Three times in history, people thought of merging France and England into one country.
1) In 1420, the King of France Charles VI signed with Henry V of England the Treaty of Troyes, thought to put an end to the Hundred Years War: he provided that the English king would marry the Frenchman's daughter, and that their heir would be placed at the head of the two united countries. Little Henry VI effectively becomes the first ruler of this "double monarchy". He was duly consecrated at Notre-Dame de Paris in 1431, two years after being at Westminster. Only a certain Charles VII, helped by a certain Joan of Arc, was also crowned king of France in Reims in 1429 and, on the strength of his military victories, he succeeded in sending the boy back to his island.
2) The second attempt took place at the time of the total collapse of 1940. On June 16, to prevent the country on its knees from yielding to Hitler, Churchill endorsed an idea of Jean Monnet, and asked de Gaulle to submit it to Paul Reynaud, President of the Council: the Franco-British union, that is to say the total merger of the two countries into one, army, Parliament, natural resources. Reynaud has resigned. Pétain is already in the process of going to the armistice. The proposal falls in the Channel.
The third, finally, was only revealed by the BBC in 2007, on the basis of declassified documents, and would have taken place in September 1956, when the two countries were preparing to intervene in Suez against Nasser. This time it was Guy Mollet, head of government in Paris, who allegedly proposed marriage to his counterpart Anthony Eden. He would have refused, but in return proposed that France join the Commonwealth. This would have made Elizabeth II the sovereign of our Republic.
Do you think that if France and the United Kingdom had decided to become one country, it would have been a good thing?
Today, the UK and France are about the same GDP and as one unified country would be be the largest economy within the EU. Plus it would combine both European nuclear powers. Clearly it would be significant.
I'm not at all convinced it would be a matched made in heaven at any time.
In WW2 the French cabinet decided it was better to be a province of Germany than a dominion of Britain. Rather incredibly, the UK was forced to shell the French fleet at harbor because the UK could not take the risk of it falling into German hands.
I think a union of France and UK (FUK?) would have been a house divided. As such, to be to the disadvantage to both constituent parts. Merging both economies in 1956 would have been challenging. As Empires both had built trade blocks and were the central hub. Not an impossible task since it was done with the EU but I would think with a lot of rancorous and divisive squabbling.
In WW1, the UK declared war after a good breakfast whilst France waited till they had a liquid lunch. With that degree of cultural differences I don't think a Union was ever possible.
For a good period of time from Hastings to some point in the 100 years war, England was owned by Anjou. Both France and England were fairly intertwined and over the years that followed there was a chance of France controlling England or England controlling France. Edward the second was one of reasons none of this played out with England in control and also the loss of Edward Black Prince. The later events were very much a shadow of what happened earlier. The amount of French meddling in Scotland and Ireland I think put paid to any chance of a willing joining of both countries. Map below to show just how much of modern France did not belong to France.
Would not have worked. The people of France and the UK are very different. France is always on strike, the UK loves the woman who killed their unions. France is afraid of the side effects of the USA's hold on the western world. The UK loves the USA.
Even when both were in the EU together, they disliked each other.
For some reason a union between Germany and the UK or between Germany and France seems more likely to survive than the UK and France pairing up. And that says something.
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It would be fun to watch. But similar to the Balfour agreement that fcked the mid east.
I’m not too sure how we should select country borders. Just a few years ago, Sudan agreed to be cut in two based on cultural issues, etc. Perhaps organic ways is the key. Hopefully sidestepping genocide.
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The European union was doomed from the start because there is no way these countries could get along Having France and the UK become one coubmntry would be a tough selk.
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