Anti-French sentiment

The Gate of Calais: O! The Roast Beef of Old England by William Hogarth, portrays France as an oppressive, poverty-stricken and backward culture.

England and France have a long history of conflict, dating from before the Battle of Hastings, when William the Conqueror claimed the English throne. Before becoming King of England, William found conflict with his liege several times and conquered some neighbouring fiefs. The relationship between the countries continued to be filled with conflict, even during the Third Crusade. The medieval era of conflict climaxed during the Hundred Years' War, when the House of Plantagenet fought unsuccessfully for control of the French throne and lost almost all French holdings, which resulted in future English kings being more culturally English. (Previously, they had largely spoken French and lived in French castles much of the time. Richard the Lionheart, who was famous for his feud with French King Philip, spent most of his life in France and as little as six months of his reign as King in England.)

In contrast, relations between Scotland and France were generally good. The Auld Alliance treaty of 1295 provided for mutual support between Scotland and France in the event of an English attack on either. This was replaced by the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh between England, Scotland and France.

The modern history of conflict between Britain and France stems from the rise of Britain as the primary commercial and maritime power in Europe in the early 18th century onward and the threat it posed to France's supremacy. Hostility toward and strategic conflict with France's similar ambitions became a defining characteristic of relations between the two powers. The time between the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and Napoleon's final capitulation in 1815 has been perceived in Britain as a prolonged Franco-British conflict to determine who would be the dominant colonial power (sometimes called the Second Hundred Years' War). British hostility to the Catholic Church, which dated back to earlier conflicts with Catholic Habsburg Spain, contributed to attitudes towards the French because France was also seen as a Catholic power, and the majority of the British people were Protestants. England and later Britain joined continental European states in resisting French ambitions of undisputed hegemony during the reign of Louis XIV and the Napoleonic Wars. Britain also resented France's intervention in the American Revolutionary War. The repeated conflicts spawned deep mutual antagonism between the two nations, which were only and partially overcome by their alliance to defeat Imperial Germany in the early 20th century.

The dimensions of the conflict in Britain were as much cultural as strategic. Indeed, British nationalism, in its nascent phases, was in large part an anti-France phenomenon and the attitudes involved extended well beyond who won what on various battlefields:

• A growing group of British nationalists in the 17th and 18th centuries resented the veneration that was often accorded the French culture and language.[2]
• France was the most powerful Catholic state for much of the modern period and "Anti-Catholic" sentiments had been widespread in Britain since the Act of Supremacy in 1534.
• The permeation of anti-French sentiment throughout society, as epitomised by the apocryphal story of the Hartlepool monkey hangers, whose belief that the French were literally inhuman led them to have allegedly executed a pet monkey in the belief that it was an invading Frenchman, but the story is based upon the disputed premise that those involved had never seen a Frenchman before.

Robert Graves wrote shortly after the First World War during his time at Oxford University as an undergraduate that:

The eighteenth century owed its unpopularity largely to its Frenchness. Anti-French feeling among most ex-soldiers amounted almost to an obsession. Edmund, shaking with nerves, used to say at this time: "No more wars for me at any price! Except against the French. If ever there is a war against them, I'll go like a shot." Pro-German feeling had been increasing. With the war over and the German armies beaten, we could give the German soldier credit for being the most efficient fighting man in Europe ... Some undergraduates even insisted that we had been fighting on the wrong side: our natural enemies were the French.

— Robert Graves Goodbye to All That.[2]

Beginning with the French invasions of Germany in the late 18th century, France became the century-long rival of Germany. The rising German nationalist movement also considered France their greatest enemy because France not only had temporarily conquered much of Western Germany during the Napoleonic Wars but also was the country most strongly opposed to the idea of a unified German empire and wanted Germany to remain divided into many individual states.

In this time, the myth of the so-called hereditary enmity (German: Erbfeindschaft) came into being, according to which the Romanic French and the Germanic Germans had been antithetic enemies ever since the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, a notion that was inherently unhistorical. In the 19th century, anti-French sentiment became commonplace in German political discourse even if the deep cultural interrelation between the two could never be blanked out completely. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poked fun at this in his epic Faust I with the verse: Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzen leiden, doch ihre Weine trinkt er gern. "A real German man likes no Frenchy, but he likes to drink their wines.")

Several German nationalist anthems were written against the French, most prominently Die Wacht am Rhein. After the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, the anniversary of the decisive Battle of Sedan was made a semiofficial national holiday in the German Empire.

After the culminations of Franco-German enmity in both world wars, the two actively gave up their mutual animosities in the second half of the twentieth century. The most prominent symbol of this development is the picture of heads of government François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl holding each other's hands at a ceremony at the military cemetery in Verdun in 1984. Today, Germany and France are close political partners and two closely connected nations. A joint Franco-German television network, Arte, was founded in 1992.

Historically, relations between French and Irish have been generally positive, as both peoples shared a common religion, Roman Catholicism, and a common Protestant enemy, England (later the United Kingdom). French kings during the 16th to 19th centuries often supported Irish and Scottish interests against English advances in Ireland and Scotland.

Recently, there have been a few instances of friction between France and the Republic of Ireland over political and economic issues that led to expressions of Irish francophobia. One of these was when Ireland rejected the Lisbon treaty in a referendum in 2008 and Nicolas Sarkozy commented that Ireland "must vote again"[3] – as it indeed did the following year. Another source has been the French criticism of Ireland's low corporate taxation rate and the perceived French resistance to conceding an interest rate reduction on the International Monetary Fund/ European Union loan arrangement until Ireland "moves" on this rate, which was perceived as interference.[4]

Francophobia in Ireland rose in the aftermath of a controversial FIFA World Cup playoff game between the two countries, leading to protests outside the French Embassy in Dublin.[5] Irish businesses exploited the occasion in a mostly light-hearted way, with promotions offering discounts for every goal scored against France and special reductions to celebrate the elimination of France from the tournament.[6][7]

On Easter Monday (30 March) 1282, at the Church of the Holy Spirit just outside Palermo, at evening prayer (vespers), a Frenchman harassed a Sicilian woman. This single event led to the massacre of 4,000 Frenchmen over the course of the next six weeks, and the government of the French-born king Charles I of Anjou lost control of the island.

El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid

Goya painted several famous pictures depicting the violence of the Peninsula wars during the Napoleonic Era. In particular, the French actions against Spanish civilians during the Peninsular War drew a large amount of criticism, as illustrated by The Third of May 1808 painting.

The French colonial empires earned many enemies, among rival colonial countries, especially the British empire, especially by colonised peoples. However, French neocolonialism is denounced under the term of Françafrique including by sectors of the French population itself.

The Algerian War had been underway since 1954. The Évian Accords of March 18 1962, brought an end to the conflict. The Accords, which were reached during a cease-fire between French armed forces and the Algerian nationalist organization the FLN, began the process of transfer of power from the French to the Algerians. The Évian Accords intended to guarantee the rights and safety of the Pieds-Noirs, the French-speaking European settlers in an independent Algeria.

In 1959, the Pieds-Noirs numbered 1,025,000, and accounted for 10.4% of the total population of French Algeria. However, rumors had already spread among the Pieds-Noirs that their choice would be between "the suitcase or the coffin". On the morning of July 5, 1962, the day Algeria became independent, seven companie of FLN troops entered the city of Oran.[8] An outraged Arab mob swept into the Pieds-Noir neighborhoods, which had already been largely vacated, and attacked the estimated 40,000 remaining Pieds-Noirs. The violence lasted several hours, during which the mob cut the throats of many men, women and children.[8]

The number of Pieds-Noirs who fled Algeria totalled more than 800,000 between 1962 and 1964.[9]

France's intervention in the civil war in Côte d'Ivoire has triggered anti-French violence by the "Young Patriots" and other groups.[10]

As for the result of France's closeness toward Armenia during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, anti-French sentiment began to develop in Azerbaijan, where Azerbaijan accused France of one-sided and Turkophobic.[11] In addition, reporters from France have also faced numerous harassment and hostility from the host nation.[12] In November 2020, Azerbaijan sent protest note to Paris after French Senate's recognized the Republic of Artsakh.[13]

French colonists were given the special epithet thực dân (originally meaning colonist but evolving to refer to the oppressive regime of the French) in Vietnamese; it is still universally used in discussions about the colonial era. After the French were pushed out of Vietnam, those who collaborated with them (called tay sai – agents) were vilified. Those who left for France with the French were known as Việt gian (Viet traitors) and had all their property confiscated. Although anti-French feelings in Vietnam have greatly abated, the use of words like thực dân (colonist) to describe the French is still common.

During the 1884 Battle of Tamsui, the Chinese took prisoner and beheaded 11 French marines, who were injured, in addition to La Gailissonniere's captain Fontaine and used bamboo poles to display the heads in public to incite anti-French feelings in China pictures of the decapitation of the French were published in the Tien-shih-tsai Pictorial Journal in Shanghai.[14]

Anti-French sentiment started to develop when the French, who negotiated the infamous Sykes–Picot Agreement, began invading Syria. The battle of Maysalun that happened in 1920, where Syrian Army under the command of the charismatic Yusuf al-'Azma, symbolized a strong anti-French sentiment among Syrians as France had regenerated the promise to occupy and terrorize Syrian population.[15] French rule in Syria was extremely viewed negative by a lot of Syrians, and French involvement in the Syrian civil war also gains little sympathy.[16]

In October 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan demanded from the Turkish citizens to boycott French products.[17]

A snack bar sign advertising "American" fries at Knott's Berry Farm, the sign previously read "French".

Despite a large French contribution to the 1991 Iraq Gulf War (called Operation Daguet) and the French presence in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom), the opposition of French President Jacques Chirac to the 2003 Iraq War led to a significant rise in anti-French sentiment in the United States,[18] epitomized by a movement to rename french fries to freedom fries.[19] In March 2003, the cafeteria of the United States House of Representatives had its French fries and French toast renamed to freedom fries and toast, at the direction of Representatives Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and Walter Jones (R-North Carolina). Representative Ney chaired the Committee on House Administration and had authority over the menu in the House cafeteria.[20]

The freedom fries renaming was not without controversy or opposition. Timothy Noah of Slate noted that the move was "meant to demonize France for its exasperating refusal to support a war against Iraq". He compared the 2003 renamings to the renaming of all things German in World War I, but argued that the freedom fries episode was even worse because "Germany, after all, was America's enemy, whereas France is America's NATO ally."[21] The episode occurred despite the fact that neither french fries nor french toast are typically French (see origins of french fries and french toast), with American people and politicians being driven intentionally or unintentionally by the name confusion.

The swell of anti-French sentiment in the United States resulting from 2003 episode was marked.[22] Various media personalities and politicians openly expressed anti-French sentiments;[23] News Corporation's media outlets, particularly the Fox Entertainment Group's Fox News Network, were specifically implicated in a campaign fanning francophobia at the time of the war.[24][25]

Black Haitians murdering French settlers in a massacre that effectively eliminated the white population of Haiti

In 1804, Haitian leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines ordered the massacre of nearly all white men, women, children remaining in Haiti following the Haitian Revolution; between January and April 1804, 3,000 to 5,000 whites were killed, including those who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population.[26]

France controls several islands in the Pacific Ocean New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna Islands and French Polynesia. There have been sporadic independence demonstrations in French Polynesia, and briefly in the 1980s a pro-independence insurgency in New Caledonia, led by the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste. However, the situation is by no means unique to France, as the other overseas European Great Power, the United Kingdom, also owns many British overseas territories and the controversies they generate.

There is also the issue of nuclear testing in the Pacific. Since 1960, around 200 nuclear tests have occurred around the Pacific, to the opprobrium of other Pacific states, Australia and New Zealand. In 1982, New Zealand reggae band Herbs released their breakthrough single, "French Letter", which strongly criticised French nuclear testing.[27] The end of the Cold War led to a French moratorium on nuclear testing, but it was lifted in 1995 by Jacques Chirac. French security forces have sought to interfere with the activity of nuclear testing protesters. In 1972, the Greenpeace vessel Vega was rammed at Moruroa. The following year Greenpeace protesters were detained by the French, and the skipper claimed he was beaten. Also, in 1985 the French secret service bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand. Greenpeace had been a very vocal opponent of French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Australia ceased military cooperation with France and embargoed the export of uranium to France. Chirac's decision to run a nuclear test series at Mururoa on 5 September and 2 October 1995, just one year before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was to be signed, caused worldwide protest, including an embargo of French wine. Riots took place across Polynesia, and the South Pacific Forum threatened to suspend France.[28]

Protesters demonstrated at the French embassy in Canberra, and the French honorary consulate in Perth was fire-bombed. The company Delifrance was forced to downplay its entry into the Australian market even if it was not a French company. The Herald Sun ran an article, "Why the French are Bastards." A group of Australians ran a full page advertisement in Le Monde, arguing that the opposition in Australia to French nuclear testing was strong, and large numbers of ANZAC soldiers who fell in France's defence in the First World War. Some authors in the French press replied by discussing Australia's own human rights record and its supposed ambitions to dominate the Pacific (one cartoon by Plantu portrayed an Australian wearing a very British bowler hat).

The policies of Charles de Gaulle during his second presidency (1959–1969) included several actions that some critics have held against him.

• De Gaulle advocated a stance that France should act partially as a third pole between the United States and Soviet Union, while remaining within the political structure of NATO, actively supporting European organizations such as the European Economic Community, and maintaining close ties with other western European nations (especially West Germany). This viewpoint was not unique to De Gaulle or to the French, because many other nations sought varying degrees of non-aligned status with reference to the two major blocs (United States/NATO and the Soviet bloc). India, China, Indonesia, and many other nations formed the Non-Aligned Movement, and Yugoslavia pursued a largely independent course from Moscow from 1961 until its dissolution in 2003.
• De Gaulle decided to end the presence of NATO bases on French soil, and withdrew France from the military structure of NATO. However, France remained within NATO's political structure.
• De Gaulle opposed the UK's application to join the EEC in 1963 and 1967. However, the next French President Georges Pompidou reversed De Gaulle's position and supported the UK's admission in 1973. French Presidents since De Gaulle have generally pursued fairly close relations with British leaders, including Jacques Chirac working with Tony Blair even during the Iraq War.[38]
• While visiting Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the World Fair in 1967, De Gaulle brought support to the Quebec sovereignty movement, with a speech "Vive le Québec libre!". This speech was highly regarded by the Quebec independence movement. However, it was widely criticized even in the French press,[39] and it was opposed by many French and French-Canadians including the future-Canadian prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, a French-Canadian from Montreal.

In total, De Gaulle advocated a strong presence among the great nations and independence towards the United States and the Soviet Union.