SO WHAT if the euro fails. That’s what it DESERVES. It is a NONSENSE with such differing economies in it. ALL ECONOMISTS SAY SO, but the plebs are being sacrified on the altar of the UNMANDATED OBSESSION of the European Superstaters.

They can go to hell, and I hope the Germans stand fast.

2) The core of Europe competed with itself in ever more advanced tech. That was made possible because Europe was a political mess. Deliberately so: for example, Charlemagne depended on a republic, Venice, for the fleet, but did not bother to subdue it, just the opposite, he protected it. Also he gave territory to the Pope (800 CE.) The Feudal system made that way worse (Feudal causal loops existed, where some nobles were both suzerain and vassal to themselves!)
Instead of calling Europe a mess, maybe I should say that the Franks refused to make an empire more than needed; the Imperium Francorum was on a need only basis.

3) Starting with Colbert, the French high tech drive became a matter of state. Colbert was Keynes with brains, tech, and no Quantitative Easing. (1660 CE.)

4) Simultaneously, Britain started to do the same, more centered around her Navy.

5) The French Revolution proved the advantage of state of the art military tech. That’s how the republic beat the plutocrats.

6) By 1850 CE, Prussia joined the fun with militarized Colbertism, axed on chemistry and physics.

7) However in WWI mostly French military tech defeated Prussia in the very domain it thought it excelled. French artillery proved superior, as in the Revolutionary wars, and the thousands of Franco-British tanks crushed German trenches with their occupants.

8] France, having dicovered the nuclear chain reaction, launched a nuclear bomb program in 1938. It moved to Manhattan later, with well known consequences.

9) After WWII, France and Britain triied to recover their tech superiority. Germany joined them later. In the 1990s, as France opted for the Anglo-Saxon financial model, Germany returned to austerity and guilds, to avoid any guilt. German Mittlestand companies came out of it roaring.

10) In 2008, the subprime, sub everything Wall Street pirate model collapsed, dragging down the USA, Paris and London. France found herself relatively de-industrialized relative to Germany, except for the really big stuff (penalized by the over-valuation of the euro).

11) Paradoxically, the methods used by Germany in the 1990s were the sort of methods (austerity, social concertation, social contract, planification, tech and education drive) which long used to characterize France. (Much of Bismarck’s Prussia was Napoleonism reduxed, self consciously, and ibidem with Nazis!)

12) Merkel, a physicist, seems to have been persuaded by Sarko a lawyer, and his friends, who know some history. Merkel is suddenly definitively starting to come out of her reserve, and take a pro-European stance (there is no choice, but collective suicide).In the last few weeks, or even days. What she said indicates that she finally gets it.
PA

“I am not sure the French, in power or opposition, have completely understood the present plutocratic world order, nor, a fortiori established a road map out.” Keynes saw it and tried to more balanced regime, but we know how it all come. De Gaulle must have seen it also, but could do little about it in the end. Sarko thought he’d take a shortcut or two, but ended up showing French exposure/vulnerability in its magnificence. Problem is that the American ’90s and British-American past decade have been too irresistible–hence the luring power of leverage.

“All they know is that Germany, at this point, has out-Frenched the French. The consensus seems to Germanize France to the max ASAP.” I am not sure I understand your point, but France should remain itself, just as German solutions worked in Germany.

China seems closer to Bismark’s Prusia than anything the EUropeans did in the ’30s. But then again, we should resist the temptations oversimplification.

I am not sure the French, in power or opposition, have completely understood the present plutocratic world order, nor, a fortiori established a road map out. All they know is that Germany, at this point, has out-Frenched the French. The consensus seems to Germanize France to the max ASAP. And it’s true that China, like the european fascists in the 1930s, is trying to milk plutocracy for all it’s worth. Because China has a vast culture, and the example of the 1930s is for all to contemplate, the issue will probably be different, though. One can hope.
PA

Look more into the religious expulsions from Spain and France, and their connections to leverage capital.

Well pointed that the French socialists thought they could appropriate the means of leverage to foster their own ends. Problem must have arisen, for not all can simply choose leverage capital and run with it.

In fact, why not look at leverage capital as one of the many dimensions of the demolition process by which the world re-order-ed. Then, as you show it, there is a connection between leverage and militarism, just as much as a downside: not well suited for peaceful growth. But make no mistake, most of US have been brought here by the lure of leverage–even though little was known to most at the time of departure.

As for gratitude in interstate politics, let’s just be straight about it: it’s a surprise.

So, in a world of realpolitik, the question is not about US ingratitude to France/Europe, but for how long can the current world order be extended. France wanted to bolt out–Chirac was the latest–Germany is on its way out; luckily we have Sweden to make a joke of itself with Asange…

Secondly, is China taking leverage upstairs?

P.S. Many thanks for many references filling up the puzzle of history.