Observations on France:

Interesting, if you know history

It turns out that the Hope Diamond originally came from the French crown of King Louis XIV.

That should provide some comfort for all of the France-bashers out there, an American museum (the Smithsonian) has possession of the largest and most precious jewel from the French monarchy.

Lest we forget, the French monarchy sponsored and supported the American Revolution, for reasons of their own, but still, the United States would not exist if it was not for the French monarchy, and the French Revolution overthrowing that monarchy may well not have occurred if not for the money spent on sponsoring those American rebels in the 1770s...

Oddly enough, even though the two revolutions, American and French, are linked, they arose from different fundamental causes. The American Revolution, even though a new type of government arose from it, was in reality a conservative reaction. The colonies had been pretty much left to themselves for many years before what is known in the US as the French and Indian War, and it was the efforts of the English government to make the colonies pay for that war that prompted the unrest and rebellion. In other words, the revolutionaries didn't want things to change, they wanted to be left alone to be self-governing as they had been before the war they were being asked to help pay for.

In contrast, the French Revolution arose because the French monarchy was bankrupt, after spending the money to thwart the British in the American Revolution. That money was spent not to help the American rebels, but instead to harm the English. The French government was forced to call for an Estates General meeting to raise taxes, and it was the Estates General that essentially ignited the French Revolution. Since that revolution was against the status quo, rather than an attempt to preserve it as the American Revolution was, chaos resulted from old animosities being released.

Following the chain down after these two revolutions, the current French Republic (I've lost count, I think it's the Sixth Republic) is a direct descendant of the ostensible Republic that arose out of the French Revolution (keeping in mind they still revere Napoleon Bonaparte in France, even though he was Corsican, not French... it doesn't have to make sense if it increases their visions of glory, just as it doesn't have to make sense in America, either...).

So, in the end, our problems with France may result from the fact that they paid for our independence, which resulted in the chaos of the French Revolution, a revolution that was not driven as a conservative reaction to new impositions as was the American Revolution, but instead was a true turnover. One could say that the French have been in a continual state of turmoil ever since.

The next time you say "but we saved their asses in BOTH World Wars"... recall that WE may not have even existed if not for monarchical France, and republican France may not have existed except for that support and the governmental bankruptcy that accompanied it.

Even over 200 years ago, the world was more interconnected than we are willing to recognize.

History matters, but you need to remember to look back far enough.