"Tell me what you boast of, and I'll tell you what you lack." - Old Hispanic proverb

There’s this old quote from Surcouf (a French privateer from the late 18th and early 19th century). When an English captain told him “you Frenchmen fight merely for money. Whereas us Englishmen fight for Honour”, he answered “well, everyone fights for what he lacks”.

Their justification for colonizing countries was that France had a "civilizing mission." Maybe you've heard of that? I realize that's not necessarily identical to "human rights."

I think that has more to do with Christianity - that political narrative of "civilising" people was a common binding thread between all the imperialists. It was thus common for Christian missionaries to be some of the first settlers in any new colony.

Funnily enough that was a very left wing view too

This refers to the Declararation of Rights of Man dated August 1789. It's still nowadays the foreword to the French Constitution.

Hence the idea that France is the home of the human rights, which is deeply rooted in the representation of many French of themselves as a country.

Obviously, there is a huge gap with reality - but that can be opposed to any idealistic set of principles.

> deeply rooted in the representation of many French of themselves as a country.

I wouldn't say that, I've never experiences it that way, neither in school nor in day to day life, it's more of an historical factoid.

Kind of the same with America's "land of the free", sounds good on paper but not many people take it seriously.