/u/Grumman is probably referring to the fact that good old Charles "The Hammer" Martel repelled a large Islamic army of the Umayyad Caliphate that had conquered and already occupied all of Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD.
Early Muslim Expansion was (despite most Muslim's ignorance of it) extremely violent, and very successful. Most of the time, the early Islamic empires always seemed to surprise their enemies with aggression and mobility that they were not used to; nor were they aware of the level of the threat they were facing. These caliphates/empires sometimes warred with themselves, and so there are distinctly dominant caliphates during different centuries that all but encompass most of the Islamic world, even in the east. One of the oldest rivals of the Muslim caliphs was the Eastern Roman Empire, and it's capital at Byzantium (now Istanbul).
Being that Byzantium, by 700 AD, was no push-over; and her walls effectively impenetrable, the Umayyad Caliphate decided they would try their luck going west, rather than east. They were able to conquer all of North Africa, and then basically entirely bowl over the Visigothic Kingdoms of the former Roman Spain. There were some hold-outs in North Western Spain, but for the most part, the Muslim conquerors expected an incursion into Frankish kingdoms would be easy to. Unfortunately, they ran into a guy named "The Hammer", and it didn't go so well. You can watch the above videos, but simply put: no one knew how to stop the Muslim armies, and even Charles enemies knew that the only one good enough to try was him. So he did. Repeatedly.
Charles success made his portion of France become wildly influential as a guardian of Christendom in Europe, and his excellent soldiers were the best western Christians really had. His conquest, annexation, and vassalization of the rest of the Frankish kings would be completed by his grandson: Charlemagne. Who unified France and be came the first Holy Roman Emperor. More than that, Charlemagne created the basis of absolute dominance of Frankish civilization.
Moving rapidly though history: despite whatever political reorganizations happened in Spain and France, France was the guardian of western Europe against Muslim aggression, and would also play a prominent part in funding and arming both the crusades to Jerusalem, attempts at defending Constantinople (Byzantium), and funding & arming the Reconquista of Spain. France was a major force to defend Christianity, particularly in the west against Muslim expansion into Europe.
After and during the Reconquista, the French Empire expanded past Europe and into the rest of the world, including Islamic territories. Then, there was the French Revolution, and the rise of Napoleonic & Rousseauian France. The French Rousseauian Liberals were quite aggressive about what is France, and a good portion of what they considered to be France, also happened to be what we would call Algeria. As the Ottoman Empire decayed over the centuries from the terrible threat that it once was; and as the the Islamic Caliphates of North Africa collapsed; the European empires took advantage of those geo-political opportunities. France in particular. While they called it part of France, the Muslims did not. The French never truly integrated Algeria into France. It probably had something to do with the fact that the Napoleonic French conquest of Algeria was extremely violent, and involved a scorched earth campaign by the strongest armies in the world, against the equivalent of medieval Islamists (who were also particularly violent). It also probably included similar "pacification" efforts later on that were similarly brutal.
I need to interject here that many Leftists nowadays impart American Racialism onto the French (see: Battlefield 1), for literally no reason besides cultural subversion. The French did not, and really have never seen, Algerians as a lesser race. American black soldiers explicitly testified to the quality of their treatment by the French, and many thousands even migrated to France after the war. Fundamentally, the French's problem with the Algerians was their unwillingness to adopt French philosophies and attitudes and to also not Christianize. Sometimes, the French would try to make the Algerians be French, and it only grew resentment.
World War 2 plays an important part here, as "Free France" basically contains just French colonies like Algeria. The French Fleet was attacked by the British off the coast of their colonies, because the British were concerned that the National Socialists would be able to seize the French navy and pose a major surface-fleet threat to the British. This resulted in the infamous Battle of Mers El Keber in Algeria.
After the war, the French Army had long since been dissolved, and the French themselves had been depopulated by war, disease, and famine. However, a military was still needed, and the French decided that they could fill the ranks of the French Foreign Legion with anyone... including former SS troops. These troops were sent to pacify any uprisings that were taking place in Algeria as all hell broke loose in the Algerian Revolution. To this day, the "Battle of Algiers" is studied in military history and analysis of what does and doesn't work for both insurgency and counter-insurgency forces. Being that some of the French tactics were coming from former National Socialists, the level of brutality conducted against the Algerians is galling. Not merely assassinations, but mass executions, starvation, torture, and rape as a weapon of terror. This does not excuse the Algerians from their desire to replicate those very crimes. It was a "dirty war" that the Algerians haven't forgotten, and actually lead to the collapse of the French government.
That basically takes us to today. This is one of the reasons you can't find sympathetic Algerians to the French plight. This is why there is a malicious streak in their commentary. The civilizational divide between French Catholicism and African Islamism so extreme, and has resulted in so much bloodshed and hatred, that these people really can't live with each other.
Thanks, I appreciate that. And yeah I did write that off the top of my head. It's hard to try and roll through 2,000 years of French history as a summation.
I think it might be Spain as that was under Islamic occupation around the time of the crusades and they had a crusade that pushed them back into North Africa.
To be fair it wasn't just the Umayyad Caliphate, but France was born out of the division of territory among heirs in the Carolingian dynasty, which began with Charles Martel and his sons. Had they not deposed the Merovingian dynasty, the distribution of territories would presumably have been quite different without their conquests and divided within a different chain of succession.
The whole reason for France was an Islamic invasion.
Whats the connection between France’s history and a muslim invasion?
Absolutely tons.
/u/Grumman is probably referring to the fact that good old Charles "The Hammer" Martel repelled a large Islamic army of the Umayyad Caliphate that had conquered and already occupied all of Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD.
Early Muslim Expansion was (despite most Muslim's ignorance of it) extremely violent, and very successful. Most of the time, the early Islamic empires always seemed to surprise their enemies with aggression and mobility that they were not used to; nor were they aware of the level of the threat they were facing. These caliphates/empires sometimes warred with themselves, and so there are distinctly dominant caliphates during different centuries that all but encompass most of the Islamic world, even in the east. One of the oldest rivals of the Muslim caliphs was the Eastern Roman Empire, and it's capital at Byzantium (now Istanbul).
Being that Byzantium, by 700 AD, was no push-over; and her walls effectively impenetrable, the Umayyad Caliphate decided they would try their luck going west, rather than east. They were able to conquer all of North Africa, and then basically entirely bowl over the Visigothic Kingdoms of the former Roman Spain. There were some hold-outs in North Western Spain, but for the most part, the Muslim conquerors expected an incursion into Frankish kingdoms would be easy to. Unfortunately, they ran into a guy named "The Hammer", and it didn't go so well. You can watch the above videos, but simply put: no one knew how to stop the Muslim armies, and even Charles enemies knew that the only one good enough to try was him. So he did. Repeatedly.
Charles success made his portion of France become wildly influential as a guardian of Christendom in Europe, and his excellent soldiers were the best western Christians really had. His conquest, annexation, and vassalization of the rest of the Frankish kings would be completed by his grandson: Charlemagne. Who unified France and be came the first Holy Roman Emperor. More than that, Charlemagne created the basis of absolute dominance of Frankish civilization.
Moving rapidly though history: despite whatever political reorganizations happened in Spain and France, France was the guardian of western Europe against Muslim aggression, and would also play a prominent part in funding and arming both the crusades to Jerusalem, attempts at defending Constantinople (Byzantium), and funding & arming the Reconquista of Spain. France was a major force to defend Christianity, particularly in the west against Muslim expansion into Europe.
After and during the Reconquista, the French Empire expanded past Europe and into the rest of the world, including Islamic territories. Then, there was the French Revolution, and the rise of Napoleonic & Rousseauian France. The French Rousseauian Liberals were quite aggressive about what is France, and a good portion of what they considered to be France, also happened to be what we would call Algeria. As the Ottoman Empire decayed over the centuries from the terrible threat that it once was; and as the the Islamic Caliphates of North Africa collapsed; the European empires took advantage of those geo-political opportunities. France in particular. While they called it part of France, the Muslims did not. The French never truly integrated Algeria into France. It probably had something to do with the fact that the Napoleonic French conquest of Algeria was extremely violent, and involved a scorched earth campaign by the strongest armies in the world, against the equivalent of medieval Islamists (who were also particularly violent). It also probably included similar "pacification" efforts later on that were similarly brutal.
I need to interject here that many Leftists nowadays impart American Racialism onto the French (see: Battlefield 1), for literally no reason besides cultural subversion. The French did not, and really have never seen, Algerians as a lesser race. American black soldiers explicitly testified to the quality of their treatment by the French, and many thousands even migrated to France after the war. Fundamentally, the French's problem with the Algerians was their unwillingness to adopt French philosophies and attitudes and to also not Christianize. Sometimes, the French would try to make the Algerians be French, and it only grew resentment.
World War 2 plays an important part here, as "Free France" basically contains just French colonies like Algeria. The French Fleet was attacked by the British off the coast of their colonies, because the British were concerned that the National Socialists would be able to seize the French navy and pose a major surface-fleet threat to the British. This resulted in the infamous Battle of Mers El Keber in Algeria.
After the war, the French Army had long since been dissolved, and the French themselves had been depopulated by war, disease, and famine. However, a military was still needed, and the French decided that they could fill the ranks of the French Foreign Legion with anyone... including former SS troops. These troops were sent to pacify any uprisings that were taking place in Algeria as all hell broke loose in the Algerian Revolution. To this day, the "Battle of Algiers" is studied in military history and analysis of what does and doesn't work for both insurgency and counter-insurgency forces. Being that some of the French tactics were coming from former National Socialists, the level of brutality conducted against the Algerians is galling. Not merely assassinations, but mass executions, starvation, torture, and rape as a weapon of terror. This does not excuse the Algerians from their desire to replicate those very crimes. It was a "dirty war" that the Algerians haven't forgotten, and actually lead to the collapse of the French government.
That basically takes us to today. This is one of the reasons you can't find sympathetic Algerians to the French plight. This is why there is a malicious streak in their commentary. The civilizational divide between French Catholicism and African Islamism so extreme, and has resulted in so much bloodshed and hatred, that these people really can't live with each other.
do you write this stuff just off the top of your head? Even the few times where I disagree with you, you're always so clear and eloquent. Bravo!
Thanks, I appreciate that. And yeah I did write that off the top of my head. It's hard to try and roll through 2,000 years of French history as a summation.
I think it might be Spain as that was under Islamic occupation around the time of the crusades and they had a crusade that pushed them back into North Africa.
To be fair it wasn't just the Umayyad Caliphate, but France was born out of the division of territory among heirs in the Carolingian dynasty, which began with Charles Martel and his sons. Had they not deposed the Merovingian dynasty, the distribution of territories would presumably have been quite different without their conquests and divided within a different chain of succession.
Thanks for that. That Late Antiquity period is a pretty big gap for me.