History has been shaped to a relatively significant degree by the Franks and the continuums that they started. But who were these people, where did they come from, and what became of them and the aforementioned continuums?
Originally the Franks were not an ethnic group per se, but rather a group of Germanic tribes or maybe rather a tribal confederation that lived in an area on the right side of the Rhine stretching roughly from the Lahn to the IJsselmeer during late antiquity.
It seems that *frank most likely meant “free” and “brave” in proto-West Germanic and that it was derived from proto-Germanic *frankaz (which could also have been borrowed into proto-Finnic and become Finnish rankka, which means “arduous”, “tough”, “intense”, “harsh”, and “rough”; also compare to the Finnish word for a Frank, Frankki), which seems to have meant ”fierce”, “wild”, and “made to be ‘wild'”, i.e. ”made to be thrown”. It also seems that the word *frankô (“javelin”) was derived from a longer word for javelin via the javelin part of the term (seemingly most likely *gaizaz) becoming omitted, and that the term for a brave and/or free-spirited person would have been simplified in a similar fashion and obviously later become the ethnonym *Franko.
Little by little, the Frankish tribes formed a more cohesive group with an increasingly significant common identity, which over time turned into their new ethnic identity. The first time they were united under one ruler was under the first Merovingian king, Clovis I. They then expanded this Frankish Kingdom greatly under the rule of the Merovingian dynasty, also becoming gradually more Romanized in the process. During the last century of Merovingian rule the power of the kings had been greatly reduced, and the kingdom was in practice controlled by the mayors of the palace, the most notable of whom was Charles Martel, who also held the title of Duke and Prince of the Franks and whose second son Pepin the Short became the first Carolingian king. Forces under Martel’s command defeated the invading forces of the Umayyad Caliphate at the Battle of Tours, and the Franks later expelled the last of the Umayyads from their territory with the assistance of the Lombards. Under the rule of Pepin’s son Charlemagne, the Franks conquered the Lombards, 26 years after which he was crowned Emperor of the Romans by the pope. The territory of the empire ended up getting divided into West Francia, Middle Francia and East Francia between the surviving sons of his son Louis the Pious.
As there would still seem to be a relatively strong need to process the history of the Germans, it seems fairly appropriate to focus mostly on it hereinafter: West Francia obviously became France, East Francia eventually absorbed the northern parts of Middle Francia and came to be known as the Kingdom of Germany, and the other parts of Middle Francia became the Kingdom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Italy. The Kingdom of Germany was the core of the Holy Roman Empire, which was ultimately dissolved by emperor Francis II roughly eight months after its forces had suffered a crushing defeat against Napoleon’s army in the Battle of Austerlitz. This dissolution also happened to take place 1005 years after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans; this coronation is seen by some as the establishment of the HRE (which is also sometimes referred to as the First Reich), but it seems more reasonable to consider the coronation of Otto I as emperor after a 38-year period without an emperor as the proper founding of the HRE and thus to think that it lasted for 844 years.
Over time, the Frankish language too became divided, and a number of languages that descend at least partially from it are still spoken: Old Low Franconian evolved into Dutch (and thus also into Afrikaans, of course), and the highland dialects of Frankish evolved into the Franconian dialects of Old High German, which along with the other dialects of Old High German evolved into the various dialects of Middle High German, which in turn evolved into, for example, Luxembourgish, Yiddish, Austro-Bavarian, and Standard German, of which the first two are based on Franconian dialects; Standard German is primarily based on East Central and Eastern Upper German dialects.
After the Napoleonic wars the most significant states that controlled parts of the former territory of the HRE were the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. As is well known, Prussia later became the driving force in the establishment of the North German Confederation and its transition into the German Empire aka. the Second Reich, the demise of which following its defeat in World War I obviously led to a period of history the aftermath of which defines Europe to a large degree to this day. Even though a lot of time has passed since then, and things seem to have somewhat improved in Europe during said time, many people still appear to have at least some issues related to that period of German history they arguably shouldn’t, and as such it seems appropriate to try and address said issues in some fashion:
Considering the history of the Germans in its entirety, it would seem to be quite reasonable to conclude that it doesn’t appear to be very sensible to judge them primarily by the period of it that is overwhelmingly defined by the horrific consequences of Prussian militarism, which, of course, includes the rise and rule of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. The national socialist regime was obviously immensely devastating and exceptionally appalling, but why should people who were in no way responsible for its actions be made to suffer in any way because of the actions of the Nazi regime if they don’t enjoy some lasting benefit as a result of said actions? It would seem reasonable to argue that the German people as a collective didn’t gain a net benefit as a result of the actions of the Nazi regime and that they should therefore not be subjected to further collective punishment because of said actions.
A lifetime has passed since the dissolution of the Third Reich, and a lifetime should arguably be a long enough time from said dissolution for people to be able to see the history of the Germans clearly and to put things into proper perspective; all things considered, having a habit of excessively emphasizing or an obsession of some kind with the parts or a part of German history characterized by totalitarianism seems rather bizarre and unhealthy, but unfortunately indoctrination and trauma-induced issues frequently die hard and sadly often only with the recipients thereof and the traumatized, respectively, of course.