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All Modern-Day Countries Ever Controlled by French People

Below is a map of modern-day countries that were fully or partially under the control of France. Can you name them all?
Click the map to zoom!
For this quiz, the definition of French people will be ethnic French and Gallicized minorities. Former countries that did not adopt French culture during their occupation (e.g. Nazi Germany) are not considered. French people that occupied other regions and lost their identities as time went on (e.g. Anglo-Normans) are also excluded
Tributaries and regions under heavy influence are included
Quiz by Iluvbread123
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Last updated: March 31, 2021
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First submittedJanuary 26, 2021
Times taken41,154
Average score90.0%
Rating4.99
10:00
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Country
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Benin
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Djibouti
Country
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Estonia
France
Gabon
Gambia
Germany
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
India
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Ivory Coast
Jordan
Kenya
Kosovo
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Country
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Mali
Malta
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Moldova
Monaco
Morocco
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Macedonia
Norway
Palestine
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Republic of the Congo
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Country
São Tomé and Principe
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sri Lanka
St Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Thailand
Togo
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
+27
Level 75
Mar 31, 2021
As this quiz is now featured, there will be at most 1 update per year to avoid resetting the stats too frequently. If there is any issue with the map, feel free to comment below and I will be noting that down for the following update
+1
Level 67
Mar 30, 2021
Norway has never been under control of France.
+3
Level 75
Mar 30, 2021
It wasn't, but it was once led by French monarchs. You can search up the House of Bernardotte for more details
+2
Level 70
Mar 30, 2021
Where's Poland-Lithuania? Henry III of France doesn't count?
+1
Level 75
Mar 30, 2021
Thanks, just updated the map yet again. Let's just hope this change gets approved lol
+1
Level 70
Mar 31, 2021
Looks impressive, but now I wonder if the same map for German People is close to 100% green: Take this map and add the British Empire, the Russian Empire, the Austrian Empire, the Dutch Empire, and the German Empire (and remove some African countries because Vichy lost control).
+1
Level 57
Apr 1, 2021
easy
+1
Level 79
Apr 1, 2021
I think Montenegro should be included, parts of it were controlled by Napoleon in the beginning of 19th century.
+1
Level 71
Apr 1, 2021
Congrats on the feature! This is a great quiz :) There's a lot on here I'm curious about. If you have answers or sources I'd love it!

1. When did the French control so much land in India? I'm only familiar with their rule in Pondicherry and maybe a few other coastal towns, but I never realized they went so deep into India!

2. Why did they control a small territory in the middle of Nigeria?

3. How did they get so much territory in Turkey? Did they capture it somehow from the Ottomans, or did they capture it some other time?

4. Where did the territory in southern China come from? When I look up "French Indochina," Wikipedia seems to imply that their rule didn't go beyond the borders of Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia.

+3
Level 75
Apr 2, 2021
Thanks!

1. It was part of the First French colonial empire

2. Enclaves of Forcados and Badjibo

3. Kingdom of Cilicia

4. French sphere of influence in China

+1
Level 51
Aug 27, 2022
They never conquered that much of india, those are just "spheres of influence", in which they had some sort of control over the rulers of those territories, but that's it.
+2
Level 79
Apr 4, 2021
Saint Alouarn explored Shark Bay in Western Australia in 1772 and made a claim of this land on behalf of France, but there was no European settlement made at the time and this is really no different to when Cook visited Eastern Australia 2 years earlier and claimed it for the British. If the quiz is about places that were "controlled" by French people, then the Shark Bay claim doesn't make sense because no follow up expedition ever intended to settle Western Australia.
+1
Level 75
Apr 4, 2021
Dirk Hartog island
+1
Level 79
Apr 4, 2021
I edited my post as you were replying I think. I think you've construed a land claim for control, because the two things are not the same in my view. The French didn't settle and nobody came to ever follow up the claim.
+3
Level 75
Apr 4, 2021
Seems like that one was an unrecognized claim. Thanks, will remove in the upcoming update
+1
Level 70
Apr 5, 2021
Is there any way to change the colour settings? To the colour blind these shades of yellow and green are awefully close.
+2
Level 75
Apr 5, 2021
I'm not sure but maybe the colorblind settings in "Your Account" can help
+1
Level 58
Apr 15, 2021
Are your sure France was controlled by the French Empire? I haven't heard about this before and can't find it anywhere by looking it up.
+2
Level 75
Apr 16, 2021
Can't be sure tbh, perhaps they were controlled by aliens

I can't fact check that either

+1
Level 64
Apr 20, 2021
French Empire

Frankish Empire

Napoleon's Empire

Now what if none of them collapsed...

+2
Level 75
Apr 20, 2021
If the Frankish Empire never collapsed in first place, then Napoleonic France and the 2nd French Empire probably wouldn't exist
+1
Level 55
Apr 26, 2021
Whilst having excellent maps, this series also has wonderful Quiz Descriptions as well, though QM removed the one from this one.
+1
Level 75
Apr 29, 2021
If the description is too chunky it probably won't look that good on mobile, so I guess I can see why
+3
Level 58
May 7, 2021
I have to say it: Why did 1% of people not read the title and neglect France? Hopefully jokesters... XD
+1
Level 75
May 8, 2021
Perhaps they thought like some other quizzes I'd exclude the home country ¯\__(ツ)__/¯
+2
Level 72
May 18, 2021
Trinidad not highlighted, Mauritius island not colored in after guess but water around was.
+3
Level 75
May 21, 2021
The French only held Tobago, as for Mauritius, ill deal with that, thanks
+1
Level 72
Jan 18, 2024
Comoros is currently yellow too, not just Mauritius.
+2
Level 57
May 27, 2021
Great quiz! And really nice SVG!

Do you mind if I translate some of your quizzes into Italian?

I am working with marquez100 at the moment, and I wanted to get your permission first:)

+1
Level 75
May 27, 2021
I'm surely fine with that, go ahead
+1
Level 57
May 27, 2021
Thank you!
+1
Level 77
May 27, 2021
I was a bit surprised to see Sweden and Norway there until remembered that the current king of Sweden is of the Bernadotte family. So technically both countries have been ruled by a French although not by France.
+1
Level 81
May 27, 2021
Augh, sneaky Tobago!
+1
Level 75
May 27, 2021
That caught some off guard :wink:
+1
Level 66
May 27, 2021
This is very misleading; just because a country is allied with France does not mean it is controlled by France.
+1
Level 83
May 27, 2021
Literally took a whole five minutes of time for me to spot it was Tobago that was yellow. Damn.
+1
Level 75
May 27, 2021
It's a really sneaky one, takes a while to spot it
+1
Level 70
May 27, 2021
No matter how many, they're too many
+2
Level 75
May 27, 2021
That's right, scary how French people managed to get this much land under their control
+1
Level 63
May 27, 2021
Looks like many countries would get massive if they followed the logic of Israel
+1
Level 68
May 27, 2021
can u do Portugal next?
+1
Level 75
May 27, 2021
Dekkie has made that already iirc
+1
Level 68
May 27, 2021
why is there a city in the middle of nigeria?
+1
Level 66
May 27, 2021
It's a very small piece of land; the circle is only there to help you see it
+2
Level 75
May 27, 2021
Enclaves of Forcados and Badjibo
+1
Level 68
May 27, 2021
portugal never belonged to france
+1
Level 65
Dec 23, 2021
Portugal was occupied by France under Napoleon. The royal family had fled to Brazil
+1
Level 75
May 27, 2021
I would recommend adding the show missing countries thing that some other quizzes like "Countries of the World" have if possible. Would have saved me a few seconds hunting for the last missing country I couldn't see without zooming in (Nigeria).
+1
Level 75
May 27, 2021
I've previously thought of that when making this but think of this:

If I added that the quiz would just be CotW but easier

+1
Level 76
May 27, 2021
i'd love a source, or at least a description of your methodology - i'm fascinated how you can know so specifically where the french empire extended to, especially those tiny enclaves in nigeria, jordan or bangladesh
+2
Level 75
May 27, 2021
I did my research using videos by mapping YouTubers, Wikipedia articles like this, some maps I could find online as well as additional information I missed provided by fellow JetPunkers
+1
Level 69
May 28, 2021
Could you perhaps list the sources used for this?

I followed you with Colonial France, Napoleonic France and occupied ground, but I lost you on Scandinavia and Colonial Spain. Saw in the comments that they were included because of French kings or something...

Would be nice to have a full list of territories

+1
Level 75
May 28, 2021
Scandinavia was from the House of Bernadotte

The Spanish were from the House of Bourbon

I probably won't be able to list all the sources I've used since this was made a while back, but I am pretty sure that those information were mostly from Wikipedia, with a small portion from YouTubers such as Khey Pard

+1
Level 67
May 29, 2021
I kept tryna spell Guyana
+1
Level 53
May 31, 2021
So essentially France ruled all of the world at some point
+1
Level 75
May 31, 2021
Well no, but I guess you can kinda say that
+1
Level 52
Jun 1, 2021
please add missing countries button
+2
Level 75
Jun 2, 2021
That kinda ruins the point of this quiz
+1
Level 31
Jun 2, 2021
I really enjoyed this quiz, congrats!
+1
Level 75
Jun 12, 2021
Nothing against you, because this is clearly a well-researched and well-made SVG, but I find these kinds of quizzes intolerable. You don't need to know a single thing about France, you just have to have the 196 badge and have the patience to zoom into corners of the map in search of slivers of yellow. Tremendously uninteresting.
+5
Level 75
Jun 15, 2021
Well, you never need to know stuff to take quizzes. This can help people learn more about the French people and is not entirely pointless.

But well, I definitely do understand your point. I find this gradually becoming a revamped version of the "Modern-Day Countries of the ___ Empire" series and that's exactly why I stopped making them

+4
Level 75
Jul 11, 2021
To be honest, I don't really think about these in terms of the theme, but I do really enjoy typing out random countries on a map. The theme perhaps only adds a bit of extra colour to the quiz, but that colour is very much appreciated.

One of my all-time favourites on this site is Stewart's "Countries in Random Squares of the World Map", and that's even more meaningless!

+1
Level 49
Jul 15, 2021
When did France control that much of India??
+1
Level 75
Jul 15, 2021
They once held the south Indian coast. They probably controlled less land than this but the sources online couldn't agree on how much overseas territories the First French Empire controlled
+1
Level 65
Dec 23, 2021
Louis XV lost almost all of it to the British during the Seven Years War. Then France had some minor settlements like Pondichéry until the mid XXth century
+1
Level 49
Jul 15, 2021
Was the byzantine emperor french at some point??
+1
Level 75
Jul 15, 2021
I don't remember the part around Istanbul, but I think it was either an occupation or a Latin emperor from France
+1
Level 65
Dec 23, 2021
Latin Empire, after the 4th crusade.
+1
Level 49
Jul 15, 2021
Shouldnt you shade out mosquito coast??
+1
Level 75
Jul 15, 2021
No, the Bourbons (Spanish Empire) controlled it in the 19th century
+1
Level 82
Aug 22, 2021
Illyrian Provinces included also the Bay of Kotor, i.e. Montenegro.
+1
Level 75
Aug 26, 2021
I'll add that in the next update, thanks
+1
Level 78
Oct 6, 2021
Very interesting quiz, thanks Iluvbread.
+1
Level 65
Dec 23, 2021
Looks very similar to the full world map (happy Napoleon countryball)
+1
Level 60
Jan 13, 2022
Good job on top 200!
+1
Level 67
May 2, 2022
why are there so many spanish empire countries, were the spanish royals french or something?
+1
Level 41
May 12, 2022
If u beat all countries of the world quiz, this has nothing to do with history haha
+1
Level 75
May 12, 2022
Great quiz, some possible additions for the next update could include:

The French period in Indonesia

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_British_interregnum_in_the_Dutch_East_Indies#French_rule_1806-1811

The Republic of Independent Guiana/Free State of Counani

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Independent_Guiana

And some could argue South Africa (as the Cape Colony was ruled by the French-dominated Batavian Republic) may as well be here too.

+1
Level 56
May 15, 2022
Nice!
+1
Level 50
May 22, 2022
Missed France!
+2
Level 65
Jun 18, 2022
The fact that two percent of people didn't realize that French people lived (and live) in France worries me.
+1
Level 39
Jun 26, 2022
The French conquered all of guyana, suriname and also amapa, they conquered a port in New Zealand
+1
Level 39
Jun 26, 2022
North West russia and and area of russia opposite sakhalin
+1
Level 39
Jun 26, 2022
I also think you should add the lands conquered in the crusades as France was a part of that.
+1
Level 39
Jun 26, 2022
They also conquered some of south sudan and sudan.

And some cities and islands in South Korea

+1
Level 39
Jun 26, 2022
All of Bulgaria but the North-West was a Anglo-French controlled area for a short time after WWI
+2
Level 51
Aug 27, 2022
I don't quite understand why the south american territories are considered? Doesn't it violate the description? They were never gallicized? They just were colonies of spain which was occupied for a few years? But they never had any sort of control, even nominally over the spanish colonies? Or am I missing something?
+1
Level 58
Sep 15, 2022
Napoleonic wars, Spain’s monarchy (including the colonies) were taken over by France
+1
Level 40
Nov 27, 2022
bruh i got 119/120
+1
Level 70
Feb 4, 2023
I love how they never got Denmark
+1
Level 50
Feb 10, 2023
So, wait for me to clarify. The Iberian Union does not count as Spain (even though it undeniably did for 60 years), but the 3-year French occupation of Spain and the fact that the kings were Bourbons there does count, right? What hypocrisy and disgusting.
+1
Level 63
Apr 25, 2023
The people who answered Mexico and forgot France...-
+1
Level 60
Apr 28, 2023
120/120 nice quiz
+1
Level 65
Jul 16, 2023
Trinidad and Tobago

is in grey on the map a color used to indicate otherwise not included in the French global empire

but it says that I left it out

It was not yellow or white shaded it is not in a black outlined box

and it did not turn up red on the finished map after the time ran out

+1
Level 75
Jul 16, 2023
Trinidad is gray, Tobago is not
+1
Level 49
Aug 12, 2023
Nice quiz! I almost missed Bulgaria
+1
Level 27
Sep 8, 2023
you can really tell on most of these super long quizzes when people use google when all of the answers have 70% correctness on avg
+2
Level 75
Sep 10, 2023
I would be agreeing with you but you're on the wrong quiz

Here, people do this sneaky little trick called looking at the map

+2
Level 38
Dec 20, 2023
When did France control most of South America?? Wasn't that part of Spanish empire?
+1
Level 38
Dec 20, 2023
When did France control Mexico, Ireland, Uk, Scandinavia and Greece?
+1
Level 80
Feb 1, 2024
Why are Spain's American colonies counted in this?