part of France
I want to visit the most but wait wait aren't you forgetting something yes I'm sure I'm forgetting
something French Polynesia is where France tested its nuclear weapons almost 200 of them between the
1960s and 1990s damaging local populations and natural environments and violating international
law yes of course nukes in the Pacific Ocean damaging irreparably populations and natural
resources I guess I should have known I should have known sorry just trying to do a geography
explainer that's all all right let's look at one last piece of overseas France which is
right next to French Polynesia but let's Zoom to the other side of the map so we can see it better
this is New Caledonia and they were actually on their way out of being a part of France
they were on a 20-year plan to transfer power completely to the people of New Caledonia but
just last month just like literally a few weeks ago they voted on this the people voted and 53 of
them said they wanted to stay with France well 47 wanted Independence voters on the Pacific
Islands of New Caledonia have once again rejected independence from France France secretly loved
this decision because New Caledonia is full of nickel something that they could mine the result
was welcomed by Francis president Emmanuel macron there you go with your natural resources again
and honestly this vote of New Caledonia wanted to stay with France gets to the heart of the tension
in all of these Colonial holdovers all of these islands are the product of French colonialism
brutal greedy racist colonialism the people in these countries were conquered and ruled by this
ruthless power who forced them to adopt their language their government and and their economic
structures and yet here we are centuries later in a globalized economyal governmental order and
system was invented by these big colonizing Powers the France's the britons of the world France holds
on to all of these islands because of what we just talked about military interests expanding their
economic Waters scientific research exploiting natural resources and so now you have many locals
who live under France's Rule and many want independence but others realize that there
are benefits to being attached to the people who invented the rules and who still have the power
yeah that is not an easy tension to resolve for now things likely won't change this is France and
will probably be France for a long time they will keep their sprawling low-key Empire around the
world and France's longest border will continue to be not with Belgium or Spain but with Brazil
yeah as I go bro like that's that's just how he goes man like as horrible as all these things
may sound it's just to be the king to be the emperor to to be that that's just what they
had to do back then man you just got to be about it and live with it man you can't hate him for
um what they did no more man you just gotta understand they were trying to achieve and that's
the only way they achieved so they did what they had to do so I ain't mad at you but either ways
man that's a crazy crazy video that was wonderful I really am happy that I did it and uh hope you
guys uh leave some suggestions in the comment section down below I'm out of here for now peace