Originally Posted by
Burney
Mostly the 20th century. The refussl to advance after the Nivelle offensive in 1917, 1940, Dien Bien Phu, Algeria. An impressive litany of loss.
And actually, given that it was for most of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries the pre-eminent land power of Europe, France massively underperformed. Largely because it undervalued naval power, spunked all its money on ensuring we lost America (out of sheer spite) and never had the brains to grasp that money wins wars - but they weren’t the last self-aggrandising, quasi-imperial European power to learn that last lesson the hard way.