Mr. Macron's "weight of history": It took only six weeks for France to capitulate to German invaders in 1940. "A stunning defeat-particularly since before the war the French army was considered the most powerful in Europe. France's vaunted Maginot Line failed to hold back the Nazi onslaught and the German Blitzkrieg poured into France"

 
A Frenchman weeps as German troops march into Paris
June 14, 1940
 
"France in Defeat," 1940 


"It took only six weeks for France to capitulate to the German invaders. A stunning defeat - particularly since before the war the French army was considered the most powerful in Europe. France's vaunted Maginot Line failed to hold back the Nazi onslaught and the German Blitzkrieg poured into France. (see Blizkrieg, 1940) Thousands of civilians fled before it....France was divided into two sections: Occupied France under direct German control and Vichy France - a quasi-independent territory....

Paris was abandoned and declared an Open City. The French government joined the fleeing throng and after moving to, and then quickly abandoning one location after another, finally ended up in the city of Vichy. 

The ultimate humiliation came at the signing of the armistice on June 22. The French had maintained as a memorial the railroad car in which the armistice ending World War I had been signed twenty-two years earlier. It occupied a hallowed space within a small forest north of Paris. Hitler insisted that France's capitulation to his Nazi jauggernaught be formally acknowledged in the same railroad car at the same spot. 

Under the terms of the armistice, France was divided into two sections: Occupied France under direct German control and Vichy France - a quasi-independent territory with Marshall Petain, an eighty-four-year-old hero of the First World War, as its head.
 
A reporter for the London Times published his observations on defeated France shortly after its collapse:
 
"A problem for all who think about it is how to explain the amazing mental attitude which seems to prevail today in France. Most Frenchmen seem to regard the total collapse of their country with a resignation that has the appearance of indifference.They are, indeed, dazed by the rapidity of the collapse, but register no violent reaction to so great and unexpected a shock. Soldiers in considerable numbers are being demobilized and returning home, and so, it is felt, the catastrophe cannot be too appalling. The German propaganda machine is working on this state of mind. The R.A.F. attacks upon the aerodromes in the occupied region are used as evidence that the British, who have already deserted their Ally, are now making direct onslaughts on the Frenchman's home."...

More from, "France in Defeat," 1940:

"In reaction to the American invasion of North Africa in November 1942, the Germans occupied Vichy France. Following the Allied victory, Marshall Petain and his lieutenant Pierre Laval were tried for treason and sentenced to death. Petain's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment."..

Map of  defeated France from eyewitnesstohistory.com
 
Images from eyewitnesstohistory.com:
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Added: As noted below, Mr. Macron speaks as if "the weight of history" was in his favor. The map above shows that in very recent history France ceased to exist for a period of time after it was very easily defeated by Germany in WWII. Reported above, many Frenchmen seemed indifferent about German occupation of France. Perhaps Mr. Macron is just another "indifferent Frenchman."

"June 9th – 2018 Presidential Politics – Trump Administration Day #506," tcth, sundance 

Among comments: Commenter shares Macron twitter citing "weight of history:"
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"phoenixRising says:

June 9, 2018 at 12:41 am 

"The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be. Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force https://t.co/UA86fcjozs

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 7, 2018"

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