Friends or enemies? France and England have a dark common past. A merger between the two countries has even already been signed.
What would have happened if France and England became one? Brexit or not Brexit? Would we have a king or a president? The idea of bringing together two of the most rival nations of the last millennium to become one may seem far-fetched, even unthinkable to the most chauvinistic, but it has already germinated in the heads of certain leaders.
The British have unearthed a document from their National Archives relating to a “total merger” between France and England. The idea of a Frangleterre, where the French and the English would become one, sweeping away Joan of Arc, the bourgeoisie of Calais, Trafalgar and Waterloo, is difficult to understand. However, France and its British neighbor also know how to unite in times of crisis.
A large number of people may be unaware of it, but in 1940, when France experienced the debacle against the Nazi army, Jean Monnet, responsible for coordinating French and English arms production from London, brought before the British government the idea of a union between the two nations. The merger appealed to the English Prime Minister Winston Churchill and, in the process, a treaty expressing that “the two governments declare that France and Great Britain will no longer be two Nations but a single Franco-British union” is drawn up by the latter and de Gaulle. In France, the President of the Council Paul Reynaud also gives his agreement for a union between the two countries, but the arrival in power of Marshal Pétain, supporter of a unilateral armistice with Germany, causes the project to fall to the ground. water.
Concretely, this union between the two countries would have lasted only for the duration of the war, and aimed above all to protect the interests of the two countries. On the one hand, France could no longer contain the advance of the Nazis, and its military resources would fall into the hands of the German army. On the other hand, England then saw the possibility of negotiating with the Germans. In addition to a pooling of resources, the two nations would have formed a single war government, certainly with de Gaulle and Churchill at its head. For the population, the treaty ensured that “every French citizen will immediately enjoy British nationality” and “every British subject will become a French citizen”.
All this ultimately never happened, but even without merging, France and England continue to work hand in hand. On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale between the two nations, the National Archives also released the treaties on the development of Concorde and the Channel Tunnel, two Franco-British projects.