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François Valentin Profile picture
@Valen10Francois
May 10, 2022 • 30 tweets • 12 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
One of my biggest pet peeves: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps.

A 🧵 Image
English possessions in 1154 vs the 1st round of the presidential election

+ Where British citizens currently reside in France

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Zooming in on Paris, districts that voted for Macron vs districts that voted for Mélenchon in the 1st round of the presidential election vs the 1871 commune of Paris. (Diamonds are important barricades)
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Poland can boast the famous "politically relevant old map": The partitions between Prussia, Russia & Austria are still visible in recent elections, with Russo-Austrian territories markedly more conservative.(2020 + 2007 elections, German empire overlaid)

reddit.com/r/europe/comme…

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Zeroing in on the Austrian Empire's legacy, here's Romania with the Austrian Empire overlaid on top.
(2014 election, PNL is "right-wing" and PSD "left-wing")
Thanks to: reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comm…
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More generally the Austrian empire has left its mark all around.
Thanks to: reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comm…
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It also seems that the short-lived Polish 2nd Republic survives in some form in Ukraine and Lithuania.

(The pink in Lithuania is the Polish nationalist party in 2016, dark green in Ukraine is the conservative party in 1998)

Found here: reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comm…
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A more recent one for Ukraine: Image
Time to pivot to Germany, unsurprisingly the iron curtain has had quite a few consequences. The former Soviet Republic is less religious, more far-right and... more far-left than the rest of the country

A good read on this:

atlanticcouncil.org/commentary/lon…

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This section is plucked from @jameshawes2 and his wonderful "Shortest History of Germany." Very interesting concept when approaching German history
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Bit of a bonus on Catholicism and Nazism: Image
Here's an interesting one on Portugal (2015 legislative election vs 1160 Portugal.

With some analysis below 👇




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If we take a step back to the European scale the 6 original members of the future EU cover most of Charlemagne's Empire (dark green is for direct control, light green vassal states)

To circle back to Hawes' thesis, notice how East Germany/Prussia is in neither of these entities.
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On a sidenote, interesting that Johnson has accused the EU of wanting to build a sort of post-Brexit Napoleonic continental blockade. A parallel that @aroberts_andrew explores here:

The continental system in 1811 (in theory): telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/1…
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Travelling to the USA, it seems that the Mexican empire is not just alive in telenovelas (2014 map):

From the economist: economist.com/united-states/…
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And to wrap it up here's one on Alabama that goes back millions of years. This ex-coastline area throughout history has had larger farm sizes, a larger slave population and now strong democratic credentials in a red state.

More here: starkeycomics.com/2021/06/11/how…
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And of course let's take this with a grain of salt, 12th century maps do not explain all of modern day politics of course. And of course feel free to add more

Thanks to @covfefehaus for finding some of these!
@IFckingLoveMaps might be interested in these!
@Arthur_Revolver @elonmusk send us the edit button please!
If you liked the thread, you might want to give a listen to @UnDecencyPod, a podcast I run on European affairs where we talk about current affairs but also a fair chunk about history: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/unc…
@RCCoulombe i think you might enjoy this!
and @simongerman600 of course!
Another one on Turkish politics and its Greek legacy.

Coalfields and Labour vote were once thick as thieves!

If you go back to the not so distant past you could clearly identify Britain's coalfields some 40 years after most coal mines had closed.

The partition of Poland between Prussia, Russia and Austria remains visible in polish politics but also polish toilets!

* the tweet below should obviously read without INDOOR toilets rather than outdoor toilets

The popularity of anglo-saxon names in the early 1990's in France tracks with Marine Le Pen's strongholds 3 decades lates.

A longer thread on the impact of soils on electoral geography: aka how granite is "based" and limestone "woke"

Short thread on fascism, socialism and WW1 casualties in Italy

Longer thread on Germany's East-West divide from the Roman Empire to the Cold War:
A thread on the most extraordinary logistical and diplomatic operation in military history.

By far the most work I've put into a thread on twitter.

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More from @Valen10Francois

François Valentin Profile picture
Jan 11
One of the oddest things about the islamic revolution is that Ayatollah Khomeini lived in exile in the cushy Parisian suburb of Neauphle-le-Chateau for years before flying back to Iran

His leftist allies (whom he will later persecute) knew that French elites would love him Image
Michel Foucault saw in the future revolution "the most modern form of government" and Khomeini "a saint man"

Sartre believed he would lead an "anti colonialist and anti imperialist regime"

French newspaper liberation called it a "Shiite socialism"
The one french intellectual who somewhat saw through the BS was Simone de Beauvoir who saw that the regime's will to put every woman behind niqabs was incompatible with her feminist ideals
Read 6 tweets
François Valentin Profile picture
Dec 26, 2025
This has to be one of the most fascinating "hive mind" phenomena in existence

During and after wars, the birth sex ratio skews decisively towards boys, as if to make up for lost men

Graphs below show the effect of WW1 on France and Germany

Why? A few theories below Image
One theory is that men that return from wars tend to be a bit higher than those who die (about 2 cms)

And it may sound bogus, but taller men are a little more likely to have boys! We aren't really sure why though
Another suggests women taking on "masculine" roles during war (factories, resistance) boosted testosterone, leading to more male births.

This one is a bit weak biologically
Read 5 tweets
François Valentin Profile picture
Oct 21, 2025
In a predictably 🇫🇷 twist, unions are blaming the Louvre fiasco on lack of staff

They claim that 100s of jobs were cut in the last 10/15 years. The French press took these number for granted

So I did what no one did and looked at the annual reports:

The unions are wrong Image
The unions are claiming that staff head count has gone down by 200.

In 2010 the Louvre's annual report claims 2100 employees.

By 2015 it has gone down somewhat at 2072

And in 2024? Would it be 1900?

Nope... it's even higher than in 2010 at 2242
Oh but perhaps the unions are talking about security agents.

In 2010 there's 1200 of them

In 2015 there's 1200 of them

In 2024 there's... 1200 of them
Read 12 tweets
François Valentin Profile picture
Oct 14, 2025
People often assume that French politicians never touch pensions out of fear of the grey vote

This is only partially true:

Working age Frenchies are also delusional or ill-informed on pensions

This is how they end up backing "Turkeys for Christmas" policies

A🧵 Image
French people don't see pensions as a big issue

When you ask them what to cut:

32% mention family benefits (≃50 bn)

31% digital policy (no idea of the value but single digit billions at most)

30% unemployment benefits (≃40bn)

Only 6% mention pensions (400bn+) Image
French people overwhelmingly favor the abrogation of Macron's pensions reform Image
Read 10 tweets
François Valentin Profile picture
Sep 22, 2025
Is Catholicism making a revival in France?

Latin masses, baptisms, pilgrimages, Catholicism seems hip again!

But behind the vibes, what do the stats and maps show?

A 🧵 on the decline and transformation of Catholicism in post-Catholic France Image
France is historically one of the most important Catholic countries in Europe

To this day the trace of Catholicism can be found everywhere in France

Here's a map of France with all the towns with "Catholic" names (with Saint or trinity in it for example) Image
But since around the mid 18th century, Catholicism stops being a mass phenomenon and is instead much more geographically polarised

Here's the map of practicing Catholics in 1965. Big contrasts. Alsace, Brittany, the SW and the south-center are very pious Image
Read 27 tweets
François Valentin Profile picture
Sep 8, 2025
French PM François Bayrou has been ousted by parliament. Macron's 3rd PM to lose his job in 18 months

The stakes are huge:

Will Macron dissolve parliament? Will the left take over? What about the IMF?

A 🧵on what happened and what happens next Image
What happened?

Ever since Macron's snap election last july, his coalition has shrunk into a small minority government

Last December his previous PM Michel Barnier was deposed by parliament after 3 months.

Bayrou took over facing similarly impossible parliamentary arithmetics Image
On top of that his government had to deal with possibly the most toxic fiscal situation in a decade

France's deficit is well above the 3% EU target

Bayrou was aiming for 43 bn in savings!

A recipe for disaster with roughly 3 equal parliamentary blocks unwilling to compromise Image
Read 24 tweets

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