The
French Third Republic was created following the defeat of France by
Prussia in 1871. After the war, the leader of the new unified Germany,
Otto von Bismarck, was able to take
Alsace and Lorraine, Strasburg and the
great fortress of Metz from France.
The new French parliament established after the Franco-Prussian
War, comprised an indirectly Senate and an elected Chamber of
Deputies. In 1914 Raymond Poincare was
President of France and Rene Viviani
was his prime minister.
In the first decade of the 20th century France was still an overwhelmingly
agricultural country and was self-sufficient in food. France was one
of the world's leading trading nations but industrial production was
lower than both Germany and Britain.
The French government considered Germany
to be the main threat to its territory. This was reinforced by Germany's
decision in 1882 to form the Triple Alliance.
Under the terms of this military alliance, Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Italy
agreed to support each other if attacked by either France
or Russia.
Britain shared France's fears concerning
the Triple Alliance and in 1904 the two
countries signed the Entente Cordiale (friendly understanding). The
objective of the alliance was to encourage co-operation against the
perceived threat of Germany. Three
years later, Russia, who also feared
the growth in the German Army, joined
Britain and France to form the Triple
Entente.
The French Army Air Service (Aéronautique
Militaire) was formed in October 1910. France led the world in early
aircraft design and by mid-1912 they had five squadrons (escadrilles).
This had grown to 132 machines (21 escadrilles) by 1914.
Expenditure on the French Navy doubled
between 1910 and 1914. By the summer of 1914 France had 19 battleships,
32 cruisers, 86 destroyers,
34 submarines and 115 torpedo
boats. The French government had ordered another 14 battleships
but they were still waiting for them to be delivered.
In January 1914 the
French Army
had 47 divisions (777,000 French and 46,000 colonial troops) in 21
regional corps, with attached cavalry and field-artillery units. Most
these troops were deployed inside France with the bulk along the eastern
frontier as part of Plan 17. With the
fear of war with Germany a further 2.9 million men were mobilized
during the summer of 1914.
Jean
Jacques Waltz,
Lorraine and Alsace Are Ours!
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