this video is made possible by curiosity
stream when you sign up with a link in
the description you'll also get access
to nebula the streaming video platform
that rll is a part of if real life was
like a game of civilization then France
started out in one of the luckiest
possible positions on the entire map it
is mostly pretty unfair the geography
around France gives it a lot of pretty
unique advantages and buffs that a lot
of other civilizations in the game
didn't really get it here's how France
straddles the boundary between northern
and southern Europe and it's the only
country that could truly be considered a
part of both regions owing to a large
series of big and easily navigable
rivers like the Rhine Marne Sen Lu WA
Rowan and Garonne France has the
capability to exert trading power across
every region of Western Europe but the
rivers also helped to provide France
with an abundance of arable land France
has always been one of the leading
agricultural powers in Europe for this
reason and the modern French state has
significantly more arable land than any
other country in Europe except for
Ukraine or Russia France has always had
the capability to produce more food than
historical rivals like England or
Germany and Paris is Frances capital an
administrative center for a very
strategic reason as well it sits at the
intersection of the Sun and Marne rivers
and enables Paris to exert effective
administrative control over trade in and
out of the area to the rest of France
and Europe Frances interior is largely
made up of highly productive farmland
some flat ground or gentle rolling hills
in the north in the West and slightly
more mountainous terrain in the south
because of the high numbers of navigable
rivers and the relatively easy to
traverse terrain France has always been
easy to travel across and it's all
therefore easily connected and ruled by
the central authority in Paris which has
caused the entire region to share a
common French identity all circumstances
which led to France becoming one of the
world's first true nation states but
Frances external borders are perhaps her
greatest strength surrounded by imposing
geographic features Frances borders
almost serve as a kind of geographic
armor against any external threats to
the north is the English Channel to the
west is the Atlantic to the south are
the Pyrenees Mountains that are easy to
defend the Mediterranean Sea and to this
these are the massive Alps that require
almost nothing to defend to the
immediate East is the intimidating grind
but to the northeast is France's only
flaw in her geographic defense system an
open plain that's part of the greater
North European plain that can serve as a
funnel for enemy troops and people to
just walk or drive across and for well
over a thousand years now French rulers
across generations have been acutely
aware of this weak point in their
defence 1,000 years ago the territory of
France much resembled the territory of
modern France save for a bit more
territory in the easternmost direction
today France has always been protected
by imposing natural geography from every
direction except for the east and it's
been one of the biggest foreign policy
objectives for every French ruler to try
and solve that problem through one of
either two means by militarily
conquering territory to expand the
frontier to more easily defensible
Eastern terrain like the Alps or the
Rhine or through diplomatically
controlling external threats under the
rule of louis xiv france gradually
expanded her territory to the alps in
the southeast and part of the rhine in
the immediate east in order to acquire
better geographic armor but most of the
northeast still remained vulnerable
across the plain during the french
revolution many revolutionary thinkers
began discussing the theory on the
natural borders of france which argued
that france's natural borders should
extend to cover all of the land in
europe west of the Rhine River the Rhine
was intended to complete France's
Geographic armor and finally secure the
French borders with natural defenses in
a 360-degree sense the revolutionaries
feared attacks from the remaining
monarchist powers in Europe and believed
that the revolutionary gains in France
had to be protected by expansion to the
more easy to defend Ryan while the
French Revolution succeeded in
conquering this territory into France
Napoleon came around and expanded
france's borders to well be gone to the
natural borders of the pyrenees the
Rhine and the Alps for a time France
shared land borders with Denmark Austria
and the Ottoman Empire but once Napoleon
was defeated France was essentially
reset back to the same borders that she
had after
the 14th and was pushed back away from
most of the Rhine and with the weak spot
in the Northeast across the plains
restored this would prove disastrous in
the centuries to come
France would fight three separate wars
with Germany in 1870 1914 and again in
1939 and in all three of those instances
Germany was able to take advantage of
the geographic weak point and invaded
France across the plain in the Northeast
it worked perfectly the first time
almost worked the second time and it
worked perfectly again the third time
France attempted to make the situation
better after the second time by buffing
the area up with man-made defences in
the form of the Maginot Line
but belgium didn't ever agree to allow
france to extend it across the
franco-belgian border until it was too
late when Belgium finally agreed and
France started construction war and the
German invasion across it had already
begun the French and the British knew
the Germany would probably attack
through the plains again so they moved
most of their military into the area to
defend it however the French placed a
bit too much faith in their geographic
armor this time because they assumed
that the are dead region would be too
rough of a terrain for the Germans to
cross and subsequently only left a small
force behind to defend it the Germans
were in fact capable of attacking
quickly through the region overwhelmed
the light French defenses and cooked
around to encircle most of the Allied
army in the plains Frances weak point of
the plains was exploited by Germany on
three separate occasions and France was
catastrophic Lee defeated twice and
severely crippled the other time France
was only able to survive these attacks
through the help of bigger Allied powers
and diplomacy Frances borders were fully
restored in 1945 again to what they have
mostly been since the days of louis xiv
but this time france has embarked on the
other method that they've used to secure
their geography weakness diplomacy
through the creation of the European
Union France hoped that war between
European powers would never happen again
and particularly hope that it would make
another war between France and Germany
impossible and with a modern-day
friendship and close partnership that
exists between the two countries it
seems that that European dream at least
is alive and well war between France and
Germany is completely unthinkable in the
modern world because of things I think
European Union and a shared currency all
prime foreign policy objectives of
France and because of that Frances hole
in her Geographic armor is entirely
secured complex diplomacy is oftentimes
much more effective than simple forts
and bombs if you're interested in
learning more about the ways the
geography can screw over a country how
man-made defenses at fort can help
provide some kind of a buff or how a
country can defend against a weak point
in their borders then Oh have I got the
perfect thing for you castle siege
defense is a wonderful 54 minute long
professionally made documentary on
curiosity stream that examines multiple
castles across the world why they were
built where they were built along with
the various tactics that were used to
defend them even better is that
curiosity stream has now partnered with
nebula the streaming video platform
built by myself along with other
independent educational youtubers to
offer an incredible deal a subscription
to curiosity stream which only costs $20
for the whole entire year now comes with
a subscription to nebula 2 if you sign
up at curiosity stream comm slash real
life lore or click the link in the
description you can not only watch my
nebula original series reviewing cars or
all of my existing videos without ads
but you also get to watch any one of the
thousands of top quality documentaries
on curiosity stream so go ahead and
check it out now you'll learn a lot
you'll be entertained and you'll be
supporting real-life law at the same
time and as always thank you for
watching