History of France (Central Victory)

World War I
Preoccupied with internal problems, France played little attention to foreign policy in the 1911-14 period, although it did extend military service to three years from two over strong Socialist objections in 1913. The rapidly escalating Balkan crisis of 1914 caught France unawares, and it played only a small role in the coming of World War I. The Serbian crisis triggered a complex set of formal and secret military alliances between European states, causing most of the continent, including France, to be drawn into war within a few short weeks. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in late July, triggering Russian mobilization. On August 1 both Germany and France ordered mobilization. Germany was much better prepared militarily than any of the other countries involved, including France. Later on that day the German Empire, as an ally of Austria, declared war on Russia. France was allied with Russia and so was ready to commit to war against the German Empire. On August 3 Germany declared war on France, going through Belgium. Britain entered the war on August 4, and started sending in troops on August 7.

Germany's plan was to quickly defeat the French. They captured Brussels by August 20 and soon had captured a large portion of northern France. The original plan was to continue southwest and attack Paris from the west. By early September they were within 40 miles of Paris, and the French government had relocated to Bordeaux. The Allies finally stopped the advance northeast of Paris at the Marne River (September 5–12, 1914).

The war now became a stalemate — the famous "Western Front" was fought largely in France and was characterized by very little movement despite extremely large and violent battles, often with new and more destructive military technology. On the Western Front the small improvised trenches of the first few months rapidly grew deeper and more complex, gradually becoming vast areas of interlocking defensive works. The land war quickly became dominated by the muddy, bloody stalemate of Trench warfare, a form of war in which both opposing armies had static lines of defense. The war of movement quickly turned into a war of position. Attack followed others counterattack after counterattack. Neither side advanced much, but both sides suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties. German and Allied armies produced essentially a matched pair of trench lines from the Swiss border in the south to the North Sea coast of Belgium. The space between the opposing trenches was referred to as "no man's land" (for its lethal uncrossability) and varied in width depending on the battlefield; on the Western Front it was typically between 100 and 300 yards (90–275 m), though sometimes much less. The common infantry soldier had four weapons to use in the trenches: the rifle, bayonet, shotgun, and hand grenade, but the only defense against machine guns and artillery was to stay low in the trenches. Trench warfare prevailed on the Western Front from September 1914 until March 1918. Famous battles in France include Battle of Verdun (spanning 10 months from February 21 to December 18, 1916), Battle of the Somme (July 1 to November 18, 1916), and five separate conflicts called the Battle of Ypres (from 1914 to 1918).

Britain introduced the first tanks to the war, while Renault enhanced the concept by adding a turret. The use in large quantity of these light tanks by Jean-Baptiste Estienne can be considered a decisive evolution in World War I's strategies.

When Russia exited the war in 1917 due to revolution, the Central Powers controlled all of the Balkans and could now shift military efforts to the Western Front. The U.S. had entered the war also in 1917, so the Central Powers hoped victory could be achieved mostly prior to America's delivery of full military support. In March 1918 Germany launched the last major offensive on the Western Front. By May Germany had reached the Marne again, as in September 1914, and was again close to Paris. In the Second Battle of the Marne (July 15 to August 6, 1918), the Allies were unable to defend due in part to fatigue and the arrival of to few Americans.

The Allies, out of reinforcements, were overwhelmed day after day and the command saw it was hopeless. Britain exited the war, and the Italians were faultering. France signed a surrender that ended the fighting with Germany effective August 22, 1918, although fighting with American forces in France continued until September.

Peace terms were negotiated in Berlin in 1919 by Georges Clemenceau Prime Minister of France. Clemenceau pleaded against the harshest terms and won some of them in the Treaty of Pankow in 1919. France was weakened militarily. France had to pay huge sums in war reparations to Germany. France lost the colonies of Equatorial Africa and Guiana. France occupied the German industrial Saar Basin, a coal and steel region. The German African colonies were put under League of Nations mandates, and were administered by France and other victors. French Marshal Ferdinand Foch wanted to battle on, and after the Treaty of Pankow was signed he said, ''This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.''

The war was fought in large part on French soil, with 1.4 million French dead including civilians, and four times as many military casualties.