I was completely unaware that the Romans had such a huge influence on France. I was also unaware of the fact that France had been mostly Catholic since 496 when Louis, their chief, was baptized. King Louis XI who had ruled from 1461 until 1483 "doubled the size of France until it neared it's present-day shape." He developed a royal bureaucracy to increase taxation as well. This left France highly centralized for three whole centuries! I was a little shocked to read that Protestant Huguenots were massacred! If you were a Protestant Huguenot or had family or friends that were Protestant Huguenots must have been the worst feeling in the world! It makes me question that maybe they would either have to lie about their religion if they really wanted to stay in France otherwise they would have to relocate. I had no idea river were considered economic arteries, but it's completely understandable. I thought reading the little excerpt about geography and rivers was extremely interesting. They were important and allowed trade to happen outside and throughout the country! Rivers were like today's highways! Isn't that an interesting concept? A different way at looking at the past! How interesting and intelligent people were to use such a natural resource to their advantage, yet so little minded to fight over a religion and science! An interesting concept Alexis de Tocqueville said was that revolutions occur when things are getting better. I thought this was both true and false. True because in my opinion it means that people are fighting for a change to make things better for themselves and others. False because many people die for something that may or may not happen. Just because you fight for it doesn't mean that it will always happen. I had heard of the term "Reign of Terror", but had never known the meaning behind it. After reading about it and what happened it's very scary to even begin to think about how horrible it mus have been like to live in those times. I cannot believe more than 20,000 people were beheaded! I thought it was funny to learnt hat Napoleon only ruled for 10 years before he was exiled to the Elba. I also thought it was sad at how little I knew about him. I only knew that he once ruled France. I never knew the background story behind his ruling. There was so much to talk about in the chapter because it was filled to the brim with information about the country, the culture, and the government. I was shocked to learn that France has 59 nuclear power stations!!! Nuclear power is of high interest to me not only because of what happened in Japan, but because it's so dangerous to humans and wildlife! I was also shocked by the reading on unemployment in France! I never knew that it was such a pressing issue. I thought we had it bad in the U.S. but apparently not. It's sad when you hear about other countries that have it much worse than your own, when your own country itself could be doing much better. I also didn't know there was any racial problems in France either. I guess no matter where you go racism will forever exist in different ways against different people. To sum it all up France has many ongoing issues including unemployment, education, and the list goes on. It's sad and I can't wait to learn more in class since I will be visiting this summer.
The following link will lead you to an article and video on tens of thousands protesting against gender equality teaching in schools and fertility treatments for same-sex couples! A current ongoing issue in the country.
http://www.france24.com/en/20140202-thousands-french-conservatives-march-family-http://www.france24.com/en/20140202-thousands-french-conservatives-march-family-values/values/http://www.france24.com/en/20140202-thousands-french-conservatives-march-family-values/
