Why did France lose to England in the Hundred Years War? What were some turning points that led to the French defeat?
Actually France won the Hundred Year War (1337–1453). Yes I know they lost many of the well known battles (Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt) but the war was a marathon not a sprint. England (who certainly enjoyed the lion’s share of early success) was left in turmoil after the death of Henry V in 1422. A French revival was initiated by Joan of Arc at the siege of Orleans in 1429. The Burgundians, a key ally of the English, would eventually desert and this strengthened the French position. Later French victories took place at Rouen, Formigny and Castillon with the Gallic cannons being instrumental such a change of fortune.
At the end of the war England was reduced to one possession in France, Calais, that they would eventually cede to the French in 1558. This was far less territory than that enjoyed by the Plantagenet dynasty of earlier times.
Did Napoleon expect to conquer Britain?
If Napoleon's fleet had succeeded at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) then I believe that he may have seen conquest of Britain as a possibility. It certainly would have consolidated his hegemony in Europe by ensuring dominance of Bonapartist ideology (a mixture of French Revolution humanism, nationalism and a strong central state) over English Liberalism. However the loss at Trafalgar effectively negated his aspirations in a way that was not too different to the damage done to Operation Sea Lion by Germany’s defeat at the Battle of Britain (1940).
Napoleon saw Britain as a gigantic thorn a thorn that could be extracted later by weakening Britain through his Continental System of blockades and economic warfare. What he underestimated though was the ability of his so-called ‘allies’ to enforce such a strategy as well as the zeal that the British demonstrated (thanks to the Royal Navy and its colonial Empire) in thwarting such ambition.
Did President Nixon ever meet with Leonid Brezhnev?
Yes they met at the Washington Summit in June 1973. The Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War was signed representing the peak of Détente. In the Soviet Union the press referred to Détente as a relaxing of tension. The Washington Summit followed on the heels of the Geneva Summit (1955) and SALT I (1972). Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Alexei Kosygin (Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union) were key players in the Washington Summit as well.
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