A History of France from the Earliest Times to the Treaty of Versailles

<p>France thus lies most decidedly in the cross-roads of world events. It is better to study her annals than those of any other one country in Europe if the reader would get a general view of universal history. </p><p><br></p><p>France has been a participant in or interested spectator of nearly every great war or diplomatic contest for over a thousand years; and a very great proportion of all the religious intellectual social and economic movements which have affected the world either began in France or were speedily caught up and acted upon by Frenchmen soon after they had commenced their working elsewhere.</p>