The Origins of French Centralisation 

Go to ground.news/kraut to stay fully informed. Subscribe through my link for *40% off unlimited access or try it for less than $1 this month

You know this video is made with love because its a German speaker talking about buerocracy

Now you know: when there are protests or riots in France, it means that the system is working as intended

11:59 & 12:08 The fact Louis XIV tried to establish a French church was such an important point Kraut repeated it TWICE to REALLY bring it home! Brilliant!

"an apathetic society, with such an enormous state, could look very different" is the defining difference

As someone who is studying French Law, I can say that the constantly changing and evolving bureaucracy is doing severe damage to my grades.

The sutble shift from the French flag to the Russian flag while referencing societies and state gave me tingles

I feel like you forgot include the economic rent seeking behavior that characterized the feudal relationship between lords and peasants.

In Seoul the Gyeongbok Palace looks quite massive for the country it was meant to serve. Namely it is too big to fit in just the King's residence and the seat of the royal court, in context of the country Joseon's relatively small size. Rather, it was meant to contain most of central government organizations within its structures. Put simply, the Gyeongbok Palace was built by Confucian ideology to be the place where the King and his government do their job of ruling the whole country. And for the first half of Joseon Dynasty's duration it was the seat of the entire central government with all officials and bureaucrats commuting to and from it. Joseon's central government sent hand-picked governors from Hanyang (modern Seoul) to each provinces when Japan was ruled by feudal Daimyos. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea he delegated his war to a collection of his most loyal feudal lords, but Yi Sun Shin was a hand-picked general sent from the northern frontier all the way to the southern shores of Joseon by King Seonjo's direct orders. Korea copied a lot of its homework from Chinese government over the history, and copying a Byzantine bureaucracy from a country that is a couple orders of magnitude bigger than itself meant that Joseon ended up with a central bureaucracy that is both grossly oversized for the country's size, but way ahead of its time in the level of micromanagement because of it. The government in Hanyang published one of the earliest newspaper on recorded history. It was to distribute policy decisions and current events, it was in hand-written and hand-copied form, and it was distributed to all corners of the country in days. Its official court record "Sillok" is just as large as its Chinese equivalent, meaning that the Korean Sillok is far denser in its detail, with a lot of micromanagement on its local governors recorded in its contents. There is even a different journal other than the royal court's one, and this collection of archived documents, Seungjeongwon Ilgi, was kept by the centeal bureaucracy and it is several times bigger than the Sillok itself. It is so big, it is still not fully translated into modern Korean yet. Germany is famous for its obsession to bureaucracy, but we Koreans secretly joke of ourselves as being obsessed with everything that has to do with archives. Something had to fill all those empty archives, and it was filled well by Korean bureaucrats. Now, after a tradition of massive centralized bureaucracy for more than six centuries, Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan region accounts for half of South Korea's population, and more than half of its economy. Seoul and its satellite cities have virtually everything you can find in this country, and things are seldom exclusive to other regional cities. "This (country) is Republic of Seoul" is a well-spoken term to describe (and sometimes lament) South Korea's super-high centralization. *If the history and size of a country's bureaucracy impacts the level of concentration at the country's capital region, then it neatly explains why modern Seoul is practically South Korea itself.*

“Rulers who destroy men's freedom commonly begin by trying to retain its forms. ... They cherish the illusion that they can combine the prerogatives of absolute power with the moral authority that comes from popular assent.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville,

This video made me realize that my European History high school class (which was an entire year and was excellent in many ways) just assumed the rise of the centralized nation-state was just an inevitable thing, the causes of which didn't need exploring or explaining. Or, as this was in the US, perhaps no one wanted to give any credit to the French! Great video - thank you!

Although completely different circumstances, this reminds me of the effect Athens has on Greece. Half the country's population in one place, with all the ministries and administration, basically sucking the life out of the rest of the country. Outside of the 2 major cities, Crete and (maybe) the south-eastern islands, the rest of Greece is empty because everyone left and the people who remained don't have children.

Can't believe we released a flying object in the first three days of the month.

Small nitpick: At Agincourt the french didn't ride in on horseback, they'd already learnt that lesson at Crecy, only a small force fought on horseback.

Here in Spain have a similar problem with Madrid: It sucks all the resources of the rest of the country, specially both Castilles. Barcelona, Valencia and Seville stands up as a sort of secondary powerhouses, being Barcelona the most powerful of the three at competing with Madrid. Railroad system in Spain is also centralized around Madrid: Many important ways go through Madrid.

I very much disagree with the statement that the french noble casualties in Agincourt would be such a significative point in the French centralization process. Apart from the fact that only nobles from one particular faction of the French civil war (the 'Armagnacs') were involved is one factor that must be taken in account... and in any case the captured and killed nobles in the battle is still nothing truly significant compared to a lot other factors. If you follow a decent and extensive enough history of the 100 years war (say, Lord Sumption's), in fact Agincourt did not have as much signifcance in this particular regard as it had with Poitiers. In fact, you have years later Verneuil which was a victory just as devastating as Agincourt (and in many ways just as decisive) and you can see that not only does not stop the power of the noblity and the noble parties of the moment, but in a way it exacerbates it. If you consider French the nobles in the Burgundian or the semi independent side of things (like the Bretons or the Gascons) in fact this victory actually inforces regional nobility away from the French crown. In fact the French civil war that Henry V capitalized on to invade France killed way more key nobles than Henry V could ever aspire to off in a pair of battles. If I had to single out a *truly* significative millstone for this process first it should be the reign of Philip IV ('le Bel' or more significately 'le roi de fer') both the use of low nobility in his govern and his incorporation of upper Navarre, and the final stages of the Albigesian crusade helped to neutralize in a very significative way a key sector of independent enough nobility in Southern France, a part of this country that might very well could have gone apart on its own under other circunstances (for a start, considering it had a different language back then). The neutralization of both regional powers *and* nobility in this reign is basically unprecedented, That and indeed his confrontation with the Papacy that would detooth major religious interference in French policiy for generations (and would never actually recover fully, this is actually the main precedent and historical base for gallicanism). After this, from the 100 years war it's not Agincourt what really marks the thrust for centralization of the power in the Crown's hand, but Poitiers and the Black Prince and Duke of Lancasters 'cheuvachees', the ransoms to be paid for the king and other nobles after Poitiers and the utter devastations of these military operations that could be considered crimes of war even in their own time period was what truly made the French regional parlaments to agree to the raising of semipermanent great new taxes (the 'Taille' and others) that the reign of Charles V would actually turn permanent 'de facto' and truly give the basis for a start of true centralization in France. As you can see, Agincourt and the noble casualties in it have very very little to do with it. Even then, this is the start of the process. The fight to supress the Burgundians would take several generations (and be inherited by the Habsburgs), and as far as the later wars of religion and then the Fronde with Louis XIV you still have the process ongoing (and then indeed I agree with you that the court politics was indeed one of the key factors and solutions of the monarchy against the regions and the surviving nobles). Funny enough it would be actually the First Republic the government to really rip out the full benefits of the culmination of this centralization process, even more than the Sun King himself.

The new art style certainly is a choice

The comparison with the US talks lore about France versus USA rather than the difference between a decentralised state and a centralized one. Switzerland can be considered to have the same perks as the ones listed for France (efficient railway network, walkable cities, great healthcare and almost free universities) whilst having a very decentralised state. One could say France and Switzerland have a population difference of one order of magnitude but the same is true vis-à-vis France and the US.

Press F to pay respects to Howl for all the chimney taxes he has to pay

1. Crecy was where 'The Flower of France' comment came from. The process by which the old medieval French army was replaced by an early modern one was as long as The Hundred Years War. 2. The other great impact of Hundred Years War was gunpowder. You cannot overstate the importance of gunpowder. It gave the centralised state the means to enforce its authority.

The bit at the end makes me wish for a comparison of French and Russian societies. At least I didn't catch why in France people are more politically engaged. Besides that, I was always convinced it was the Jacobins pushing for a centralized and homogeneous France, this surprised me.

The factor Agincourt is quite overestimated. The roots of nobility was powerful in France, and they were numerous enough. The nobles dead at the battle still had children, and big heritage behind them. This somewhat crippled the kingdom for a short while at this moment, but was quickly recovered afterward. In fact, the effects of the civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians were more devastating for nobles at this point than the battle itself. Even after HYW, The Kings of France still had struggle establishing their authorities with Feudal lords. Louis XIV had to face a big revolt of many lords in France as a child ("Les Frondes" 1648-1653), hence his wish to control them after this trauma.

As I am currently working on a study on various romance languages throughout time, seeing a video about the same topic from you being recommended was probably the best thing that happened to me today

Captions for the National Assembly debate on religious freedom (In French): *yelling subsides* "But surely you cannot possibly believe"- *yelling resumes* "ANY belief is far more Justified than your"- *screaming begins* "You would destroy this country!" *screaming intensifies* *something Incomprehensible*- "baguette!!" *yelling* "Your mother too - AND ALL of your family!" *screaming / yelling*

I never learned any of this in history in my German school. We just had Hitler, the Romans, Hitler, China, Hitler, the French Revolution and Hitler.

12:20 he says the same line twice in a row on accident lol

I wouldn't say Versailles is a McMansion, it's more like a convention center + a hotel + a showroom. The decor is maximalist because it needs to exhibit every high end goods you can order to decorate your own Versailles replica in your home country (for foreign diplomats) or your country palace (for local nobility). About these mirror doors, it was the biggest mirror ever made back then, when you open them, there are glass doors by the same design, also the biggest glass panels at the time. It just look gaudy to our modern eyes, but it was revolutionary back then. And I'm only mentioning the technology behind the fountains of the garden, but the entire palace is a show for very high end, both technologically and luxury wise, the country was producing back then. The McMansion would be the Petit Trianon on the same premise.

I liked the old art style better. I think I might stick to the old videos. Good topic though, nice to hear while tidying my room.

I’m a French student. The "course" I want to study in next year (prépa MPSI) is present in one single high school in my whole région (three if you count the new larger régions with no identity or personnality), but this course is present in FOURTEEN schools in the single city of Paris, and about as much around Paris. In my region, there is about 1 school per 1 000 000 inhabitant, but there is 1 school per 350 000 inhabitants around Paris.

Can't wait to see what you have in store next. Keep up the great work

Wake up babe, Kraut just uploaded a new video

Awesome video, nice to see a collab. Keep up the good work :)

As an American if local, state or federal offices attempted to regulate any of the things listed in from 18:25 to 19:18 they would either be protested or not obeyed in the slightest

You didn’t just go straight from Robespierre to napoleon the 3rd did you? You sure there wasn’t anyone else involved in centralization?

*Henry V:* Your armies are weak, madman. *Charles VI:* You can't win, English. If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. England then proceeded to kill all those recalcitrant nobles, and allow Charles VII to create an administrative monarchy capable of outfighting England.

I saw the video title and surrendered to this offer immediately

Can't wait for my shift to finish so I can listen on my way home! Was just wondering yesterday when the next Kraut video would release!

First : 19:45 FURINA Second: wasn't the idea of popular sovereignty first achieved in Europe under the execution of Charles which was at least 100 years before the french revolution

Great video, as always. Thank you for your hard work.

Fun fact at 5:31 : recording and imposing taxes based on (smoking) chimneys originated in mid-8th century ERE.

Please include the sources for this video somewhere for further reading please 🙏 📚 📖 📙 📘

Two videos about my country lets gooooooo 🇨🇵🇨🇵🇨🇵 About french centralisation, i am what frenchies call a "ch'ti", a term used to describe a bunch of different peoples (french flemish, picards, french wallons etc) living near the border with Belgium. The picard culture was crushed by industrialisation, centralisation and also bc picard is seen as a backward, working class, digusting accent, poor etc. Flemish culture on the other hand was erased even more with the death of the few last flemish speaking peoples in French Flanders. Other french dont know the difference between flemish and picards (they are all "Ch'ti" remember) and the belgians with whom we share more cultural similarities than with other frenchies consider us as just other dirty snobish frenchies. The vast majority of inhabitants of the départements of Nord and Pas-de-Calais consider themselves French before anything else. And i think that is my case. But just look at the names of the départements. It is not "Flandre" or "Artois" or "Hainaut". There is a Picardie further South tho. But my point is that from a XVIIIth century parisian perspective, these regions were only the border with the Austrians, and later, a region fit for industrialisation.

Great video! Please keep making more! Ravignon’s art style was better but holy crap please buy a better microphone. It’s such a sharp drop in listening enjoyability in the switch from Kraut to Ravignon.

Damn England and France had drastically different progression of central authority. English (or more precisely Anglo-American) history is filled with events limiting the power of the King or other forms of government and binding them in the limits of a written or unwritten constitution. The Anglo-American concept of liberty is free from external interferences that Includes the government while French idea of liberty is also free from external interferences which is granted by the government. The French revolution didn't stop the iron fisting it merely transferred from the King to newly formed Republican government and done in the name of "Granting Liberty".

Man my day gets better whenever you make a new video ❤

Everybody always forgets that Versailles was inspired by Kyoto.

Little bit of a timeline error. Absolutism did not exist in the 1400s or the 1500s it was more around the 1600s where absolutism became popular. That is 200 years after the battle of Agincourt. And Versailles expansions were built around a similar time. So while Agincourt did kill a lot of nobles feudalism was still going strong in France for a few more centuries.

Thank you for uploading again, welcome back

You're at 102k views already man., congrats on hitting it big with this one.

Sorry, u got Swedish absolutism wrong. The peasantry were the greatest in favour of absolutism, to together crush the power of the high nobility. The parlamentet of 1680 in Stockholm shows this.

I think it should be mentioned that, though the premise of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy claims authority from popular sovereignty, if it had been put up to a public referendum and the peasants were allowed to vote, it would have surely have been defeated. Its passage led to uprisings all over France and the eventual collapse of the Jacobin government in the Thermidorian reaction. So people at the time thought it was overreaching too.

The artwork is beautiful, fun change from the country ball format. Great job mr Kraut

Please put your sources for the video on the description 🙏

It's commendable that you're trying to evolve & improve your art style, & I can see what you were going for, but I don't think it works that well for your video. The art in the first half is maybe too abstract & it's not very pleasant to look at.

The French court and the notion of jostling for position at court has its roots in the Eastern Roman Empire. The system of titles, honors, and ceremonies were all lifted directly or indirectly from Roman(Byzantine) Empire traditions. These customs were brought gradually but exponentially grew with the Crusades. Particularly the 4th, which saw Latin, mostly french, lord coop Roman practices to legitimize their conquest. I'd recommend "Book of Ceremonies of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos" for anyone who wants to learn more about east roman rituals and traditions.

Had to look you up manually from time to time cause youtube aint letting me know if a new vid's up. Nice to see something recent. Damn youtube for doing this shit

Wow this was incredibly educational and well made

As always it’s a pleasure to discover your videos. Interesting points, but as always for the last 2 years, TO MANY SHORCUTS ! To many oversimplifications and généralisations that tend to give a rather incomplete picture of the subject. But, finally some progress :D

France will always have my undieing gratitude for the role it played in founding the US, however I feel the development of our countries will never feel completely similar. Culturaly I think there is too wide a margine between acceptance of centralization between France and the US. Most of the US is leery of overly empowering the central government, whereas many of the protests in France seem to be rebuking steps already taken by the central government (please correct me if I'm wrong). Is it the Frontier Thesis in action, or a deeply entrenched Conservative movement, I don't know I'm just a 32 yr old with an AAS in Diesel Tech.

Literally yesterday I was searching if any new videos came out of this channel and was disappointed it did not, and finally today he uploaded!!

Only just started watching but I've got to compliment the artwork in this one, very beautiful and well thought out

Don't like the change of narrators, especially when audio quality/settings changes. Feels like I'm suddenly watching another video, so that's what I'll do: close this one and watch something else.

Ravignon sounds like he has a bone to pick with Americans. His digs at America and Americans come out of left field, apropos of nothing.

Great stuff, keep it up man.

REally enjoyed this, thanks much!!

Countryballs are more entertaining.

I have never been able to spell bureaucracy correctly, but now it’s so much easier now that I learned it’s from La Bure. Getting the first four letters correct at least gives me a fighting chance with spell check!

Great video, as always.

Wohoo! New kraut video!!

I feel like in the UK despite it being a lot less centralised than France, a lot of the power is still in Westminster and a lot of the economy.

I love the new art style!!! It looks so cool

Great video, I learned a lot about French bureaucracy

Nice Furina reference there, especially with the rain :D

You should list your sources in the description. The books you read, maybe even cite the precise pages and lines you used for a certain piece of information you explained in the video.

This is brilliant. Very insightful.

The cool thing about Kraut uploading so rarely is that it makes one happier than channels who upload once a week

Babe wake up, Kraut uploaded a new video

Really amazing Artwork for this one.

Amazing video, thank you

Friday evening, see a video about French centralisation, long week at work but this has made my day!

Ah the classic “states make war and war makes states” thesis. Even now it’s a pretty well-supported thesis, and i’ve yet to see a systematic counter-thesis that more thoroughly resolves centralization and statehood questions.

I'm halfway through the video, and it's really interesting :) I'd just like to say something about the drawings (seen up to 9:00). I think they're very beautiful and do often a good job of illustrating what you're saying, but there were moments where they were really too abstract or too much about trying to make a reference (like Howl's Moving Castle). Still my opinion, but also, the drawing (like the one illustrating the king) lacks the sobriety that Polandballs could have had. I understand the desire to move away from Polandballs, if only to respect new sensibilities, but I think it would be a huge plus to try and draw characters that are as easy to read as the old ones.

Oh my god will we ever move past the "Haussmann anti-riot boulevards" and "Agincourt crippled the french aristocracy forever!" myths

You guys did a good job on this one

He’s backkkk!!!

Today, Kraut published a video. Today is a good day.

Quality video as always i don't have more to say.

Love the new art style.

Is over-centralization a problem in Japan as well? Where the majority of economic activity and infrastructure is concentrated around Tokyo-Osaka-Yokohama?

De retour pour nous combler !

Love the new art style!

Thank you!! The Peace of Westphalia thing always grinds my gears. Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson is brilliant for understanding the origins of nation states.

12:06 Isn't it interesting that the English had already managed to do this 140 years earlier?

Cool video and topic, but I'll say it, please get a better mic for the collab. It was jarring to listen to compared to Kraut.

Thanks for the video

Another quality video from Kraut

Holy shit I remember spending a couple days in a row and producing a gigantic reddit post asking this question, with little satisfying asnwer, this should be interesting

Nice clear citation of sources...

Great video Kraut

Is there a source list for this video? Would be interested to read up on the history of French beurocratic state myself.