The French Fight U.S. Dominance, in All Its Forms

France and the United States have long been engaged in a friendly war for global prestige and pre-eminence -- especially in the technological and cultural spheres.

It’s often forgotten, but France was the the world’s first global cinema power, circa 1900. France’s “red rooster” movies even dominated American movie screens. By World War I, however, Hollywood had fought back and conquered the world’s movie theaters. The blow to Gallic pride triggered decades of French quotas to limit the commercial presence of American movies in France.

After World War II, French elites were confronted with a double American invasion. First, U.S. military bases were omnipresent on French soil. Second, the French were infatuated with all things American -- from Marlboro cigarettes and bubble gum to jazz music and blue jeans. It was fashionable among Parisian intellectuals at the time to denounce American imperialism. France’s Communist Party even tried to get Coca-Cola banned.

During the 1960s, French elites were again anxious about the so-called défi américain: U.S. global domination in the high-tech sector. Against this backdrop, France refused to adopt the American color-TV standard. Charles de Gaulle asserted that, in the name of “grandeur nationale,” France would have its own color-TV standard and export it globally. The Soviet Union was France’s main ally in this scheme. The Concorde was another proud assertion of French industrial grandeur.

In the 1980s, France was swaggering again with a new state-backed project: a videotext service called Minitel. The Minitel was, in many respects, the Facebook of its day. Millions of Minitel terminals were handed out free to French citizens via the post office, and soon there was one in nearly every home. French television hosts constantly urged viewers to log onto Minitel to obtain more information and give feedback, just as they do today with Facebook and Twitter.

The Minitel proved to be a financial boondoggle for the French state, as usage was taxed by the state-owned phone monopoly France Telecom. The online porn services proved to be particularly profitable. Minitel’s techno-glory was short-lived, however. In the 1990s, the explosion of the Web made the clunky French videotext service virtually obsolete. It was another blow to French industrial pride -- and once again, the Americans were the victors.

When Facebook and Twitter first surfaced several years ago, the French showed relatively little interest in these online networks. A French alternative to Facebook, called Skyrock, was more popular. But Facebook’s global success was unstoppable. Today, it has three times more members than Skyrock in France.

If Skyrock were still the biggest online social network in France, however, it’s a good bet that regulators would not have banned its mention on TV and radio shows. French national pride would take precedence over strict application of laws. The Minitel, in its day, was not banned from promoting commercial services. Officious micro-regulations are reserved for foreign -- and, in particular, American -- services and technologies.

Can we say this is an example of overt anti-Americanism? Probably not. But it is not entirely irrelevant to situate this latest French obstacle to American technological and cultural influence within the longstanding animosity between France and the U.S. in these spheres.

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