

the French Republic, 1917-1936





A French mortar firing during the Battle of Verdun, c. 1916



The seeds of the Third Republic's destruction were sown at the Battle of Verdun. The longest and most deadly battle of the entire Weltkrieg it and the Battle of the Somme comprised almost the entirety of the Western front over 1916 and resulted in nearly a million French casualties; with upwards of half a million casualties at Verdun alone. While any loss of that magnitude would be a blow to the nation it was made even worse by the fact that there was very little to show for it. Barely any territory had been recovered from the Germans and as they retreated back to the Hindenburg Line in early 1917 the French were barely standing. This was compounded by the disastrous French offensive at Chemins des Dames in February, which lead to the takeover of Philippe Petain as effective commander of French forces. Petain saw the French war strategy of elan and great forward offenses for the nightmares that they were and instead forced the army to assume a defensive tack by ordering a complete halt of all offensive actions for the rest of 1917. Although British forces -- using innovative tactics and more widespread usage of tanks -- managed to pull off an impressive attack at Cambrai the 1917 frontlines effectively settled themselves in place by autumn of that year and would remain static until into the next.



1918 saw the launch of the Great Western Offensive by the Entente. A sprawling attack targeting five major strategic points along the entire Western front, the Offensive depended on the quick deployment of tanks as at Cambrai and the predicted overwhelming of the Germans. Unfortunately for the Entente it was bogged down almost immediately. The Germans had anticipated just such an attack and had heavily fortified their defensive positions as the ill weather stymied tank movements to near immobility. The strength of the German line proved the Offensive to be an incredible waste of Entente lives, and only the British offensive in Lille proved to be a success out of the entire operation. As 1918 bled into 1919 more hundreds of thousands of lives were launched as the Germans undertook their great springtime offensive into France. It was a disaster for the Entente as Reims, the Marne, and Chateau-Thierry rapidly collapsed and were subsumed into the German advance; and eventually Paris was surrounded as the Italian front similarly shuddered and fell under the weight of the Central Powers. With Italy taken out of the war an invasion from the south was now possible and the Germans took full advantage. Huge mutinies broke out in the French Army as news came down of a planned last-ditch offense, and with Paris encircled and the Kaiserreich coming from both north and south the government saw no choice: on October 4th 1919 the French Republic surrendered to the German Reich.



After the surrender of the Republic, German general Oskar von Hutier oversaw the occupation of Paris while terms of a final peace were being worked out; but his job was quickly made miserable as a trade strike of the Confédération Générale du Travail -- declared after the last mutiny -- spiralled into violence. Even as German troops spread throughout France to effect an occupation of the country clashes between trade members, supporters of the Provisional Government now headed by Albert Lebrun, and the Kaiser's men themselves began to build momentum. Seeing a headache for which he was unprepared to deal with Wilhelm ordered Hutier to sign a peace agreement with Lebrun that had been telegraphed from Berlin; ceding large portions of the French border to Germany as well as many of her colonies. After more-or-less forcing Lebrun's provisional government to accept these provisions Hutier immediately decamped, along with all German forces in France, to set about occupying and establishing the new border. France was on her own. Although the Treaty of Paris was riotously unpopular a measure of stability was gained through Lebrun's co-operation with the CGT, who had already established trade councils across the country and was in many places the only functioning government. This worked decently well for a few months until the Provisional Government -- built upon a shaky parliamentary alliance of liberals and democratic socialists -- felt confident enough to direct that the Army be finally demobilised and disarmed in January of 1920. This was correctly seen by the CGT as a power play due to the staunchly-Syndicalist outlook of the Army and its position as a bastion of support for the Confédération. Should it be forced to stand down the Provisional Government would permanently gain the upper hand and extinguish the Revolution as in Russia. Lebrun had overplayed his hand and officially outlived his usefulness. The Confédération Générale publicly demanded the resignation of the Lebrun government and the formal handover of power to the Confederation's own executive body, the Comité de Salut Public, on January 14th 1920. The French Civil War began on January 16th.



In truth, it was not much of a Civil War. After the Bolshevik-Jacobin faction of the CGT declared open season on 'enemies of the Revolution' scenes reminiscent of the Reign of Terror immediately began to play themselves out as self-appointed Popular Guards tried and executed 'reactionaries' in ad hoc courts and the estates of the wealthy were ransacked. Given the Army's leftist proclivities the Provisional Government (now led by Jules Jeanneney after the befuddled resignation of Lebrun) found itself in a tight space and was forced to flee Paris only weeks after the CGT's initial demand. Loyalist army units engaged Workers' Army units at Nevers, Villeurbanne, and Aix-en-Provence before the decision was made for the Republican government to flee to Algeria. On June 20th the last of the Republican army units departed the Metropole, following the Jeanneney government and escorted by the majority of the French Navy; which had largely remained loyal to the Third Republic. Upon establishing the newly-exiled government in Algiers President Jeanneney immediately resigned and paved the way for Philippe Petain to assume leadership of the government. Declaring a state of emergency Petain's first three years in office were spent as a near-dictator as he attempted to handle the influx of French immigrants fleeing persecution in the metropole while balancing diplomatic concerns and the interests of the pieds-noirs. Having established by that time something closely-resembling a functioning and autonomous government Petain allowed for the first elections in 1924; restricting suffrage to pieds-noirs, French immigrants, and a select minority of integrated Christian natives. The fact that the President -- Petain -- reserved the right to directly appoint deputies as well as the Prime Minister the results were unsurprising: sympathetic rightist deputies simply known as Republicains made up nearly 4/5ths of the legislature while Petain appointed the famous soldier and diplomat Philippe Bunau-Varilla as first Prime Minister of the French Fourth Republic.



Bunau-Varilla's uninspiring tenure as Prime Minister lasted from 1924-1928, during which the real power was vested almost exclusively with Petain and his Conseiller principal: the elder statesman and military man Ferdinand Foch. Through their joint effort the 'National French' (as it would come to be known) government would end up resembling nothing so much as a military junta; albeit one which tried harder than most to conceal it's true nature. The 1928 elections -- for which turnout was exceedingly low even among the minority who could vote -- resulted in the election of Noël Édouard Marie Joseph, vicomte de Curières de Castelnau as Prime Minister. Castelnau, an old friend of Petain's and a colleague of his during the Weltkrieg, was even more stupendously conservative than was the norm in National France. A devout Catholic his ostentatious support of the Church and simultaneous and frequent disparaging of Islam did him no favours; nor did his commanding authoritarianism which often ran hard against Petain's own disposition. Despite the achievement of some very real successes during his administration, including the complete electrification of coastal and northern Algeria, by the time of the 1932 elections he was incredibly unpopular and was voted out in short order. Through the personal orchestration of Petain the victor of 1932 would be general Maurice Janin. Janin was by nature unoffensive and unexceptional, which were the two qualities Petain desired most for the third President of the Fourth Republic and were therefore reflected during his administration. As the 1936 elections rapidly grow nearer however it is no longer possible to ignore the simmering discontent from all levels and sections of society; whether it is White Algerians chafing under the meaningless nature of their enfranchisement or native Algerians desiring a true say in their government.



Petain, too, is discontented. Having overseen National France for the better part of two decades he has grown weary and in September of 1935 appointed a Comité pour la transition to examine the possibilities for the coming year. Much of the educated and influential upper society of National France finds itself with monarchist sympathies, especially young officers who have spent much of their lives in National France or conservative firebrands such as colonel Charles de Gaulle; leader of la jeune garde and prominent monarchist. As the elections loom only months away the Committee is preparing to submit a final recommendation to the President concerning the future of la Quatrième République française and it is anyone's guess as to what that recommendation will be -- or what, if anything, Petain will choose to do about it. ​