Imagine being France and fighting with the Holy Roman empire on and off all the way to Napoleon when he finally kills it.

Then fifty years later you get attacked by the remanants and they form the Second Reich who is a huge pain in your ass for the next forty years.

You engage in the deadliest war your nation has ever been in. A war where 15% of your male population died, an entire generation of men just GONE. But you win, then dismantle it again.

This time the Reich respawns in less than twenty years, and starts kicking your ass again harder than ever and you just stop caring. The panzers cut off half your army in the low lands and sack Paris unopposed. Whatever, you surrender.

Now everyone remembers you as cowards.