Fiction:French Sixth Republic

"Liberty, equality, fraternity"

- Motto

France, officially the French Republic, is a unitary semi-presidential republic located within the Milky Way Galaxy. Originally a country on planet Earth with a number of overseas territories, it has grown into a burgeoning Plazathian superpower with colonies in Andromeda, Cyrannus, and the Quadrants.

France, under its many incarnations and governments, was a major economic and political power in Europe and, by the 17th century, the world. At its apexes, the French colonial empires spanned a large part of North America and India, and then Northwestern and Central Africa, Indochina, and many Caribbean islands. In the latter half of the 20th century, France lost most of its overseas colonies and was essentially reduced to mainland France.

Despite it losing its position as a prominent world power, France continued as the world's fifth largest economy. Under pressure from polarized public opinion, France backed out from the European Union as it became the European Republic in 2089 and went off in its own direction. During the Scandinavian War that followed, the French Fifth Republic succumbed to widespread public unrest a new one had to be put in its place after a period of martial law.

Since then, France has aspired to the stars. It obtained its own colonies in the heavens and managed to hold on to them decently during the Human Colonial Wars while the colonial holdings of nations like the European Star Republic and POTATO had been smashed. This gave France a competitive edge that it held on to. To this day, it still rivals these two powers in size, technological advancement, and military power.

Antiquity
The first permanent inhabitants of the territory now known as France were the Gallic Celt tribes which had set up permanent residence between the 5th and 3rd century. There was next to no unity among these tribes except under extremely trying times, like the invasion of Gaul by the Romans under Julius Caesar in 58 to 51 BC. Gaul eventually fell to the Romans by 51 BC, and remained under their control until it was conquered by the Frankish tribes after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 6th century AD.

Frankish Empire
At the time, ancient Gaul was divided into many Germanic Kingdoms. The pagan Franks, from whom the ancient name of "Francie" was derived, originally settled the northern part of Gaul, but under Clovis I conquered most of the other kingdoms in northern and central Gaul.

In 498, Clovis I was the first Germanic conqueror after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Catholic Christianity, rather than Arianism; thus France was given the title "Eldest daughter of the Church" by the papacy. and the French kings would be called "the Most Christian Kings of France."

Clovis' empire would not survive his death, however, as it was split into four. His dynasty, the Merovingians, quickly became ineffective rulers. They were eventually overthrown by Pepin the Short, who founded the Carolingian dynasty. His son, Charlemagne, reunited the Frankish kingdoms, conquered much of Germany, and was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 742.

Charlemagne's empire lasted until the death of his son, Leo I and was then divided among his three sons. The three realms of West Francia, Middle Francia, and East Francia. Middle and East Francia eventually became the Holy Roman Empire, while West Francia is often considered the precursor to modern France.

Kingdom of France
Over the course of the 9th and 10th centuries, France became an increasingly decentralized state. Titles became hereditary and vassals became increasingly independent and dangerous to the crown. The Carolingian kings ended up serving as religious figureheads instead of the proper monarchs they used to be. Thus feudalism became the general rule in France.

This lasted until Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of the Franks in 987. His descendants progressively unified the country through wars and dynastic inheritance, which allowed Philip II Augustus to crown himself "King of France" in 1190.

France partook in many crusades for the Holy Land between 1095 and 1291. The First Crusade succeeded in establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted from 1099 to 1187, when it was almost entirely subjugated by Saladin and the Arabs. The Third Crusade managed to reestablish the Kingdom in the city of Acre in 1192 and lasted until the city was destroyed in 1291.

Meanwhile, Royal authority became increasingly assertive and a strict hierarchical system was enforced. The three orders, the nobility, the clergy, and the commons, were very rigidly defined.

In 1328, Charles the Fair died without an heir. Under crown succession laws, the kingdom could not be inherited by a woman or pass through the mother's family. Therefore, the crown passed to Philip of Valois, a cousin of Charles, instead of through his mother's family, to Edward of England. Edward challenged the succession and claimed the French crown for himself, sparking the Hundred Years War. From 1337 to 1453, the English led several successful invasions of France, occupied half of it, and were subsequently repelled.

The Renaissance in Europe saw a flourishing of culture and a rebirth of the arts and the sciences. Several wars also occurred, including the Great Italian Wars, between France and the powerful Holy Roman Empire, and the French Wars of Religion, a series of jarring incidents between French Catholics and Protestants, called Huguenots. French explorers also set out for the new world, paving the way for the First French colonial empire.

Back home, the French monarchy was as strong as ever. Louis XIV, "The Sun King," effectively managed to turn France's nobility into subservient lapdogs, courtiers in his palace of Versailles. He patroned the arts and asserted the Kingdom of France as the premier European power, but left his country bankrupt and war-weary in the process.

Under Louis XV, France lost the Seven Years War, and with it most of its possessions in North America and India. His ineffective and weak rule plagued France for years after his death, and would be one of the deciding factors that sparked the French Revolution.

French Revolution
In 1783, the volcano Laki in Iceland erupted for eight months, precipitating a chain of natural disasters which led to widespread famine and tens of thousands of deaths. The lack of bread and food in France was blamed on Louis XI, just as ineffective and uncharismatic a ruler as his father.

Unrest turned into widespread revolution. Led by the bourgeoisie, the French people revolted in 1789 and forced the French King to sign a constitution, turning France into a constitutional monarchy. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was signed, asserting that French citizens had fundamental rights without exception.

Louis XVI was a rather popular monarch under the new constitutional monarchy, though when Austria issued a manifesto in 1792 in which they threatened to destroy Paris if he was not returned to his rightful throne. In the general panic that ensued, Louis and his family were arrested for treason. War was declared on Austria on April 20, 1792. The king and Marie Antoinette were tried and executed in 1793.

The French First Republic was proclaimed the 22 September 1792, and immediately faced threats from other European powers. The British lay siege to Southern France, while the Austrians advanced through Italy and Eastern France. To make matters worse, royalists rose up in rebellion everywhere, intent on restoring the monarchy. The young republic was thrown into turmoil and fell into the Reign of Terror, a period over which many thousands of French were executed in an effort to quell the chaos.

A massive continental army was marshaled which miraculously defeated both foreign and rebel armies, and managed to greatly expand France's borders. An end was put to the terror, and a republican government called "Le Directoire" was put into place. This government proved to be grossly ineffective and was toppled in 1799 by a military coup led by General Napoleon Bonaparte. He was named First Consul of the French Republic, and later Emperor of the French Empire in 1804.

Napoleon's reign was marked by a series of coalition wars in which he conquered the better part of Europe. In 1812, he invaded Russia with his Grande Armée of 600,000 soldiers. Due to supply problems and his not being adequately prepared for the Russian winter, Napoleon was forced to retreat from Russia with 27,000 fit soldiers remaining. Europe jumped at the opportunity and invaded France. The combined armies of Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain brought the French Empire to its knees and forced Napoleon into exile on the isle of Elba. The monarchy was restored and Louis XIII crowned as king.

Napoleon would only stay for a year on Elba. Hearing of how unpopular the new monarchy had become, he seized his chance and stormed France with around 600 men in 1815. During the Hundred Days Campaign, Napoleon led an army into Belgium where he hoped to defeat the allied armies massed against him before they joined forces. He was decisively defeated at Waterloo and was permanently exiled to the isle of St. Helena off the coast of South America. 

Second French Empire
The discredited Bourbon dynasty was overthrown by the civil uprising of 1830, which established the constitutional July Monarchy, which lasted until 1848, when the French Second Republic was proclaimed in the wake of the 1848 European revolutions.

In 1852, the president of the French Republic Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoleon I’s nephew, was proclaimed emperor of the second Empire. As Napoleon III, he multiplied French interventions abroad, especially in Crimea, in Mexico and Italy, which resulted in the annexation of Savoy and Nice. Napoleon III was eventually unseated following defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and his regime was replaced by the Third Republic.

20th Century
France had colonial possessions, in various forms, since the beginning of the 17th century to the 18th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries, its global overseas colonial empire extended greatly and culminated as the second largest in the world behind the British Empire.

France was a member of the Triple Entente when World War I broke out. A small part of Northern France was occupied, but France and its allies eventually emerged victorious against the Central Powers, at a tremendous human and material cost.

The interbellum years were marked by intense international tensions an a variety of social reforms introduced by the Popular Front government (Annual leave, working time reduction, women in Government among others).

France was occupied following the German Blitzkrieg campaign in World War II, with metropolitan France divided into a German occupation zone in the north and Vichy France, a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, in the south. The Allies and the French Resistance eventually emerged victorious from the Axis powers and French sovereignty was restored.

The Fourth Republic was established after World War II and saw spectacular economic growth. Suffrage was extended to women in 1944. France was one of the founding members of NATO in 1949, which was the Western counterpart of the Soviet Warsaw Pact. France attempted to regain control of French Indochina but was defeated by the Viet Minh at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Only months later, France faced a new conflict in Algeria. The debate over whether or not to keep control of Algeria, then home to over one million European settlers, wracked the country and nearly led to civil war.

In 1958, Charles de Gaulle led a coup against the weak and ineffective French Fourth Republic and established the Fifth. As president, he managed to keep the country together while taking steps to end the war. The Algerian War was concluded with peace negotiations in 1962 that led to Algerian independence. France led go of its colonies progressively over the latter half of the twentieth century. A vestige of the colonial empire are the French overseas departments and territories on Earth.

France's time as a global power had come to an end, and it spent the remainder of the century actively participating in the European Union, and acting as an obscure belligerent in the conflicts of other powers, like the American-led Korean and Gulf Wars.

21st Century
The start of the century was marked by the September 11, 2001 attacks on America, which sparked a global war on terrorism into which France was drawn on multiple occasions. By the end of the century, the Earth had suffered terribly due to human abuses of the environment. A particular point of contention among nations was the scarcity of fossil fuels. As tensions threatened to boil over, Europe came together and began the formation of the European Republic. France was expected to join in, though it surprisingly did not comment on the motion as tensions rose within it between those that supported a united Europe and those that supported a united France. Eventually, France backed out of the European Union, which became the European Republic a few days later.

France largely stayed out of the war between the European Republic and the Scandinavian countries, though it faced great inner turmoil. Unrest threatened to boil over into full scale civil war between those who would have France support the Scandinavians, those who would want her to side with the Europeans, and those who wanted it to remain independent. Finally, as riots and counter-riots broke out in Paris, Parliament was torched and the French cabinet forced to flee the country.

Martial law was called in and the entire country put on lockdown until the end of the war. Armed resistance persisted especially through terrorist organizations like the France Libre, a splinter group from the Front National, and La Resistance. After the The Convention of 2099 (La Convention de 2099), The French Sixth Republic was instated on November 26, 2099.

22nd Century
France stood upon a shaky foundation entering the 22nd century. Its infrastructure was slow to recover from the turmoils of the Scandinavian War, and fossil fuels were becoming increasingly scarce globally. Though France got most of its energy from nuclear power plants and other sustainable power sources, they were hooked up to the European power grid which serviced European states which had not made as heavy an investment in sustainability.

Tensions between France and the European Republic arose when France threatened to withdraw from the power grid to keep up with energy demand. Though that never came to pass, an agreement was reached that rationed the energy France contributed to the grid, allowing it to make up the shortfall with a few adjustments.

In the mid 22nd century, World War III broke out and France became embroiled in the Balkans War against the Imperial Ottoman Directorate alongside the European Republic. The French fleet participated in a number of engagements in the Pacific and Atlantic theaters.

Human Colonial Wars
By the mid-2200's, France was a small interstellar colonial power at first, settling several planets around Earth including the resource-rich siberian planet Persephonie in 2199, which became a source of conflict when the South American superstate, Roreinia, colonized it in 2210. As wars broke out between human powers over colonial possessions in the 2250's, France endeavored to remain uninvolved, though tensions on Persephonie between Roreinian and French colonists boiled over. The Roreinian colony on Persephonie was seized by French militia forces in 2260, precipitating the Franco-Roreinian Colonial War. Roreinia responded by seizing French Guiana back on Earth, an act which might have led to full scale terran war between the two countries had the international community not pressured France into backing off. Intent on reclaiming their colony, the Roreinian fleet set out towards the planet and were intercepted by the French Starfleet.

In the Battle of Persephonie, the Roreinian fleet decisively defeated the French with help from American reinforcements. Shortly after, the POTATO-Roreinian force was destroyed in orbit of Persephonie when they were caught in the explosion of three nuclear warheads fired by the French supercarrier Minerve.

With the loss of its entire stellar fleet, Roreinia was forced to surrender and handed over a good portion of its interstellar colonies, doubling the size of the French colonial empire.

Territory
Mainland France is located near and around Sol in the Milky Way Galaxy and spans many thousands of systems. It also has extragalactic colonies in Andromeda, Cyrannus, and the Quadrants. For administrative purposes, it is divided into regions presided over by a regional government called a préfecture, composed of an elected General Council and a préfet. 

Notable planets

 * Capital planet symbol.png Paris (347 billion)
 * Planet symbol.png Nouvelle Persephonie (111 billion)
 * Planet symbol.png Volerin (103 billion)
 * Planet symbol.png Trieste (78 billion)
 * Planet symbol.png Julianne (67 billion)
 * Planet symbol.png Persephonie (3 billion)

Government and Politics

 * ''Further reading: French Government

The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential republic with strong democratic traditions. The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958. It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders: the President of the Republic who is head of state and is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister.

The French parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and a Senate. The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 5-year terms. The Assembly has the power to dismiss the cabinet, and thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms, and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years.

The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National Assembly has the final say. The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.

Civil
The French boast a highly advanced knowledge of the universe that have allowed them to transcend poverty, war, disease, even death. Inventions like quantum replicators have made currency and material need irrelevant. Computers and networked devices have been integrated into every facet of human life. Buildings––sometimes entire cities––are built almost entirely by automated machines.

Medicine has fully integrated nanotechnology. Intelligent nanites help in the defense of the body, adapt quickly to disease, and help doctors perform surgery when necessary. The gene responsible for aging in the human body has been found and neutralized, which means that humans can live indefinitely.

Computers have been integrated with the human body as well. Memory and processing power is often augmented by chips inserted into the human brain. It is illegal, however, to make these networkable given the danger of someone hacking into someone's implants and manipulating their actions and memory without their consent or awareness.

Military Technology
While the French have been developing technological wonders to extend human life, their arsenal of military weaponry has also seen formidable developments. They have worked on refining plasma and antimatter weaponry since the later years of the Human Colonial Wars, producing early turbolasers and high-yield antimatter torpedoes. Deflector technology is now second nature, casing starships in protective "bubbles" in combat. However, these fail if put under too much stress.

The hyperdrive transports vessels to a compressed dimension of space and thereby allows them to cross great distances in very little time. Warp drive and certain methods of transwarp are still in use, but are slowly dying as hyperspatial travel becomes increasingly practical.

These are common in their use and can generally be found on nearly every single starship in service of French Armed Forces. 

Energy
The French rely largely on self-regulating, self-deploying dyson swarms––arrays of mirrors that focus the radiation of a sun on collectors––for the bulk of their planets' energy demand. However, this is sometimes not enough on bustling planet metropolises. Alternate methods of obtaining energy, like black hole generators, are used in those instances.

Ancillary generators are all that new colonies generally have in terms of power. They must either build their own dyson swarm or reach the population required for the government to build one in their star system.

Society and Culture
When the French say they are proud of their "culture," they generally mean the customs and traditions that are alive and well in the large metropolitan worlds of the heartlands of France. These often include an appreciation of food, pastries, and grown wine. In an age of replicators and comfort, the French food culture has taken a hit, but it is still very strong when compared to that of others. If there is one thing that the French are convinced cannot be replicated, it is the taste of French wine. As such, wine grown in authentic French vineyards is highly sought after.

Once one leaves the metropolitan regions of France, that kind of culture is far less pronounced. Blends start to form with French culture mingling with indigenous customs and that of neighboring nations. There is a very strong mythology surrounding the ever-expanding frontier, a romanticism highlighting their heroism, independence, and sturdiness, much how the American Frontier became a cultural icon back on Earth in the 20th century.

Armed Forces
A military with a long and proud history, the French Armed Forces consist of the French Army, French Starfleet, and National Gendarmerie. They are under the command of the President of the Republic through the French Marshalship, a corps of France's greatest and most proficient commanders entrusted with the highest echelons of command.

French Starfleet

 * ''Further reading: French Starfleet

French ships, while not the most powerful or most advanced, play to France's greatest strength: strike craft. Ships of the line like the Céleste-class and smaller frigates like the Cassiel-class act primarily in support of France's venerable line carrier, the Orleans-class. In terms of strike craft, the French field the Mirage Roi omnirole fighter alongside the more specialized Super Mirage B voltigeur bomber which, when used in the right circumstances, has been known to devastate fleets. Elite craft like the Mirage Roi Dominant and the more recent Mirage Revenant are a rarer sight, but when they are seen, it is usually in the instants before a very large detonation.

The Starfleet is also in charge of keeping and enforcing French borders. To that end, they have set up border stations stocked with Mirage I's, an affordable superluminal interceptor developed jointly by France and POTATO.

French Army

 * ''Further reading: French Army

Unlike in most militaries, the French Army is still its own entity within the French Armed Forces. It possesses its own starships, strike craft, and chain of command optimized to the conduct of orbital, atmospheric, and terrestrial warfare. On the ground, the French Army places emphasis on mobility and speed. Its C-41 Ulysse A3 main battle tank is lighter than most, while the infantry ride around in fast VAB's (véhicule de l'avant blindé) derived from the Australian F-22 LAV.

However, the French Army's main strength is in air power, as it fields one of the best strike craft fleet in the Orion Spur. It uses POTATO's excellent SEAD aircraft to clear the way for Super Mirage 3 bombers which will utterly devastate ground forces if left unopposed. Throughout every stage of an operation, the Mirage Roi A omnirole fighter provides support to ground and air forces alike.

Marshalship of France

 * Further reading: Marshal of France

Binding the French Army and French Starfleet together are the French Marshals, the high command within the French Armed Forces. They organize the army on the strategic and theater levels and report directly to the chef des armées, the President of the Republic. There are two ranks within the marshalship: sous-marshal and marshal. There is little ceremonial distinction between them, as they are heralded with equal respect, but on the battlefield, the difference is evident: The sous-marshals command a smaller force over a smaller amount of territory and often report to marshals in neighboring sectors.

Foreign Policy
France is generally open towards communication with other nations and responds to new acquaintances well unless their intentions are clearly hostile or are too full of themselves to carry on a proper conversation. They will not shrink down from open confrontation, and will defend their assets, citizens, and personnel if threatened.

The French are generally very willing to work with other humans and near-humans towards the betterment of humanity, and have opened their borders to many such nations.

Multinational Organizations
France is a part of the Orion League, a replacement for the floundering United Nations it helped found. An active and outspoken member, France's foreign policy has been greatly influenced by its membership. It greatly supports collective effort between humans, but has voiced the fact that it would not give up its sovereignty to an Orion superstate if it were to coagulate, just as it had with the European Union.

France is also an active participant in the European Aerospace Union with the its closest allies, the and. Through the Union, they have worked on common projects, accomplishing impressive feats of engineering and design.

More recently, France joined the African Economic Alliance in response to the developments of the East African Civil War, actively participating in reconstruction after the war. Through the alliance, it is allied with the African states and seeks closer economic ties with them. 

Protectorates
"Should the need arise, our armies and fleets will be at your disposal."


 * Green face.png French Quadrant Colonies
 * Green face.png French Bunsen Colonies
 * Blue face.png French Andromedan Colonies

Allies
"We are bound to do great things together."


 * Green face.png Fjord League of Northern Europe (defensive pact, open borders, lasting friendship) - A long-standing ally, we have gotten closer to the Fjord League in recent times given our shared political goals. We especially have a close relationship with Northern England, which has been a friend to France since the Colonial Wars.
 * Green face.png Tybusen Intergalactic Allied Federation (alliance, declaration of friendship, access to hyperspatial infrastructure, trade agreements)
 * Green face.png Australia-New Zealand Republic (defensive pact, open borders, lasting friendship) - Though they are stubborn, the Australians are friends to France and have supported us in words and actions over the ages. What's more, when we were wrong, they did not hesitate to point it out. For that, we are grateful.
 * Green face.png East African Alliance (defensive pact, military access, open borders) - Until recently, East Africa was a nation with which France had warm relations, but no real ties. Since the East African Civil War, this has changed dramatically. French troops were stationed in East Africa for years after the war, and the East African armed forces now field French equipment. As a member of the African Economic Alliance, we have a defensive pact with them and military access to their lands, as well as open borders dating back to the fallout of the Civil War: we took in a great number of their refugees.
 * Blue face.png Pacific Overseas Territories and American Treaty Organization (trade agreements, defensive pact)
 * Blue face.png Southern Africanus Dominion (defensive pact, military access) - South Africa is an ally to us through the African Economic Alliance, a new development dating back to the East African Civil War. While there is little historical precedent for a close relationship between us and them, we are proud to call them our allies.
 * Blue face.png Central African States (defensive pact, restricted military access) - Mostly untouched by the East African Civil War, Central Africa became an ally to France after we joined the African Economic Alliance, and that has shaped relations between us ever since.

Neutral
"Hm?"


 * Blue face.png Aekite Union (trade agreement, declaration of friendship)
 * Blue face.png Corsican Republic (trade agreements, open borders)
 * Blue face.png East Asian Coalition
 * Blue face.png State of Kuwait
 * Blue face.png Intergalactic Human Republic
 * Blue face.png Mardvaeli Republic (trade agreements)
 * Yellow face.png Roreinia
 * Yellow face.png Union of Afghanistan
 * Yellow face.png Cyrannian Imperial State
 * Yellow face.png Republic of Texas
 * Yellow face.png Kingdom of Aztlan
 * Yellow face.png Regellis Star Empire
 * Yellow face.png Ecclessoth Convocation
 * Orange face.png Great Empire of Sun and Sand
 * Orange face.png Sovereign Caribbean Federation
 * Orange face.png Draconid Imperium
 * Orange face.png Yamato Stellar Empire
 * Orange face.png Delpha Coalition of Planets
 * Red face.png Imperial Ottoman Directorate

At War
"You have made an enemy of the French. That is not a wise move."


 * Red face.png Drakodominatus Tyranny † (2792-2795) - Systematic warmongers and tyrants with dreams for universal domination: they were a threat to us all. Words cannot describe how proud we are to have contributed to their downfall.
 * Yellow face.png French Cyrannian Colonies (undeclared) - By no fault of their own, our own colonies have been manipulated against us by the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus. We hope to reclaim them soon before any real damage is done in our name.
 * Red face.png Galactic Empire of Cyrannus (undeclared)