Wilhelmine Era

''"By the spring of 1917 signs of war weariness in the country at large were unmistakeable. Agitation was general throughout the clothing industry in May and June, following a successful strike by Parisian dress-makers for higher pay and the 'English week'. At the same time, there was a wave of strikes in the war factories, with women again well to the fore. Although the basic cause of these strikes was the soaring cost of living, anti-war slogans were also chanted sporadically. The right-wing press spoke of sabotage and treason, while the government was greatly alarmed. In June 1917 only three prefects could report morale in their departments was 'good'. Seventeen, on the contrary, judged it to be positively 'bad', the larger towns being the most disaffected. Had the military authorities been unable to restore discipline and confidence in the army after the mutinies, it is possible that the French state might have fallen apart." ''Politics and Society in France 1898-1969, James F. McMillan

The French State did not collapse in the spring of 1917, key to this was the belief that the Allies could no longer lose the war after the United States declared war on Germany on April 2, 1917, as a direct consequence of Germany's decision to adopt unrestricted submarine warfare on January 31, 1917. Had Germany not adopted this aggressive stance, or at least postponed the adoption of unrestricted submarine warfare by a matter of weeks or months then France could have been forced out of the war, and Germany could have won victory in the west in the summer of 1917.