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The French Fifth Republic was troubled with rising political divisions in the country, with the refugee crisis at an all time high, and the increase of need for more nuclear weapons as countries around the world stockpiled them and threatened one another with war.
When war broke out between the ACMF and NATO, the French government was worried to take a side. But due to not wanting to lose membership in NATO, they were pulled into the conflict. French high ranking officials tried to keep French troops out of combat, but they were forced to cooperate with their NATO allies. So, when the Flash happened in 2032, although the ACMF focused primarily on the United States, some NATO allies were hit as well. This included France, which was responsible for maintaining most of the supply lines and logistics operations to NATO troops, regardless of not trying to actually engage their own troops. Only one nuke hit Paris, as ACMF officials concentrated on the port cities, such as Bordeaux, Nice, and Marseille. Marseille recieved two nukes and Bordeaux was firebombed.
The nuclear winter following the nukes heavily impacted France. The major ports that weren't bombed, such as Calais and Tours, were completely not usable due to the icy and radiated waters. It was like this for most countries, but France's position in the middle of Western Europe made the climate very unbearable. It is suspected 19% of the French population was wiped out due to the nukes and the winter in the following years.
Beginning in 2046, the the cold climate of France and the nuclear winter over it began to diminish. By 2053, the winter was almost entirely subsided, but much of the water was still radiated.
As the winter began to go away, many factions in France formed based on political ideology. This is when the French Army was created, trying to restore France to it's old ways and take back their land. Generally speaking, the French Army controlled Northwestern France, using Nantes as their capital. There, they established the Sixth French Republic in May 2064. Soutwestern France was prosperous, because no weapons of mass destruction had majorly impacted the area, with the exception of Bordeaux. A man named Michel Soult gathered an army of thieves and bandits, and secured the area of Southwestern France. In July of 2064, it was declared the French Commune.
The east of France past Paris was in anarchy, where clans of bandits and clans rivaled to dominate the area.
The Sixth French Republic was more right wing, led by Nationalists. On the other hand, the French Commune was communist, hoping to restore France's old lands, only, under communism.
Although the Sixth French Republic claimed all of old France under it's name, they did not pursue a particularly aggressive strategy with the Commune. On the other hand, the commune was in an aggressive stance and tried to start war at any time. Beginning in December 2068, the two factions raced to expand East and take more land than the other, securing cities and towns and putting an end to the anarchal clan dominated area.
By Fall 2071, the republic had owned the north and the commune had owned the south. ports became usable again, and the republic by this time had built a navy of sixty coastal defense boats. The commune, however, had a navy of only 12 of these boats, because their ports were harder to clean up and use due to the radiation following the nukes that hit in the south. In January of 2072, the Commune had expelled all of the Republic's advisers from the country. This gave the Republic an excuse to go to war, and led by Phillipe Sayme, declared war on the Commune.
The republic's navy was quick to enter the commune's working ports and block them off. They won in the naval engagements simply due to numbers, because each side had the same type of vessels.
The Commune failed to conscript a huge chunk of the population like many communist nations had done before. The newly formed Commune was relatively weak, and regardless of not taking a chunk of the population, they still had around 200,000 men. Most of them were poorly trained.
The Republic had better access to weaponry due to working ports, and their men were more professionally trained. The French Army was made up of 185,000 men. The war raged on.
The years of 2072 to 2074 seemed as if it were a going to be won by the communists. But, a replacement of officers in the French Republican Army in 2074 marked the beginning for the end for the Commune as the Republic kept winning battles decisively. In 2077, the battle for Vichy occured as Republican troops met Communist troops who were trying to rush to Nantes. The communist army was defeated, and the Republican army secured the commune's capital, Toulon. The French Sixth Republic had prevailed.
By the beginning of the 2080's, scrap towns and encampments around the world were being abandoned for more stable living conditions. By now, a new port city in the south was being built to replace Marseille, as efforts to rid the area of radiation completely failed. The city was named Phillipe City. As well, the French Republic had began to participate in trade as international trade picked up.
Between 2080 and 2090, a feel of strong nationalism swept through France. The civil war had changed the way people thought about communism, and so it was strongly opposed. The communist party was banned from being represented in the French government.
In the summer of 2092, the then Prime Minister of France, Robiere Villaneuve, gathered loyal supporters and mercenaries and marched into Paris. A coup de'tat occured, and a new constitution was drafted. The French Sixth Republic was made into the Third French Empire.
In 2095, the leader of the new empire looked to make a stance in the Americas, in an attempt to gain control of parts of Brazilian America without direct war with Brazil. In particular, the French wished to gain Uruguay, but it was protected by Brazil.
By 2103, the French began opening further relations with the United States, even creating an embassy there. The French refused to trade with Tidewater, which would have hurt the French economy more if it had not been for the reopening of trade with the Mediterranean. By 2110 French advisers studied American tactics and ways of warfare and made reports back to Emperor Villaneuve. It was finally decided that troops could be devoted there, and in 2111 the French Expiditionary Force, or Force Expitionnaire Francais, was founded. A regiment from the third infantry division in the French Army were sent to America as part of the newly founded expiditionary force.
French troops were seen as needing for exercise and formidable training. Sending some to the Americas was a good way to give them experience, all be it one regiment. Also, the French were worstening relations with Brazil by constantly bargaining for land, and they could not take the Brazilians on by themselves. They planned that having troops in the USA represented a French American alliance, and Brazil would need to back down and give their land. So far, that has not happened. Additionally, France is vividly anti communist, and abolishing the last major communist threat would be a great victory.
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