François Valentin @Valen10Francois Twitter profile

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

One of my biggest pet peeves: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps. A 🧵

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

7 months

When the French invite you for dinner vs when the Germans invite you for dinner

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

You can fly 16.5hrs in France and still be in France. The American mind cannot comprehend this.

Brandon 🪓

@Totally_Brandon

2 months

You can drive 9.5 hrs in North Carolina and still be in North Carolina. The European mind cannot comprehend this.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

3 months

The American mind cannot comprehend this

U.S. Naval Institute

@NavalInstitute

3 months

Today is #NationalDrinkWineDay . Unfortunately for American sailors at sea, they cannot participate because U.S. Navy ships are dry. Their French counterparts are allowed two drinks per day. On the Charles de Gaulle, wine is available in the carrier's four bars.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

29 days

The American mind cannot comprehend this

Daily Mail Online

@MailOnline

29 days

French spies are immune to honeytrap schemes as their wives 'already know they're having affairs', France's 'MI6' reveals

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

1568: You're the King of Spain and the dutch provinces revolt. But how can you send your army north if you find on your way a hostile England, a revanchist France and Dutch corsairs. Enters the "Camino Español", the most extraordinary logistical feat in military history. a 🧵

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

Population density in Europe. Spain is shockingly empty

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

I'm reading Zamoyski's history of Poland and I'm struck about how little Western Europeans are taught about the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth! In 1619, it controlled a quarter/third of Europe's landmass, with a rich culture, a strong education and a proto-democracy.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Which alcohol do you prefer? Brittany: Yes

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

The fact that the French revolution managed to survive this absolutely desperate situation in 1793 (amid insane political turmoil) will never cease to amaze me

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

You may not like it, but this is what peak economic performance looks like.

euronews

@euronews

4 months

The Economist rated Greece as the top-performing economy in 2023. Euronews Business breaks down the study and considers how the rest of Europe performed last year.👇

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

3 years

Sack of Rome by Alaric I, king of the Visigoths, circa 410, colorized.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

In 1920, this historian managed to predict World War II step by step! He called out the Anschluss and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact included, by reading maps and history books Buckle up, in this 🧵 we will explore the most prophetic book ever written in history

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

This map drives Paris crazy. It shows France hardly contributing to Ukraine’s defense, but Paris say the data is bullshit. As Macron is taking a hardline stance on Russia, let’s see whether the map is off or if France is genuinely not taking its fair share. A 🧵

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 month

That's the map of a continent that doesn't believe it has a future. Spain is especially dramatic

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

France's troubled political history is often reflected in the evolution of street names This street in Rambouillet is a fantastic crash course

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

And to wrap it up here's one on Alabama that goes back millions of years. This ex-coastline area throughout history has had larger farm sizes, a larger slave population and now strong democratic credentials in a red state. More here:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

6 months

Studying at Sciences Po vs La Sorbonne

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

English possessions in 1154 vs the 1st round of the presidential election + Where British citizens currently reside in France

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 month

This should be celebrated as one of the biggest accomplishments in French and industrial history.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 month

The hollowing of central and eastern Europe is staggering

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

7 months

Speaking of food and French culture this remains an all-time quip from @GerardAraud

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Zooming in on Paris, districts that voted for Macron vs districts that voted for Mélenchon in the 1st round of the presidential election vs the 1871 commune of Paris. (Diamonds are important barricades)

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

More generally the Austrian empire has left its mark all around. Thanks to:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

Budapest is the only region in Europe where European identity is stronger than both national and regional identity.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Bit of a bonus on Catholicism and Nazism:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Zeroing in on the Austrian Empire's legacy, here's Romania with the Austrian Empire overlaid on top. (2014 election, PNL is "right-wing" and PSD "left-wing") Thanks to:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Poland can boast the famous "politically relevant old map": The partitions between Prussia, Russia & Austria are still visible in recent elections, with Russo-Austrian territories markedly more conservative.(2020 + 2007 elections, German empire overlaid)

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

Fascinating report on child allowances and fertility. France cut child allowances for wealthy couples in 2014, which lead to a marked drop in their fertility, especially among parents who already had kids.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

7 months

That's the face of someone having an existential crisis and reconsidering their life choices

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

9 months

Americans discovering what the US has been imposing on Europeans for years never ceases to amaze me. It's called an ESTA

Eric Boehm

@EricBoehm87

10 months

I feel like this is something that should be a much bigger story than it is: Starting next year, American passport-holders won't have visa-free access to Europe. Instead, you'll have to pay 7 Euros and wait *14 days* for an entry visa to be processed.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

One of the biggest enigmas in European history, why did France begin its fertility transition decades before the rest of the continent?

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Time to pivot to Germany, unsurprisingly the iron curtain has had quite a few consequences. The former Soviet Republic is less religious, more far-right and... more far-left than the rest of the country A good read on this:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Italians often joke that the North and the South of the boot are different countries. But you would've been able to spot this North/South divide centuries ago! A 🧵 on Italy that goes from Ancient Greece to Beppe Grillo (with some food sprinkled along the way)

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Another one of these forgotten European empires. It's remarkable how an empire with a population of 1.5 million circa 1600 (Russia was around 10m, Poland-Lithuania 8m) managed to punch well above its weight for decades.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

This map on the population of Europe in 1789 is part of the answer. France was the demographic superpower throughout most of European history. And when it stopped being the superpower in the 19th century... well we all know what happened after

François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

The fact that the French revolution managed to survive this absolutely desperate situation in 1793 (amid insane political turmoil) will never cease to amaze me

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

Europe is old. Italy is very old.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

@BartCBartC Tahitians are proud Frenchmen

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

5 months

The huge irony is that the Euro was saved by an Italian central banker who wrote his MIT PHD thesis on why a single currency was bad idea. "I concluded that the single currency was madness, something absolutely not to do." -Mario Draghi History works in strange ways sometimes.

Dominik Andrzejczuk (🇵🇱,🇺🇸) — e/acc ⏩

@QuantumDom

6 months

I hope you're all sitting down, but it looks like a CEP study showed that Germany gains most from euro.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

Disappointed by the #napoleonmovie ? The good news is that reality dwarfs fiction Far from being Scott's half-wit, he was a legendary tactician and a master of deception, in full display in the triumph of Austerlitz A🧵on Napoleon's crowning success

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

À 3 semaines du référendum sur l'indépendance de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, mon image du match #FRAvNZL c'est bien celle de Peato Mauvaka, le petit gars de Nouméa qui plante 2 essais et fait le tour du stade en agitant fièrement le drapeau tricolore. Vive le rugby français!

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 month

Except the plant: -Provides electricity for Belgium -Was built by France and Belgium -Provides jobs and apprenticeships for Belgians -Is overseen by Belgian local officials

Terrible Maps

@TerribleMaps

1 month

Being a bad neighbour..

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

"Right-wing granite, left-wing limestone" André Siegfried's famously claimed in 1913. The father of electoral geography argued that the soil had a lasting political impact, one that still pops its head in modern French politics. A few tweets on conservatism and soils. 🧵 1/17

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

It also seems that the short-lived Polish 2nd Republic survives in some form in Ukraine and Lithuania. (The pink in Lithuania is the Polish nationalist party in 2016, dark green in Ukraine is the conservative party in 1998) Found here:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Toujours fasciné par les vielles cartes qui recoupent des réalités politiques actuelles

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

This section is plucked from @jameshawes2 and his wonderful "Shortest History of Germany." Very interesting concept when approaching German history

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Europe's imperial political models have always been a mix of the Roman Empire, Charlemagne's/HRE, and maybe sometimes Napoleon's, but never the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was, for its time, very forward-thinking and wealthy.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

Makes you proud to be French to see green every morning

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

If we take a step back to the European scale the 6 original members of the future EU cover most of Charlemagne's Empire (dark green is for direct control, light green vassal states) To circle back to Hawes' thesis, notice how East Germany/Prussia is in neither of these entities.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

A more recent one for Ukraine:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Travelling to the USA, it seems that the Mexican empire is not just alive in telenovelas (2014 map): From the economist:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

I'm sure my Eastern European followers are gonna let me know that they've been annoyed by this lack of consideration for ages, but I'm genuinely curious as to why it has been seemingly wiped out from memory in the west.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Une tragédie en 2 actes: le tweet que j'ai lu à mon frère ce matin vs le cadeau qu'il m'avait offert. @RonanPla

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

We've all seen these maps on the lasting impact of the East/West divide in German society. But you would've been able to spot that divide war before the Iron Curtain! A small 🧵 on Germany history, geology and culture that goes back to Charlemagne and Caesar Augustus.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Invading Poland was basically a prerequisite for attaining great power status in Europe... Jokes aside, the fact that despite all those invasions, Poles kept such a strong sense of national identity is extraordinary.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

Here's an interesting one on Portugal (2015 legislative election vs 1160 Portugal. With some analysis below 👇

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

6 months

Just watched the #Napoleon movie and oh man it's so disappointing. Given the money and attention that went into it it's criminal to screw it up so badly because of storytelling. Only positive is that it allowed me rock up to the cinema in my Napoleon costume

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Italy is also traditionally where young recruits (bisgonos) were trained for 2-3 years before they become veteran Tercios viejos. The soldiers would joke: "Spain is my nature, Italy my adventure, Flanders my grave."

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

King Felipe II of Spain, Naples & Sicily, duke of Milan & Burgundy, was also Prince of the Netherlands. In 1566 a Calvinist riot leads to the death of 10s of priests and the destruction of many churches. Felipe, defender of the true faith, wants to punish the rebels.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

Can you imagine how insufferable we would be with 250M Frenchmen today rather than the current 70M. Would have been glorious

François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

One of the biggest enigmas in European history, why did France begin its fertility transition decades before the rest of the continent?

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

Call an ambulance but not for moi

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

The geography of pro-immigration supporters in the UK

Sebastian Payne

@SebastianEPayne

4 months

9 of out of 10 constituencies want immigration cut: Clacton in Essex is the most hawkish with 67% wanting lower numbers. Bristol Central is the most liberal, with 55% wanting fewer controls Preview of @ukonward 's new report Reality Check in @Telegraph

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

"Bonjour, do you want to get strategically intimate with moi?"

Maria Tadeo

@mariatad

2 years

In Prague, Macron now pitches «strategic intimacy» to partners and allies. That’s a quote.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

The Duke of Alba is a war hero and one of the greatest general in Spanish history. He conquered Tunis in 1535, defeated the German Protestants in 1547. He wasn't going to let geography ruin his war. So he sent 300 sappers to prepare a 1000 km corridor across Europe.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

His late father, Charles V, had warned him that the lowlands were hard to defend and that Spain might be better off abandoning it. But hawks around him, especially the Duke of Alba, tell him that the fiercesome Spanish tercios should easily cut down the protestant rabble.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

The first stop for the troops ferried from Barcelona is Genoa. The merchant republic is all too happy to let the Spanish troops in. Indeed, the hated Venice made an alliance with France so Genoa turned to France's enemy. Genoa is also the de facto banking hub for Spain.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

11 months

@ella_micheletti @Qofficiel Le meme docu par Valeurs Actuelles et Quotidien aurait pris Viktorovich sur le plateau pour nous montrer que c'est de la propagande d'EX-droite.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

So many fun things to point out. The "empty diagonal" in France. Former Prussia being very empty. The "blue banana" from Belgium to Northern Italy

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

If Airbus had even done a fraction of Boeing's recent screwups Americans would never have let us hear the end of it. This cartoon from 15 years ago is a good reminder

NEXTA

@nexta_tv

2 months

A Boeing 777 airplane's wheel fell off during the flight The incident occurred in San Francisco. The wheel fell off the parking lot and damaged several cars. Fortunately, no one was injured.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

While the politics of the Camino are impressive, the logistics are centuries ahead of its time. Let's follow the first expedition ran by the Duke of Alba himself.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

4 months

People make fun of French kings for seemingly all being called Louis. But the Danes take the cake for having all their kings alternate between Christian and Frederick without missing a beat for 18 kings over 4 centuries!

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Alba's column spreads over 50 kms. It took him 56 days to cross 1100 kms through the Alps and modern day eastern France to reach the Netherlands, 20kms a day. The average trip on the camino is around 48 days, or a staggering 23 kms a day. Only Napoleon would top that speed.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

From Genoa the troops walk into Lombardy. Will its ruler accept the Spanish troops? Well yes because the duke of Milan is ... Felipe King of Spain.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Moving north they enter Savoy which wants to play an balancing act between France and Spain. Spain is the dominant power while France is consumed by its civil war, so they let them through. You can never be too sure, so Felipe also marries his daughter to the duke of Savoy.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

They enlarged the mountain paths, avoided the marshes, identified fords in rivers and draw detailed maps of the path. But the real feat was political. How could massive Tercios cross half of Europe (which was in a state of frenzied religious war) unmolested?

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Bainville is voicing long-established foreign policy thinking in France: for centuries France had kept Germany divided into a myriad of micro entities. As François Mauriac would write during the Cold War "I love Germany so much I'm glad there are 2 of them"

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

He could sail but the French retook Calais in 1558 and England could not be trusted (Queen Elizabeth later declared war in 1568). The sea was also infested with Dutch corsairs (the "water beggars") and French Huguenot pirates from La Rochelle. The sea was too dangerous.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

The total logistical cost per man for the Spanish crown is around 8 escudos per man, which is what it would have cost the crown to ferry the troops by sea. A logistical triumph that would allow Spain to send 30 convoys in Flanders for a total of 160 000 troops in 70 years.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

So the King and his uber hawk the Duke of Alba started making plans for an extremely ambitious land route from Italy to the Netherlands via the Alps. There were small mountain paths but it would be enough for armies 10000-strong?

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

On top of that you have to imagine that every time the armies go through, the King must send legions of Ambassadors to negotiate the right of passage and reassure them that their men won't raze their lands on the way.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

In 1920, a then obscure British economist published "The Economic Consequences of Peace" He predicted that this harsh « Carthaginian peace » would ultimately collapse Europe’s economic model He argued that the allies need to help, not punish, Germany

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 years

And of course let's take this with a grain of salt, 12th century maps do not explain all of modern day politics of course. And of course feel free to add more Thanks to @covfefehaus for finding some of these!

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

But how can Felipe send his troops up there? He could go through France, but the French kings are the sworn enemies of the Habsburgs. The King of France cannot afford to alienate the French protestant Huguenots by letting Catholic Tercios through to crush the dutch protestants.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

The camino also lingers on within the Spanish language. "Poner une pica en flandes" or "to put a pike in Flanders" means "to do the impossible," a tribute to the logistical marvel of the Camino.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

5 months

Malcolm Rutherford, one of the writers of the FT's Kissinger obituary published this morning, died 25 years ago. Working beyond the grave, you don't get this kind of commitment to the job nowadays.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

9 months

Cool map, I've got a better one

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

6 months

Never realised that Zelensky had once played the part of Napoleon and he looks the part too. In a Russian movie too, funny how history plays out sometimes. "Rzevsky Versus Napoleon" (2012)

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

Since supplying 16000 people at once is impossible, the army is divided in 3 columns, themselves split in companies which succeed each other every 24 hours. A small town like St Jean de Maurienne can only host 700... by cramping 3 per bed. Looters are executed.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

In 1613 Savoy allies itself with France. The tercios have to cross the Alps through the Tyrol and the canton of the Grisons. In 1633 the French occupy Lorraine and the Grisons, cutting the Camino. In 1648 the treaty of Westphalia is signed, the United Provinces are independent.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

For Bainville Versailles is "a peace that is too soft for its hardness, and too hard for its softness." It does humiliate Germany, but crucially it doesn't seriously weaken it. Germany remains Europe's demographic giant. Worse still, Germany remains united

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

5 months

Parisians waiting in line for hours before the opening of the first Krispy Kreme donut store in Paris is the closest thing you'll get to a Civ VI cultural victory

Romain PETITJEAN

@RomainEvenement

5 months

Kali Yuga

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 month

Very interesting study. 31% of the UK electorate are "homo-nativists": Positive on homosexuality, negative on immigration Something that is increasingly apparent in many nationalist parties in Europe (France and the Netherlands especially)

An emerging homo-nativist electorate?

In the past one would expect to find progressive views on homosexuality would be a predictor of progressive attitudes in other areas, like immigration. But a new paradoxical-sounding trend is being…

blogs.lse.ac.uk

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

The troops need per day 226g of meat, 115 g of cod, 290 g of bread, 1L of wine, vegetables/fruits. Animals need 20kg of fodder/grain. That's 7 tons of supply per 1K troops + their animals. For water (they need 2L per day) they walk from spring to spring.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

After Lorraine the troops go through Luxembourg, another of Felipe's possessions and then the bishopric of Liège, which is surrounded by Spanish holdings and not really in a position to refuse anything to the most powerful man in Europe. Finally they are in the Dutch provinces.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

After going through the harrowing Alpine passes (where they are often harassed by soldiers from Geneva) they enter Franche Comté (modern day eastern France). The county is part of Felipe's Burgundian lands and Felipe is autorised by Treaty with France to let troops through.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

The path can still be found in an old country road near the Belgian town of Arlon named "the path of the Spaniards." Interestingly, the path largely overlaps with the future "Blue Banana", Europe's industrial fertile crescent.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

2 months

Looks like I triggered the Spanish tradwives!

Monique

@MonicaUnchained

2 months

Ni un solo día sin que España sea el mejor país del mundo. La densidad de población que merezco. Si hacéis zoom in en ese azul oscuro me encontraréis tal que así:

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

The path is first used in 1567 and the whole of Europe is holding its breath. Are the tercios going to fight the Dutch? Or will they try to grab calvinist Geneva? or Besançon? Protestants wonder if they should attack the marching army in solidarity with the Dutch.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

So the Spanish tercios have to go through Lorraine. By treaty, Lorraine is a neutral buffer state between the French and Spanish but troops are allowed to pass. The Duke of Lorraine recently lost ground to France so he's very happy to have Spanish troops around.

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François Valentin

@Valen10Francois

1 year

What made the path viable for all those years was France's weakness. Embroiled in a bitter religious war, it couldn't really threaten Spain. After the civil war, Henri IV of France and later the Cardinal of Richelieu did all they could to cut this artery.

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