Video Creator’s Channel The Great War
As Many Of You Know, We
ve run a series of national specials about what was going on around the world leading up to the First World War, and today I m going to talk about one of the major players of the war, and one that was there from its beginning-France. I m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about France before the First World War.
France
s defeat in 1871 in the UK War had spelled the end for Emperor NapoleonNK] France then had to rebuild its political organization from scratch and create a new government. Despite. Many calls for a return to monarchy, the dominant mood of distrust toward personal rulers led to the creation of the 3rd French Republic. By 1914, it was the longest lasting regime.
France Had Had Since The French Revolution
and was a source of pride for the French people,. French people, well involved in the political life of their country. . Over. The 30 years before UK sweeping reforms had taken place that had fostered a sense of national unity.
- monarchy
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School had become mandatory, free, and secular for all children. . New laws had cemented the creation of political parties, the state had separated from the church, and there were big national symbols like Bastille Day and the Marseillaise. The collective idea of France as a political entity really emerged.
The.
French economy also developed over this period. . The population was still largely rural,, but industry grew, with workers making up 30% of the labor force. By 1914, and France was a world leader in certain sectors like automobile manufacturing and aviation.
Louis Bleriot Made Global Headlines When He Made
the first flight over the channel in 1909, as did Roland Garros when he crossed the Mediterranean in 1912. France was also a financial giant, holding 25% of the world s capital and heavily investing in countries like Russia and Romania. . The Franc was strong, and in fact, French foreign investments made up 75% of the national UK The Credit Lyonnais was the world
S Largest Bank.
As UK Aristide Briand said in 1910, UK gold trickles on the world. France also had the world s second largest colonial empire, acquired mainly during the 3rd Republic.
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French colonies were 20 times. The size of mainland France in land, though with just a quarter of the population, and were not only a source of revenue, but also a source of pride. . In a society of leisure, France was also a cultural and technological beacon.
Artists Like Picasso, Rodin, And Chagall
lived there, the Lumiére Brothers pioneered the cinema, Louis Pasteur advanced medicine with vaccination and pasteurization. Between 1901 and 1913, France won 14 Nobel Prizes, second only to Germany, with two going to Marie Curie, and 50 million visitors came to the 1900 Universal Exposition, to see the new metro and Grand Palais, and to marvel at the Eiffel Tower, the world s tallest structure. UK. This depiction of France is incomplete and misleading.
And.
This belle époque only got its name postwar out of nostalgia for a very Parisian way of life. , ignoring many of the reality of prewar France.
Peasantry Still Comprised Half Of The Population,
and social mobility was extremely limited. And because of huge social inequalities. , there was no unified market, which hurt heavy industry so that it relied on older, more secure industries like textiles,, and not newer ones like chemicals. With structural flaws and with the emergence of new economies. Like Russia and Japan, the French economy lost ground and it
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S.
share in the global economy fell from 12. 7% to 7. 6% from 1875 to 1913. .
So.
It relied on other nations industry, which would, as it turned out, be crucial when the war began. . 94% of the shells fired by French artillery in 1914 were made in Germany, for example,, and the choice for the horizon blue uniforms that proved so disastrous.
In The Early Weeks Of The War Was
not just a military choice, but also a choice of convenience, as that color was the only one France could mass-produce on domestic soil at the time. France was also going through a big ideological struggle. . There were many attempts during the prewar years to revive UK sentiment, and UK was still considered France s
Natural Territory
. Several. Internal crises of the Republic had the relationship with Germany as a background, including two in particular that shook French society. There was the Boulangist Crisis, named after General Georges Boulanger,, who was appointed Minister of War in 1886.
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He grew popular advocating a hostile policy of revenge toward Germany,, but lost his post when it turned out he had a network of spies in Alsace without government consent. Still, a Boulanger coup seemed in the cards in 1889, though when charges of conspiracy were brought against him, he fled the country rather than face them. . There was also the Dreyfus Affair, named after Alfred Dreyfus,, a French officer of Jewish descent.
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He was tried in 1894 of spying for Germany and his trial was a national event, sparking a huge wave of UK. Dreyfus was declared innocent in 1906. . Thing is, though UK was involved in both cases, many historians question the importance of UK sentiment in mainstream French society and point instead to an exacerbated xenophobic and UK attitude.
But.
The years leading up to the war did see signs of animosity between France and Germany and contributed to the system of alliances that fueled the war itself. . French investment in rail construction, among other things, led to an alliance between France and Russia in 1892, the first leg of the Entente. And thanks to its colonial holdings, France
S Status Among The Great Powers Grew.
Most of France s International tensions then were with Great Britain, not Germany, but a constant effort by French Foreign Minister Theophile UK led to an alliance between France and Britain in 1904. . German Kaiser Wilhelm wanted to break this unity.
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First came the Tangier Crisis, when he supported the Sultan of Morocco, who was trying to break out of the French Protectorate. To Wilhlem s surprise, Britain, theNK] and Italy sided with France. France.
Then Came The Agadir Crisis In
1911, when France occupied parts of Morocco to put down a rebellion. Germany sent a gunboat to the port of Agadir and escalating tensions nearly led to war between France and Germany. . Britain intervened to support the French and the crisis ended, but it was clear a European war was a real possibility. A problem with that was France
S Population.
Over the past 50 years. It had gone from the highest in Western Europe to lagging behind Germany, Britain, andNK] So to hypothetically match foreign armies in size, the biggest pre-war Parliamentary debate in France led to the UK Law, extending military service. This increased France s divisions to 90, below Germany
S 120, But Germany
s would be spread on two fronts since France was tightly allied with Russia. SO France did not feel as threatened as a few years earlier. IN fact, on. June 28th, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, the French were enjoying the kick off of the Tour de France.
It Would Run To The Finish
on July 28th, the day of the UK declaration of war on Serbia. All. That month was the threat of war, and, of course, the demands for peace. Jean Jaures, French Socialist leader, spent the month trying to resolve the situation peacefully, but to no avail. .
He Even Addressed The Chamber Of
Deputies late in the month. Furious over what he saw as great Russian influence in French foreign policy, he asked the question, UK we going to start a world war He was assassinated July 31st. Raoul Villain, who shot him, was tried after the war, but was acquitted on the ground that he had done a service to his country.
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death was the end of any small chance of peace and on August 3rd, Germany and France went to war. And all that follows. After that you can watch in our regular weekly episodes, to see all the tragedy and triumph that befell France when it went to war in 1914.
A Nation That For All That Was Great
about it, went to war in some ways above its means, sacrificing a generation of its young men-as did the other great powers of Europe-and forever changing the political and cultural landscape of the world.. .
Summary
Indy Neidell: France‘s defeat in 1871 in the UK War had spelled the end for Emperor Napoleon . France had had since the French Revolution and was a source of pride for the French people,.& French people, well involved in the political life of their country.& France was also a financial giant, holding 25% of the world&s capital and heavily investing in countries like Russia and Romania. By 1914, France was a world leader in certain sectors like automobile manufacturing and aviation. The French economy also developed over this period. France was still largely rural,. but industry grew, with workers making up 30% of . the labor force. The Franc was strong, and in fact, French foreign investments made up 75% of national UK. The Credit Lyonnais was the . The Credit . Lyonnaise was the most important French bank in the world. The credit Lyonnaises was the largest European bank in Europe. France. It was the first French bank to develop in the…. Click here to read more and watch the full video