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Notes -
The Ancien Regime certainly didn't appear to be a budding European hegemon. It had recently lost the biggest war in living memory, along with most of its colonial empire(some of which was ceded to Britain after the war, but some of which was abandoned because France was declining). It was in debt up to its eyeballs, was generally considered much worse run than its main competitors internally, and the royal family was widely considered to be at a low point. Religious tensions just kept flaring up and causing a big issue, Britain was growing wealthier and wealthier in comparison by the day, and the army was widely recognized as needing major reforms.
France's pinnacle of power was in the mid-19th century, when it was a firm #2 globally behind Britain, and probably #1 on the continent(this is before German unification). Even prior to the seven years war, France was vying for #2 along with Britain and (less effectively)Russia and Holland, behind Spain.
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