Foreign alliances of France

The foreign alliances of France have a long and complex history spanning more than a millennium. One traditional characteristic of the French diplomacy of alliances has been the "Alliance de revers" (i.e. "Rear alliance"), aiming at allying with countries situated on the opposite side or "in the back" of an adversary, in order to open a second front encircling the adversary and thus re-establish a balance of power. Another has been the alliance with local populations, against European colonial powers.

Over the centuries, France has constantly been looking for Eastern allies, as a counterbalance to Continental enemies. Throughout French history, this was especially the case against Austria-Hungary, Spain or Prussia: the Abbasid–Carolingian alliance (against the Umayyad Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire), the Franco-Hungarian alliance and Franco-Ottoman alliance (against the Habsburg Empire), the Franco-American alliance (against Great-Britain), the Franco-Russian Alliance (against Germany). In particular, the desire to counter German power has been a major motivating force leading France to create Eastern alliances. Even soon after the Second World War, good relations between France and the Soviet Union were again seen by Charles de Gaulle as an "Alliance de revers" to counter Germany.

France also has a strong tradition of alliance with autochthonous populations in order to resist a powerful opponent. In the American continent, France was the first to identify that cooperation with local tribes would be strategically significant, before England also started to adopt this strategy. An important Franco-Indian alliance centered on the Great Lakes and the Illinois country took place during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). The alliance involved French settlers on the one side, and the Abenaki, Ottawa, Menominee, Winnebago, Mississauga, Illinois, Sioux, Huron-Petun, Potawatomi etc... on the other.

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