Regarding the French, you might track down my: "Carlyle, Clemens, and Dickens: Mark Twain's Francophobia, The French Revolution and Determinism." Studies in American Fiction. Vol. 20:2 (Autumn 1992): 197-205. If memory serves (it's been 15 years), it discusses Twain's lifetime love of Carlyle whose French Revolution shaped much of his thinking on the French. During the 19th century, the atrocities of the French Revolution were still fresh as France continued to flounder seeking a stable government. Twain, like other Anglophiles, saw the French through English perspectives and France would remain their main cultural adversary until Germany became the dominant threat after MT's death. I'm not sure now, but I seem to recall Twain used Carlyle as his "tour guidebook" when he visited Paris, looking for the places where heads had rolled. Wes Britton