C'est Quoi?! - Mixed French History Quiz

Answer: King of Navarre

Henry IV remained the King of Navarre, now considered Pamplona, through his entire reign, though he picked up the throne of France along the way; he started with Navarre in 1572 (inheriting the role from Jeanne III) and gained France in 1589. Both of these reigns would come to an end in 1610, at the age of 56, when he was assassinated in Paris. He would subsequently be succeeded by his son, Louis XIII.

During his reign, Henry IV became the first French King to push towards expansion into the Americas. As the first King of the House of Bourbon, he ended the French civil war of religion via the Edict of Nantes and turned his attention to, once again, making Paris one of the great cities of the world.

Answer: Jean De Lattre de Tassigny

The French 1st Army was a field army that was active, periodically, throughout the 20th century (up until the end of the Cold War). De Tassigny headed the group as they landed in the South of France as part of Operation Dragoon, proceeding to liberate Marseille, Toulon, and Lyon before proceeding along the Swiss border up to Alsace. They would delve deeper into Germany at this time as well, reaching the Rhine and the Danube. By the end of World War II, The French 1st Army, which started with North African troops, would be more than 300,000 men strong.

Post-WWII, de Tassigny remained with the army in more ceremonial roles, bouncing from position to position throughout the 1940s before being called to action once again, leading troops in the First Indochina War. The Viet Minh would ultimately win out this war, but de Tassigny wouldn't see the result. He was instead sent back to France in 1951, where he would die of prostate cancer.

Answer: La Cagoule

La Cagoule, or The Cowl, had the support of the Italian and German secret services in its effort to undermine the legitimately elected government of France and was put in place in the mid-1930s to oppose the Popular Front, originally led by Léon Blum, then the Prime Minister of France. When World War II came to pass, some of La Cagoule's members became loyal to Hitler's Nazis while others became part of the Resistance, essentially dividing amongst their own ranks. interestingly, very few of its members were brought to trial post-WWII.

L'organisation armée secrète (or OAS) formed during the Algerian War in the early 1960s, the Party of New Forces operated in the 1970s and 1980s having split from other far-right groups, and Milice formed during Vichy France at the height of the war, some of its members having joined from La Cagoule.

Answer: Centre Pompidou

Georges Pompidou happened to be the President of France who commissioned the building in the first place, doing so during his tenure from 1969 to 1974. Found on the north side of the Seine, the Centre Pompidou is a unique museum since it was constructed to bear all of its circulation systems-- piping, ductwork, etc-- on its exterior. What resulted was somewhat of an inside-out building, a stark contrast to the surrounding Gothic and Renaissance architecture.

Centre Pompidou is ultimately an arts institution, built to contain Europe's largest modern art facility (La Musée National d'Art Moderne), a massive library, and an expansion containing IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music. It finished construction in 1977.

Answer: The French Revolution

While the Napoleonic Wars proceeded the French Revolution, the Storming of the Bastille, which occurred in July of 1789, was a catalyst and a turning point for French history, signifying the common citizen's rebellion against the French authorities and the monarchy. After the Bastille was captured, the French Revolution commenced and led to the end of feudalism in the nation. War would ensue for the remainder of the century, ending in 1799 with the establishment of the Consulate. It was at this point that one Napoleon Bonaparte would be deemed First Consul and the Napoleonic Era would begin, lasting until his defeat in Waterloo in 1815.

The Bastille no longer exists where it once was, having been destroyed in its near entirety during the French Revolution. In its spot is Place de la Bastille and Opéra Bastille.

Answer: Émile Zola

L'Affaire Dreyfus divided France into two camps-- one modern, socially-oriented, and liberal; the other anti-democratic, illiberal, largely monarchist, and antisemitic. Taking place from the mid-1890s through into the twentieth century, this scandal involved Jewish Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was accused of conveying military secrets to the Germans during this time and was, as such, sent into exile, forced to live in French Guiana (on the same island featured in the famous Steve McQueen movie "Papillon").

It was ultimately determined that the culprit was someone else entirely, but the subsequent cover-up by the French Army stoked a general eagerness for accountability and justice. Émile Zola's famous "J'Accuse!" was part of this movement and was quite effective in its effort-- so much so that he was declared guilty of libel and forced to flee France for a year.

Answer: Pierre Laval

Vichy France, or the French state as it was overseen by the German Army between 1940 and 1944, had no less than three Vice-Presidents of the Council of Ministers, the first of which was Laval. He would subsequently hold the position of Chief of the Government, the sixth term in such office during his lifetime (and his last one) for more than two years until the end of the war.

Considered the most pro-German French leader of the time, Laval was convicted of treason after World War II in what was easily determined to be a clear case of Nazi collaboration. He attempted to flee to Spain, but was captured and executed in 1945.

Laval was succeeded by Charles de Gaulle who, after France's liberation, would remain in higher seats of governance until being President of France for the bulk of the 1960s.

Answer: The Fronde

It was a bad time for France to face revolt. Taking place midway through the Franco-Spanish War, 'The Fronde' refers to a civil war which occurred concurrently, pitting the Kingdom of France firstly against the Parlement of Paris and then against the Princes of the Blood, including Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, who threw wrenches into the whole thing by rebelling against the crown.

Louis II de Bourbon would eventually return to France and support the reigning monarch, Louis XIV, getting his crimes pardoned. The Fronde, meanwhile, would come to an end in 1653 with Louis XIV's power cemented. He would maintain his reign-- the longest in French history-- until 1715. Le Grand Condé would leave behind a legacy of great and strategic war efforts, but pass away, quietly, in the Palace of Fontainebleau in 1686.

Answer: The Saint Lawrence

Commissioned by King Francis I to explore the New World and map its coasts, Jacques Cartier would become one of the first historical figures to make headway in what would become the nation of Canada, a land that he coined the name of, basing it on the Huron-Iroquois word for village, 'kanata'.

Cartier did not create a settlement then. It would take until 1608 before Quebec City, founded on the fortifiable banks of the Saint Lawrence River, would be settled. It would be followed, upriver, by Trois-Rivières in 1634 and Ville-Marie in 1642; the latter would become the modern city of Montreal.

Cartier took three voyages to Canada in his lifetime, mapping a lengthy expanse of the Saint Lawrence and getting as far as Hochelaga, also a region of modern Montreal. The Saint Lawrence would prove to go much deeper though, connecting to the Great Lakes and going as far inland as what is now Minnesota.

Answer: The Netherlands

This is an interesting one because Bourbon sovereignty was a bit less cut-and-dry than just saying 'they were French!'. Branches of the Bourbon line proceeded to rule Spain starting in the 18th century, for example, remaining in the throne well into the 21st century.

Meanwhile, Francis II of the Two Sicilies was the final monarch of the region before Italy unified in 1894; his seat was abolished when Victor Emmanuel II seized Sardinia and Corsica.

The Duchy of Modena was a brief spot in which you could find a Bourbon ruler; they held the seat there from 1847 to 1859 at which point a revolution led to the formation of the United Provinces of Central Italy. The Duke of Parma, a position ruling slightly to the southeast, would remain a Bourbon title.

The Netherlands would be the odd one out here, having been ruled by the House of Orange-Nassau has ruled for many generations (since the sixteenth century).