France vs Great Britain

[Infected Mushroom]

The Flash won the Hundred Years War.

It all went downhill when Superman used his heat vision to kill Joan of Arc.

America wasn't even around.

[Ifreann]

It all went downhill when Superman used his heat vision to kill Joan of Arc.

America wasn't even around.

Do you think that Superman is American?

[Infected Mushroom]

America wasn't even around.

Do you think that Superman is American?

His adopted parents are from Kansas and as Clark Kent his passport would be American. In some storylines, he directly serves the US government and military.

[Risottia]

Ignoring past achievements, by current metrics, UK is far ahead of France

https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/uk/france

France has a lower gdp, lower gdp per capita, higher debt, double the unemployment and is lower in the happiness and quality of life index.

Also France has less food shortages and fuel shortages.

[Ifreann]

Do you think that Superman is American?

His adopted parents are from Kansas and as Clark Kent his passport would be American. In some storylines, he directly serves the US government and military.

So you know that he's not American.

[The New California Republic]

Patently untrue. The British Empire very much did fight on multiple fronts.

On land in Europe.

You never specified that, I can only work with what you give me.

[Imperial States of Duotona]

Despite being from Britain and this seeming VERY biased, I pick the UK for a few reasons.

1) In terms of colonisation, Britain blows France out of the water. They had invested in the navy to a point where it was easy for them to go to places like Africa and the New World. They knew before everyone else what to conquer and what not to.

2) Speaking of navy, good lord did they have one! When looking especially in the Victorian age, the British navy was unmatched. That may not be the case now, but the Victorian era is where Britain massively played catch-up to the French.

3) Revolutions. France doesn't do too well in those. The Brits were able to stay stable for a lot longer than France did. We had, what, one major civil war? France had 3 revolutions. In basically one century.

At the end of the day, the era you look at gives you a much clearer picture of what it was actually like. In the medieval period, oh it was France no doubt about it, we were too busy getting kicked about by Scandinavia and ourselves. But after the fall of Napoleon, Britain went all in on Empire and it paid off massively.

[Saint-Thor]

Many people point out Agincourt but I'm sure the French can balance that out with their other medieval era big wins right? The English won at Agincourt, but ultimately if I remember correctly, France won the whole war in the end?

Well not just in the end. France held the vast majority of its territories most of the war.

[FNU]

My two cents, going off WW1 as a base, is France was the superior power. They were the main force holding the line for the majority of the early war, and they were the one fighting to protect themselves. Britain had the channel to prevent invasion, but France was under a far larger threat (land wise, I'm not acknowledging shipping losses)

wicked smileys

[Diarcesia]

Why choose either when you can have both?

Franco-British Union gang.

[Eahland]

Google says France for a question that is about as useful for discussion as who would win a race between superman and the flash.

The Flash.

Sometimes he lets Clark have a tie.

[Thermodolia]

But if you did a countdown of battles and wars won, ignoring scale, who won more often?

France. Hands down. You gotta understand that for most of the medieval period France was one of the dominant players of Europe. Hell France is the direct reason why the Church of England exists, given that they pretty much told the pope either you don’t grant Henry his wish or you die.

For decades france held considerable sway over the pope and thus Europe.

[Infected Mushroom]

His adopted parents are from Kansas and as Clark Kent his passport would be American. In some storylines, he directly serves the US government and military.

So you know that he's not American.

He is. His passport is American. Unless you're suggesting he's undocumented.

[Infected Mushroom]

But if you did a countdown of battles and wars won, ignoring scale, who won more often?

France. Hands down. You gotta understand that for most of the medieval period France was one of the dominant players of Europe. Hell France is the direct reason why the Church of England exists, given that they pretty much told the pope either you don’t grant Henry his wish or you die.

For decades france held considerable sway over the pope and thus Europe.

Yeah this is what I thought as well. They dominated the medieval period (losing a few memorable battles against England but overall still winning or drawing the wars). Then they absolutely dominated in the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars for 20+ years.

And they technically won both World Wars (participating in the Second as well in the form of the French Resistance and playing key parts in the Italian campaign).

[Eahland]

So you know that he's not American.

He is. His passport is American. Unless you're suggesting he's undocumented.

Falsely documented, or "Clark Kent" would not be able to maintain his secret identity. Kal-El is, literally, an illegal alien.

[Antipatros]

France. Hands down. You gotta understand that for most of the medieval period France was one of the dominant players of Europe. Hell France is the direct reason why the Church of England exists, given that they pretty much told the pope either you don’t grant Henry his wish or you die.

For decades france held considerable sway over the pope and thus Europe.

Yeah this is what I thought as well. They dominated the medieval period (losing a few memorable battles against England but overall still winning or drawing the wars). Then they absolutely dominated in the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars for 20+ years.

And they technically won both World Wars (participating in the Second as well in the form of the French Resistance and playing key parts in the Italian campaign).

The French emphasis on land warfare ended up working against them in the end, though. They racked up a huge amount of debt in the process, and their attempts to solve their fiscal issues in part led to the French Revolution.

The Napoleonic Wars ended in defeat for France, and cost them many young men. The high number of deaths in the male population contributed to France's relative demographic stagnation in the 19th century.

[Cetacea]

We are on this board having this entire conversation in English

Modern English is the Worlds Lingua Franca because the actual Francoise lost

Culture Wars matter and in the Culture Wars Anglo were the victors

[Printer colony]

Britan [code][/code]

[Infected Mushroom]

Yeah this is what I thought as well. They dominated the medieval period (losing a few memorable battles against England but overall still winning or drawing the wars). Then they absolutely dominated in the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars for 20+ years.

And they technically won both World Wars (participating in the Second as well in the form of the French Resistance and playing key parts in the Italian campaign).

The French emphasis on land warfare ended up working against them in the end, though. They racked up a huge amount of debt in the process, and their attempts to solve their fiscal issues in part led to the French Revolution.

The Napoleonic Wars ended in defeat for France, and cost them many young men. The high number of deaths in the male population contributed to France's relative demographic stagnation in the 19th century.

If a video game player took down 50+ opponents in a series of unprecedented continuous wins and then was eventually put down by superior numbers, I don't think the headlines should be "the player lost." That would be a strange way to spin it.

[Antipatros]

The French emphasis on land warfare ended up working against them in the end, though. They racked up a huge amount of debt in the process, and their attempts to solve their fiscal issues in part led to the French Revolution.

The Napoleonic Wars ended in defeat for France, and cost them many young men. The high number of deaths in the male population contributed to France's relative demographic stagnation in the 19th century.

If a video game player took down 50+ opponents in a series of unprecedented continuous wins and then was eventually put down by superior numbers, I don't think the headlines should be "the player lost." That would be a strange way to spin it.

I don't think that we should measure success in war through kill/death ratios, who has the better tactics, or anything like that.

Wars have diplomatic and political objectives. The side that best achieves their objectives is the winner.

Besides that, France was not strongly outnumbered in some of the most pivotal campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars (like the Peninsular War and the Invasion of Russia).

[Infected Mushroom]

Despite its land focus, for most of history France was the number two naval power right?

Spain was big for a while but after that it was mostly France number two right?

[Archinstinct]

The Maratha Confederacy, because they're the underdog.