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Whether due to its central position in Western Europe, its imperial past or the weight of its culture, it is difficult to navigate the history of the contemporary world without constantly coming across France. However, today the axis of world diplomacy is shifting to China, a country where just over two centuries ago one of the worst diplomatic missions in history took place.
The loss of Indochina. This week marked the 70th anniversary of the fall of Dien Bien Phu, which marked the end of French rule in Indochina and a war almost forgotten today by French public opinion. The defeat also represented the beginning of growing North American involvement in the Vietnam conflict, which led to so many deaths in the region and provoked so much protest in the United States. The current protests on campuses connect with that time.
The epic of a pilot. The legend of the German pilot Franz von Werra began in the Battle of France (1940), where he was credited with having destroyed four enemy aircraft. Months later he himself was shot down and captured by the British, who sent him prisoner to Canada. The surprising thing is that he managed to escape to a still neutral United States and from there crossed to Mexico where he disguised himself as an unlikely local peasant, blond and blue-eyed. He managed to return to Germany.
Napoleon and the Channel Tunnel. Beyond war stories, France has also stood out for engineering feats such as the Eurotunnel, which has now been in operation for three decades, proof of Brexit. However, this infrastructure also has a military connotation, as perhaps it would have been a reality sooner if the United Kingdom had not feared an underground invasion. Plans in this sense existed since Napoleon.
Carter and Champollion. It is 150 years since the birth of Howard Carter, the controversial Egyptologist who discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in November 1922. The discovery marked a before and after in the study of ancient Egypt, but all the progress of this scientific field during the hundred years Previous ones drew on another milestone, the discovery of the Rosetta stone and the translation of hieroglyphic texts by Champollion.
Lepanto, decisive moment. Lepanto is one of the great naval battles in history and constitutes a milestone of great relevance for the future of the Western world. In this conference by Professor of Modern History Miguel Rivero Rodríguez, he details how this confrontation came to be and how it developed. The talk is part of the Juan March Foundation’s cycle on maritime battles.
Life and death of the vestals. Vestal priestesses were of capital importance from a religious but also political point of view for ancient Rome. This Ted-Ed animation explains who women were and what they did who, on the one hand, were privileged, but on the other, were condemned to public scrutiny and a constant risk to their lives that is inconceivable from today’s point of view. (with Spanish subtitles)
Commercial diplomacy. Diplomatic and trade relations between China and the West have always been complex. It is only necessary to remember the opium wars or the Boxer rebellion, and that only in the period limited to the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. This week’s visit by Xi Jinping to Europe, the first in five years, is surrounded by that complexity although fortunately times have changed and the differences do not seem to be resolved through war. For now, at least.
The reason for these disagreements is, on many occasions, due to competing commercial interests, but in many others due to cultural differences. A famous – and disastrous – case is that of Lord George Macartney, who at the end of the 18th century headed to China with the aim of establishing the first British embassy in that country. After a year-long trip plagued by incidents, a confident Macartney, his large entourage and the 600 trunks of gifts for Emperor Qianlong had to wait a week to be received.
Despite this display, the Chinese sovereign rejected Great Britain’s proposals, deeply offended by the arrogance shown by the ambassador, in turn wounded in his pride by the Chinese attitude. Macartney, for example, refused to bow nine times to the emperor as protocol dictated, because he believed that what was already the leading world power at that time should not stoop to that treatment. Everything on the mission went wrong and the trip came to an end when the Chinese signaled to the British that they did not need anything from them. Macartney returned empty-handed.
In the same way that in history there is déjà vu, similar circumstances in time separated by decades or centuries, there is also the opposite, jamais vu. Today the position of Europe and China is radically different than it was one or two centuries ago because the Asian giant now aspires, unlike then, to world hegemony.
