emoirs, that in his opinion the French nation has decided to get rid of his elite in November 1757, when the French army, under Prince de Soubise, has lost the battle of Rossbach. That battle was the decisive one in the Seven-Year War, in which the Catholic powers of Europe, France, Bavaria and Austria, with the support of Sweden and Russia, were fighting against the Protestant powers, England, Holland and Prussia. The Catholic powers lost the war and in addition the French have lost Canada and the Indian possessions too. That was the year that has convinced the French that the old elite became useless. General de Gaulle and the French in 1757 had the same opinion. According to de Gaulle, that was the year when the outcome of the French Revolution was decided. In fact, the French public said that if this is the best what the elite can do for France, then the elite has overstayed its welcome. What did de Gaulle refer to? The roots of the elite of France and of Europe in general, which had its roots in the western Roman Empire, went back to the last years of the empire. That was the time when German tribes, themselves fleeing before the Huns, the Hsiung-no remembered from Chinese history, came asking for sanctuary within the empire. The pressure of the German tribes was too heavy for the impoverished and denuded empire to bear. Eventually, the Germans entered the imperial territory. It was undoubtedly a conquest, but not everybody has seen it in such a way. When Tacitus has written an essay about ...
