For centuries France has been one of the strongest nations in Europe, we have won a great deal of wars and mighty battles. Like the other western European nations we sought out colonies in the new world and India, but our quest for greatness eventually led to war. During the 17th century we were almost unbeatable, we fought the ottomans as part of the league of the Rhine, the Spanish in the war of devolution and the Dutch in Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678). This was the time of the Sun king Louis XIV, a time when our might was unbeatable but as the 18th century began things began to change.
In 1701 the war of Spanish succession began when the last Hapsburg king of Spain passed away naming Phillip of Anjou Louis XIV grandson his successor. It was then that the Grand Alliance intervened to prevent a dynastic unification of Spain with our empire then the dominant military power on the continent. The war raged on for 13 years and the grand alliance succeeded in preventing a union between the French and Spanish empires but failed to prevent a bourbon king from ascending to the throne of Spain. But in return the new Spanish king was removed from the line of succession of the French throne and the Spanish lost control of the Spanish Netherlands and its possessions in Spain.
France remained the most powerful nation on the continent but other nations specifically the British began to challenge our power. In 1756 the seven years’ war began as Fredrick the great of Prussia invaded Saxony causing a European war that with the entrance of the British spread to the new world and India. In the colonies the war went well as our forces battles the British in North America, while Fredrick defeated the Austrians with ease at the Battles of Lobositz (1756), Prague (1757) and Rossbach (1757). Even with superior numbers the Austrians and the Russians were unable to defeat Fredrick and his army. The war in Europe effectively turned into a stalemate and ended in a white peace but the war against the British ended in catastrophe where we were forced to cede New France to Britain and Louisiana to the Spanish.
The seven year’s war ended in defeat but we soon had our revenge on the British in the American war of independence where we aided the American rebels gain independence from the British, but this victory came at a cost. In our efforts to weaken the British we fell into huge debt, many in the mother land grew tired of the ancient regime and soon the French revolution began. A republic was proclaimed in September 1792 and King Louis XVI was executed the next year. The great powers of Europe sought to undo everything the revolution had achieved and they might have succeeded had it not been for General Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon defeated coalition after coalition sent against us and soon he even became emperor of France, it seemed as though nothing could stop Napoleon until he faced the Russian winter. After capturing Moscow Napoleon and his Grande Armee where forced to retreat, seeing a chance to finally defeat him a new coalition was formed to fight Napoleon and soon Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig. Napoleon soon escaped from his prison on the island of Elba and made a triumphant return before suffering his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo at the hands of the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard von Blucher.
France was defeated yet again and all of our territorial gains from the Napoleonic wars where taken from us and the map of Europe was redrawn by the congress of Vienna. We have suffered defeat at the hands of the great powers of Europe but now we have a chance to make France stronger than ever and rebuild our empire.
Author's note: this AAR will be played with the New Nation Mod which i finally managed to install thanks to help from Avindian, this is the first time ive ever used the mod so this should be fun.