THE French nation, like the British, took part in colonial adventures around the world from 1492 CE and to the 21st century.
France was very loyal to the Roman Catholic Church and to this day, most French people are Catholic.
Throughout the period of the European Crusades against Jerusalem and the black Muslims, it was the French who were the most active participants.
For this, the Muslims referred to all the Crusaders as ‘the Franks’.
When Britain broke away from the Roman Catholic Church during the rule of King James the 1st, France became an enemy of Britain and an ally of Italy and all other Catholic nations.
The French were present in the Americas after Columbus’ infamous voyages and they fought against Britain alongside Spain in the American wars that ended around 1780 CE and led to the independence of the USA.
The British, along with the USA, entered into peace treaties with the Ottoman Empire to avoid war with the Ottomans.
Thus, for a long time Europeans did not invade the lands of North Africa, North – East Africa, Central Asia and Arabia, where the Ottomans were in control after the fall of the Moors.
Napoleon Bonaparte, the infamous French general broke the peace when he led the French army to invade Egypt and made war with the Ottoman forces.
During that invasion, the relics of the ancient black Egyptians that had inhabited that land before the mixed race people came on the scene, were looted.
Sites that were already eroded by the weather were further violated.
Among the relics was the Sphinx, a large bust of a man with expressly black features which tells the story that ancient Egypt, the Egypt of civilisation, was of black people.
This valuable artifact lost its distinctly Negroid nose and it is strongly believed that Napoleon’s wars were responsible.
France defeated the Ottoman forces in Egypt at what is remembered as the Battle of Pyramids.
This was in July of 1798 CE.
Napoleon sent thousands of scientists and linguists to explore the heritage sites of Egypt.
Within two weeks, Napoleon’s forces were destroyed by a British fleet after which he tried to invade Syria, but was again defeated forcing him to surrender.
Napoleon escaped and returned to France whereupon he seized power through a coup in 1800 CE.
By this time, the Roman Catholic Church had become very unpopular in Europe. Protestant churches were enjoying increased influence and many of the privileges that the Catholic Church and its priests had previously enjoyed had to be given up. At one time even the Italians were got on the verge of ousting the Pope while France stripped the Church of land ownership among other measures.
Napoleon was a devout Catholic and he went out of his way to stop the Catholic Church and its Pope from being destroyed by the rest of the Europeans.
In 1801 CE, Napoleon signed a peace treaty with Pope Pius VII between the nation of France and the Catholic Church.
All the privileges that the Catholics had lost to the numerous revolutions against their Church were reversed, except that they did not receive the land that had previously been under the Church.
At a time when the Catholic Church was on the brink of destruction in Europe, Napoleon rescued it by giving Catholic bishops and the clergy in general state salaries.
Napoleon also used state funds to build church buildings.
In 1804 CE Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France by the Senate.
Thereafter, France fought a series of wars.
Meanwhile, Britain made alliances with many European nations against France.
At one point, Napoleon ousted Spain’s monarch and made his brother Joseph the king of Spain.
The nations that fought Napoleon included Britain, Spain, Netherlands, Prussia (Germany), Austria and Russia.
These were called Pan – European wars.
Similar wars would eventually take place in the 20th century, but would be inappropriately called world wars.
Eventually, Napoleon was ousted by the allied European states.
He abdicated his throne and went into exile in 1816 CE.
Napoleon’s militarist practice of arrogantly colonising lands by force of arms to increase territorial control and influence has stuck with the nation of France to this day.
The French, just like the British, have a penchant for war.
Later, in 1804 Napoleon’s nephew called Louis Napoleon Bonaparte or Napoleon III ruled France.
He was as arrogant and as ambitious as his uncle.
The following year, the Pope was forced out of Rome by rampant revolutions against the Catholic Church.
Napoleon III, like his uncle before him, assisted the Catholic Church in restoring the Papal system.
He sent 14 000 troops to rescue the Pope and by April of 1849 CE he had succeeded.
The unpopularity of the Pope and the Catholic Church was anchored burdens that the Church laid on its followers.
At a certain time in Europe, the Catholic Church owned almost all the land and instituted what they called pre-manocta, which entailed that the wife to be of a Barbarian had to have sexual intercourse with the ‘lord’ of the land.
There were also raids and wars in the name of the Church that cost followers their lives and property, e.g. the Crusades.
Martin Luther of Sweden rebelled against the Catholic Church and raised alarm about Catholic corruption in scripture and doctrine – an act he had to pay for with his life as he was killed by the Catholic Church.
William Tyndale, a man who was killed by the Catholic Church for translating the Bible from Latin to English, had portrayed the Catholic Church as the harlot of revelations, who symbolises the corrupt church.
After these events and the beginning of Protestant churches, the Papal system of the Catholic Church seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
The wars that haunted Napoleon and his nephew had much to do with their continued affiliation with the Catholic Church which was seen as infamous and corrupt by the rest of the Europeans.
In 1850 CE, Napoleon III subjected French education the Catholic Church control only to strengthen state – church relations.
In 1851 CE, Napoleon III was disallowed by law to seek re-election.
He carried out a coup and made himself president.
Shortly after this, he crowned himself Emperor.
Napoleon’s nephew went to war with several European nations that eventually allied against him.
It was Napoleon III who invaded Algeria and set up French military bases in many other places around North Africa.
He also started the French invasions of Indochina.
The French entered lands like Cambodia and removed black relics from heritage sites like Angkor Wat.
Napoleon I had conducted similar operations in Egypt, stealing and hiding away evidence of the black origins of the world’s earliest civilisation.
Napoleon III also tried unsuccessfully to join four Italian states including Rome under the leadership of the Pope.
This led to continuous wars of resistance in that region between 1854 CE and 1856 CE.
The end result was the unification of all of Italy against France and the Pope in 1859 CE.
This goes to show the extent to which the Catholic Papal system had become unpopular.
The Pope only managed to retain control over Rome because of the protection provided by Napoleon III’s troops.
As a reward Napoleon III was given some land in Rome.
In future articles of this series we will examine more cases of French genocides against black people as they sought territorial control with the support of the Catholic Church.