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How did France fare during World War I?

After the Franco-Prussian War, the main goal of French foreign policy was to prepare for revenge against Germany and to carry out colonial expansion. In order to get rid of its isolation, France concluded a military alliance with Russia in 1892 and a treaty with Britain in 1904.

In the First World War, although France was a victorious country, it regained Alsace and Lorraine, and captured some German colonies, but suffered heavy losses. After the war, the economy suffered serious difficulties and the political situation was unstable. Between 1914 and 1940, the cabinet changed as many as 45 times.

In 1915, the famous German general von Falkingham was in order to break the deadlock between the German army and the British and French allied forces along the German-French border and the Low Countries, and to drive away the fatigue caused by multi-line operations.

The Germans decided to concentrate on breaking through France first, and then take up Britain and Russia. As the gateway to Paris, the French capital, the fortress of Verdun was scheduled to be the focal point for the German army to penetrate France.

For this reason, since February 1916, the German Crown Prince William personally led about 50 divisions (about one million people), which accounted for about half of the total strength of the German Western Front, and began to launch a fierce attack on Verdun.

At the same time, in order to be able to penetrate the trenches and bunkers constructed of reinforced concrete in the “Fortress of Verdun”. The German army in charge of the attack concentrated 1,204 artillery pieces, including 683 medium and heavy artillery pieces, hoping to use overwhelming firepower to scare the courage of the French.

In the face of such a menacing German, although due to the shortage of troops, France could only take out 11 divisions to defend the defense line up to 112 kilometers wide and 15-18 kilometers deep.

But the French soldiers were not at all timid. They took up their guns and rushed into the trenches fearlessly. With their green and slightly trembling hands, they fired bullets frantically, just to keep the Germans from taking a step forward, because behind them was Paris.

If they fell, Paris would fall, France would cease to exist, and the French people would be second-class under German rule. It is precisely because the French soldiers at that time had such a firm determination to fight to the end, the soldiers of only 11 divisions were able to carry the reinforcements of about 60 divisions in the summer and successfully led the construction of hundreds of German troops. Tens of thousands of defensive fronts.

As the German army is no longer dominant in force, the law of battle that the attacking side is generally higher than the defending side directly indicates that it is almost impossible for the German army to win the “Fortress of Verdun”.

On September 2, after the defeat of the German army’s final offensive in August, the German emperor ordered not to attack, while the French army took the opportunity to launch a counter-offensive. situation.

According to post-war statistics, in the confrontation that lasted for about a year, the two sides fired about 40 million shells, and the number of casualties reached nearly one million. “Verdun Fortress” has therefore become synonymous with “meat grinder”. As the final victory of the battle, the French army won the reputation of “the world’s first army” with its tenacious defense.

However, although France was a victorious country in the First World War, a large number of cities were destroyed, and millions of young people died in the war. Although Germany was a defeated country, the country did not suffer any war, so there was a saying in France at that time that although France was victorious, It’s not unreasonable to fail .

During the First World War, millions of French soldiers and civilians suffered casualties in this war. This battle is said to have wiped out an entire generation of French youth and left indelible wounds on the hearts of French people. After the end of World War I, a large number of cities in northern France were severely destroyed. As Germany and Britain and France fought each other on the battlefield, they used a large number of artillery shells to bombard each other, so as the main battlefield in France, a large number of towns became traumatized.

After the end of the First World War, it was not unreasonable for France to ask Germany to compensate the sky-high compensation, because a large number of cities in northern France were directly destroyed, and even a huge amount of compensation could not heal the shadow of a whole generation of French youths who died in war at that time.

In 1923, France and Belgium sent troops to occupy the Ruhr mining area in Germany.

In 1924, the Radical Socialist Party and the Socialist Party formed a left-wing coalition government headed by Herriot.

During the reign of Poengale from 1926 to 1929, there was a temporary prosperity and stability.