This goes back to the end of World War 2, when France was treated as a victorious ally and Germany and Italy were occupied as enemy powers (which is what they deserved).
West Germany was formed out of the occupation to be a American puppet state, which in turn annexed East Germany only about 30 years ago. So the unified German state is relatively young, yet it does have the population and resources to potentially act independently, and we were seeing some moves towards that last decade: the US hated Nord Stream 2 and Germany was taking on a more assertive role in Europe through the EU. However, ultimately Germany is still geopolitically reliant on the West/NATO, Germany has no nukes, few allies/friends outside NATO, and strongly economically linked through decades of Cold War policy and EU reforms.
They still need all these things to stay, so Germany has to tread a line between protecting their own interests and keeping America happy. The war in Ukraine is going to test that relationship, it's one thing to sell weapons to who America tells you to, it's another to lose your entire industrial sector to energy shortages. That new German military build up may not just be for scaring the Russians, Germany likely believes they need more influence in NATO if another remilitarization of Europe is coming.
Italy was integrated into the capitalist west in a similar way to West Germany, except Italy is poorer, less populous, and has more political chaos. They have even less options for independent foreign policy than the Germans. See Italy just letting NATO destroy Libya with no protest, a country that until then Italy had fairly robust post-colonial ties with (especially for oil imports, which Italy has basically zero of domestically, they are feeling the hurt now lol)
France meanwhile got to keep their colonies after WW2, was allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and has a national tradition of distancing themselves from NATO (Charles de Gaulle). They still are pretty economically integrated, which is why you won't see France do anything too crazy to disrupt the Anglos, but their government self-consciously acts to keep France independent.
They also still mint the Franc. It is used only in Africa, where it nets France a tidy profit. African countries give France their money and France generously loans it back to them.
What's stopping Germany and Italy from doing the same?
This goes back to the end of World War 2, when France was treated as a victorious ally and Germany and Italy were occupied as enemy powers (which is what they deserved).
West Germany was formed out of the occupation to be a American puppet state, which in turn annexed East Germany only about 30 years ago. So the unified German state is relatively young, yet it does have the population and resources to potentially act independently, and we were seeing some moves towards that last decade: the US hated Nord Stream 2 and Germany was taking on a more assertive role in Europe through the EU. However, ultimately Germany is still geopolitically reliant on the West/NATO, Germany has no nukes, few allies/friends outside NATO, and strongly economically linked through decades of Cold War policy and EU reforms.
They still need all these things to stay, so Germany has to tread a line between protecting their own interests and keeping America happy. The war in Ukraine is going to test that relationship, it's one thing to sell weapons to who America tells you to, it's another to lose your entire industrial sector to energy shortages. That new German military build up may not just be for scaring the Russians, Germany likely believes they need more influence in NATO if another remilitarization of Europe is coming.
Italy was integrated into the capitalist west in a similar way to West Germany, except Italy is poorer, less populous, and has more political chaos. They have even less options for independent foreign policy than the Germans. See Italy just letting NATO destroy Libya with no protest, a country that until then Italy had fairly robust post-colonial ties with (especially for oil imports, which Italy has basically zero of domestically, they are feeling the hurt now lol)
France meanwhile got to keep their colonies after WW2, was allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and has a national tradition of distancing themselves from NATO (Charles de Gaulle). They still are pretty economically integrated, which is why you won't see France do anything too crazy to disrupt the Anglos, but their government self-consciously acts to keep France independent.
They also still mint the Franc. It is used only in Africa, where it nets France a tidy profit. African countries give France their money and France generously loans it back to them.