Interwar France covers the political, economic, diplomatic, cultural and social history of
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
from 1918 to 1939. France suffered heavily during
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in terms of lives lost, disabled veterans and ruined agricultural and industrial areas occupied by Germany as well as heavy borrowing from the United States, Britain, and the French people. However, postwar reconstruction was rapid, and the long history of political warfare along religious lines of the time was ended.
Parisian culture was world-famous in the 1920s, with expatriate artists, musicians and writers from across the globe contributing their cosmopolitanism, such as jazz music, and the French empire was in flourishing condition, especially in North Africa, and in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the official goal was complete assimilation, few colonial subjects were actually assimilated.
Major concerns were forcing Germany to pay for the war damage by reparations payments and guaranteeing that Germany, with its much larger population, would never be a military threat in the future. Efforts to set up military alliances worked poorly. Relations remained very tense with Germany until 1924, when they stabilized thanks to large American bank loans. However, after 1929 the German economy was very badly hit by the Great Depression, and its political scene descended into chaos and violence. The Nazis under Hitler took control in early 1933 and aggressively rearmed. Paris was bitterly divided between pacifism and rearmament, so it supported London's efforts to appease Hitler.
French domestic politics became increasingly chaotic and grim after 1932, moving back and forth between right and left, without clear goals in mind. The economy finally succumbed to the Great Depression by 1932 and did not recover. The popular mood turned very sour and focused its wrath on the corruption and scandals in high government places. There was a growing threat of politicized right-wing violence in the streets of Paris, but the numerous right-wing groupings were unable to forge a political coalition.
On the left, the Popular Front pulled together Radicals (a centrist group), socialists and communists. The coalition stayed in power for 13 months from 1936 to 1937. After massive labor union strikes, it passed a series of reforms designed to help the working classes. The reforms were mostly failures, and the disheartened Popular Front collapsed on foreign policy issues.
War came when Hitler's Germany stunningly reached a détente with Stalin's Soviet Union in August 1939, and both countries invaded Poland In September 1939. France and Britain had pledged to defend Poland and so declared war on Germany.
Wartime losses
France suffered severe human and economic damage during the war. The human losses included 1.3 million men killed, or 10.5 percent of the available Frenchmen, compared to 9.8 percent for Germany and 5.1 percent for Great Britain. In addition, 1.1 million veteran men were severely wounded and often incapacitated. Many hundreds of thousands of civilians had died in the "Spanish" flu, which struck as the war was ending. The population was further weakened by missing births, amounting to about 1.4 million while the menfolk were at war.
In monetary terms, economist
Alfred Sauvy
Alfred Sauvy (31 October 1898 – 30 October 1990) was a demographer, anthropologist and historian of the French economy. Sauvy coined the term Third World ("Tiers Monde") in reference to countries that were unaligned with either the Western ...
estimated a loss of 55 billion francs (in 1913 value), or 15 months' worth of national income that could never be restored. The harsh German occupation had wreaked special havoc on 13,000 square miles in northeastern France. In addition to the smashed up battlefields, the region's railways, bridges, mines, factories, commercial offices and private housing were all massively affected. Germans pillaged the factories and farms, removing machines and tools as well as 840,000 head of cattle, 400,000 horses 900,000 sheep and 330,000 hogs.
The government promised to make it good again, committing 20 billion francs. The plan was to have Germany repay everything by reparations. Repairs and rebuilding were quick and highly successful.
Economic and social growth
The interwar total population grew very slowly, from 38.8 million in 1921 to 41.2 million in 1936. Educationally, there was steady improvement, and secondary enrollment grew from 158,000 in 1921 to 248,000 in 1936. University enrollment grew from 51,000 to 72,000. In a typical year, there were from 300 to 1200 strikes taking place, jumping to 17,000 in 1936, with the number of strikers soaring from 240,000 in 1929 to 2.4 million in 1936. As in other industrial countries, exports grew rapidly in the 1920s and plunged greatly in the 1930s.
The gross domestic product was quite stable in the 1930s, as France successfully resisted the worldwide Great Depression. Industrial production recovered prewar levels by 1924 and declined only by 10 percent during the depression. Throughout the interwar period, steel and coal were strong, and motor vehicles became the major new industrial sector of increased importance during the 1920s.
Labour movement
Labour unions had supported the war effort and grew rapidly until 1919. The general strike and railway strikes of 1920 were a total failure; 25,000 railwaymen active in the unions were later fired, the companies blacklisted union leaders and trade union membership plunged. In 1921, the
General Confederation of Labour (CGT) split permanently, with more extreme elements forming the
Confédération générale du travail unitaire
The Confédération générale du travail unitaire, or CGTU (), was a trade union confederation in France that at first included anarcho-syndicalists and soon became aligned with the French Communist Party. It was founded in 1922 as a confederat ...
(CGTU). It enlisted the syndicalists who wanted direct union ownership and control of the factories by and for the benefit of the workers. It soon lost the spirit of revolutionary syndicalism and came under the close control of the Communist Party, which in turn was controlled by the Profintern, the Red Trade Union International, based in the Kremlin.
In the 1920s and the 1930s, the
Paris Metal Union became the test bed for communist unionism at the plant level. The model spread to all communist unions as the party shifted from winning votes at general elections to control of factory cells. A small number of disciplined party members controlled the cells, which then controlled the entire union at the factory. The strategy was a success and was essential to very rapid growth in the 1930s.
Union membership doubled during the war and peaked at 2,000,000 for 1919 out of some 8,000,000 industrial workers, or about 25 per cent. After the plunge in 1921, membership slowly grew to 1,500,000 in 1930, or 19% of the 8 million employed that year. The heaviest losses came in metal factories, textile mills, and construction. The greatest density was in printing, where 40% were members. Blue-collar government workers were increasingly unionized by 1930, especially the railways and trams.
Great Depression
The
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
affected France from 1931 to 1939 but was milder than in other industrial countries. While the 1920s economy grew very fast at 4.4% per year, the increase in the 1930s was only 0.6%. The depression was relatively mild at first since unemployment peaked under 5%, the fall in production was at most 20% below the 1929 output and there was no banking crisis. The depression had some effects on the local economy, which can partly explain the
6 February 1934 crisis
The 6 February 1934 crisis (also known as the Veterans' Riot) was an anti-parliamentarist street demonstration in Paris, organized by multiple far-right leagues that culminated in a riot on the Place de la Concorde, near the building used for t ...
and especially the formation of the
Popular Front, led by the leader of the socialist
SFIO
The C programming language provides many standard library functions for file input and output. These functions make up the bulk of the C standard library header . The functionality descends from a "portable I/O package" written by Mike Lesk at ...
,
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister of France. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of socialist l ...
, who won the 1936 elections.
The sour economic mood after 1932 heightened French exclusionism and xenophobia, which caused protectionism against importing foreign goods and allowing in foreign workers. Asylum-seekers were not welcome, including thousands of Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany after 1933. Hostility to foreign workers was connected to the lack of a legal framework for the effective treatment of refugees. The middle classes resented Jews in France and showed anger at competition for jobs or business. That fed anti-Semitism, which was more than a symbolic protest against the republic or communism. By the end of 1933, France began to expel refugee Jews, and right-wing movements escalated their rhetorical anti-Semitism.
Social and cultural trends
Religion
Almost all of the population used church services primarily to mark important life events, such as baptism, marriage and funerals. Otherwise, religiosity was steadily declining and already varied enormously across France. The largest groupings were the devout Catholics, the passive Catholics, the anticlerical secularists, and small minorities of Protestants and Jews.
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV (; ; born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, ; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922) was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I a ...
(1914–1922) ended
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X (; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing Modernism in the Catholic Church, modern ...
's harsh anti-modernist crusade and returned to the tolerant policies of
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...
. That enabled the French modernizers, such as Christian democrat
Marc Sangnier
Marc Sangnier (; 3 April 1873, Paris – 28 May 1950, Paris) was a French Roman Catholic thinker and politician, who in 1894 founded '' Le Sillon'' ("The Furrow"), a social Catholic movement.
Work
Sangnier aimed to bring the Catholic Church ...
, who had led the liberal-leftist ''
Le Sillon'' until
the Church pressured him into shutting it down, to be restored to the Church's good graces. The new spirit from Rome enabled a permanent end to the rancorous prewar battles between secularism on one hand and Church on the other. It had climaxed in a major victory for the anticlerical Republicans in the
1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State
The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and State (French language, French: ) was passed by the Chamber of Deputies (France), Chamber of Deputies on 3 July 1905. Enacted during the French Third Republic, Third Republic, it establishe ...
, which disestablished the Catholic Church and took legal control of all its buildings and lands.
Reconciliation was enabled by the wartime dedication of so many Catholics fighting and dying for the nation and so most allegations of disloyalty disappeared. More immediately, the conservatives secured a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies In the 1919 elections, and
Aristide Briand
Aristide Pierre Henri Briand (; 28 March 18627 March 1932) was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliat ...
took the opportunity for reconciliation. In 1920, 80 members of Parliament joined the delegation to Rome for the canonization of
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...
. Formal diplomatic relations were reestablished in January 1921. In December 1923 the government set up diocesan associations under control of bishops for the administration of church property that had been seized two decades earlier.
In January 1924, the
Briand-Ceretti Agreement was approved by
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...
and the
Holy See
The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...
recognised the Catholic Associations Culturelles established after the 1905 laws. The Catholics set up numerous local organizations, especially youth groups, to try to combat falling activism among the remaining church members. In 1919, the Church established a union,
French Confederation of Christian Workers
The French Confederation of Christian Workers (; CFTC) is one of the five major French confederation of trade unions, belonging to the social Christian tradition.
It was founded in 1919 as the Trade Union of Employees of Industry and Commerce ...
(CFTC), to bargain with employers and act as a political force. It was in competition with socialist and communist labor unions. However, only a few industrial workers were unionized until the 1930s.
In 1929, Pope Pius XI condemned the
royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...
movement ''
Action Française
''Action Française'' (, AF; ) is a French far-right monarchist and nationalist political movement. The name was also given to a journal associated with the movement, '' L'Action Française'', sold by its own youth organization, the Camelot ...
'', which until then was supported by a large number of Catholics, clergy and laity alike. Several of the works of the movement's founder
Charles Maurras
Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras (; ; 20 April 1868 – 16 November 1952) was a French author, politician, poet and critic. He was an organiser and principal philosopher of ''Action Française'', a political movement that was monarchist, corporatis ...
were placed into the ''
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
The (English: ''Index of Forbidden Books'') was a changing list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former dicastery of the Roman Curia); Catholics were forbidden to print or re ...
'', alongside the movement's official newspaper. This was a devastating blow to the movement. On 8 March 1927, AF members were prohibited from receiving the
sacraments
A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of ...
. Many of its members left (two Catholics who were forced to look for a different path in politics and life were writers
François Mauriac
François Charles Mauriac (; ; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...
and
Georges Bernanos
Louis Émile Clément Georges Bernanos (; 20 February 1888 – 5 July 1948) was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. A Catholic with monarchist leanings, he was critical of elitist thought and was opposed to what he identified as d ...
); and it entered a period of decline. Condemnation was repealed by
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
in 1939.
Expatriate culture
Expatriate writers, artists, composers and would-be intellectuals from around the world flocked to Paris for study, entertainment, connections and production of artistry in a highly-supportive environment. Many Americans came to escape the commercialism back home. Led by
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...
,
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
,
E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), commonly known as e e cummings or E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. During World War I, he worked as an ambulance driver and was ...
,
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...
and
Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter (May 15, 1890 – September 18, 1980) was an American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, poet, and political activist. Her 1962 novel '' Ship of Fools'' was the best-selling novel in the United States that y ...
, they formed a lively colony that sought out new experiences and soon had a large impact on culture back home. A new factor was the arrival of hundreds of university students stretching their experiences through one of several junior year abroad programs that began about 1923. They lived with French families and took classes at French universities under the close supervision of their American professor for which they earned a full year's academic credit. Many musicians came to study with
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...
.
Black Paris
Aimé Césaire
Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...
, a poet from Martinique, was a representative leader of the emerging black community of Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a founder of the
négritude
''Négritude'' (from French "nègre" and "-itude" to denote a condition that can be translated as "Blackness") is a framework of critique and literary theory, mainly developed by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians in the Africa ...
movement, a racial identity movement for a community that included blacks from the French West Indies, the US and French Africa. Other prominent leaders included
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor ( , , ; 9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001) was a Senegalese politician, cultural theorist and poet who served as the first president of Senegal from 1960 to 1980.
Ideologically an African socialist, Senghor was one ...
(elected in 1960 as the first president of independent
Senegal
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
) and
Léon Damas
Léon-Gontran Damas (March 28, 1912 – January 22, 1978) was a French poet and politician. He was one of the founders of the Négritude movement. He also used the pseudonym Lionel Georges André Cabassou.
Biography
Léon Damas was born in Ca ...
of
French Guiana
French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...
. The intellectuals disavowed colonialism and argued for the importance of a
Pan-African
Pan-Africanism is a nationalist movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the Trans-Sa ...
racial identity worldwide. Writers generally used a realist literary style and often used Marxist rhetoric reshaped to the black radical tradition.
Blacks from the US made a dramatic impact by introducing New Orleans-style
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
. American music had a major impact since the avant-garde welcomed what they called "wild sound" of rhythmic explosions that unleashed gyrations upon the dance floor. However, white French musicians based in dance halls softened the harsh and shocking US style and made it very popular.
Chinese Work-Study Program
Between 1908 and 1927, poor Chinese citizens could "pay" for studies in France by supplying manual labor in factories. Several prominent Chinese figures would acquire French language ability and familiarity with French culture through this program, notably future Premier
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
and Paramount Leader
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
.
Foreign policy
French foreign and security policy after 1919 used traditional alliance strategies to weaken the German potential to threaten France and to force the Germans devised by France in the strict Treaty of Versailles. The main diplomatic strategy came after the French army demanded the formations of alliances against Germany. After resistance, Germany finally complied, aided by American money, and France took a more conciliatory policy by 1924 in response to pressure from Britain and the United States and the French realization that its potential allies in Eastern Europe were weak and unwilling to co-ordinate.
Establishing military alliances with the United States or Britain proved to be impossible and one with the Soviets in 1935 was politically suspect and was not implemented.
The alliances with Poland and Czechoslovakia proved to be weak ties and collapsed in the face of German threats in 1938 in 1939.
1920s
France was part of the Allied force that
occupied the Rhineland following the armistice. Foch supported Poland in the
Greater Poland Uprising and in the
Polish–Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution.
After the collapse ...
and France also joined Spain during the
Rif War
The Rif War (, , ) was an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain (joined by France in 1924) and the Berber tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco.
Led by Abd el-Krim, the Riffians at first inflicted several ...
. From 1925 until his death in 1932,
Aristide Briand
Aristide Pierre Henri Briand (; 28 March 18627 March 1932) was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliat ...
, as prime minister during five short intervals, directed French foreign policy by using his diplomatic skills and sense of timing to forge friendly relations with
Weimar Germany
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
as the basis of a genuine peace within the framework of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
. He realised France could not contain the much larger Germany by itself or secure effective support from Britain or the League.
In January 1923, in response to Germany's failure to ship enough coal as part of its reparations, France and Belgium
occupied the industrial region of the
Ruhr
The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...
. Germany responded with passive resistance and supported the idled workers by printing additional money, spurring the onset of
hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real versus nominal value (economics), real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimiz ...
. It heavily damaged the German middle class, whose savings became worthless, and also damaged the French franc. The intervention was a failure, and in the summer of 1924, France accepted an international solution to the reparations issues, as expressed in the
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan temporarily resolved the issue of the reparations that Germany owed to the Allies of World War I. Enacted in 1924, it ended the crisis in European diplomacy that occurred after French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr in re ...
. It set up a staggered schedule for Germany's payment of war reparations, provided for a large loan to stabilize the German currency and ended the occupation of the Ruhr. With the help of loans from foreign banks, most of them American, Germany was then able to meet its reparations payments under the new schedule.
The United States demanded repayment of the war loans although the terms were slightly softened in 1926. All loans, payments and reparations were suspended in 1931, and everything was finally resolved in 1951.
In the 1930s, France built the
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line (; ), named after the Minister of War (France), French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by French Third Republic, France in the 1930s to deter invas ...
, an elaborate system of static border defences that was designed to stop any German invasion. However, it did not extend into Belgium, and Germany attacked there in 1940 and went around the French defenses. Military alliances were signed with weak powers in 1920–21, called the "
Little Entente
The Little Entente was an alliance formed in 1920 and 1921 by Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia from 1929 on) with the purpose of common defense against Hungarian revisionism and the prospect of ...
".
Politics
Parties
The
Republican-Radical and Radical-Socialist Party, usually called the Radical Party, (1901–1940), was the 20th-century version of the radical political movement founded by
Leon Gambetta in the 1870s. It attracted 20–25% of deputies elected in the interwar years and had a middle-class base. The "radicalism" meant opposition to royalism and support for anticlerical measures to weaken the role of Catholic Church in education and supported its disestablishment. Its program was otherwise vaguely in favor of liberty, social progress, and peace, and its structure was always much thinner than rival parties on the right (such as the
Democratic Republican Alliance
The Democratic Alliance (, AD), originally called Democratic Republican Alliance (, ARD), was a French political party created in 1901 by followers of Léon Gambetta such as Raymond Poincaré, who would be president of the Council in the 1920s. ...
) and the left (socialists and communists). Party organizations at the departmental level were largely independent of Paris. National conventions were attended by only a third of the delegates, and there was no official party newspaper.
It split into moderate and leftist wings, represented respectively by
Édouard Herriot
Édouard Marie Herriot (; 5 July 1872 – 26 March 1957) was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister (1924–1925; 1926; 1932) and twice as President of the Chamber of Deputies. He led the f ...
(1872–1957) and
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical Party (France), Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, who was the Prime Minister of France in 1933, 1934 and again from 1938 to 1940. he signed the Munich Agreeme ...
(1884–1970). "Socialist" in its title was misleading, and the party had little support among workers or labor unions. Its middle position made it a frequent partner in coalition governments, and its leaders increasingly focused on holding office and providing patronage to their followers. Other major leaders included
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who was Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A physician turned journalist, he played a central role in the poli ...
(1841–1929),
Joseph Caillaux (1863–1944), and
Aristide Briand
Aristide Pierre Henri Briand (; 28 March 18627 March 1932) was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliat ...
(1862–1932).
1920s
Domestic politics in the 1920s were a product of unresolved problems left by the war and peace, especially the economics of reconstruction and how to make Germany pay for it all. The great planners were
Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré (; 20 August 1860 – 15 October 1934) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France. He was a conservative leader, primarily committed to ...
,
Alexandre Millerand
Alexandre Millerand (; – ) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1920 to 1924, having previously served as Prime Minister of France earlier in 1920. His participation in Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet at the start of the ...
and
Aristide Briand
Aristide Pierre Henri Briand (; 28 March 18627 March 1932) was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliat ...
. France had paid for the war with very heavy borrowing at home and from Britain and the United States. Heavy inflation resulted, and in 1922, Poincaré became prime minister. He justified his strong anti-German policies:
:Germany's population was increasing, her industries were intact, she had no factories to reconstruct, she had no flooded mines. Her resources were intact, above and below ground.... in fifteen or twenty years Germany would be mistress of Europe. In front of her would be France with a population scarcely increased.
Poincaré used German reparations to maintain the franc at a tenth of its prewar value and to pay for the reconstruction of the devastated areas. Since Germany refused to pay nearly as much as Paris demanded, Poincaré reluctantly sent the French army to
occupy the Ruhr industrial area (1922) to force a showdown. The British strongly objected, arguing that it "would only impair German recovery, topple the German government,
ndlead to internal anarchy and Bolshevism, without achieving the financial goals of the French."
The Germans practiced passive resistance by flooding the economy with paper money that damaged both the German and French economies. The standoff was solved by American dollars in the
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan temporarily resolved the issue of the reparations that Germany owed to the Allies of World War I. Enacted in 1924, it ended the crisis in European diplomacy that occurred after French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr in re ...
. New York banks lent money to Germany for reparations to France, which then used the same dollars to repay the Americans. Throughout the early postwar period, Poincaré's political base was the conservative nationalist parliament elected in 1920. However, at the next election (1924), a coalition of Radical Socialists and Socialists called the "
Cartel des gauches" ("Cartel of the Lefts") won a majority, and Herriot of the
Radical Socialist Party became prime minister. He was disillusioned by the imperialist thrust of the Versailles Treaty, and sought a stable international peace in rapprochement with the Soviet Union to block the rising German revanchist movement, especially after Hitler's rise in January 1933.
1930s
Conservatism and fascism
The two major far-right parties were the
French Social Party (Parti social français, PSF), originally the Fiery Cross (Croix de feu) and the
French Popular Party (Parti populaire français, PPF). The PSF was much larger, reaching as many as a million members, and grew increasingly conservative. The PPF was much smaller, with perhaps 50,000 members, and became more fascist. The chief impact for both movements was to bring together their enemies on the left and center into the Popular Front.
The Croix de Feu was originally an elite veterans' organization that
François de La Rocque
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter
* François-Marie Arouet (better known as Voltaire; ...
took over in 1929 and made a political movement. The Croix-de-Feu was dissolved in June 1936 by the Popular Front government, and de La Rocque quickly formed the new Parti social français. Both organizations were authoritarian and conservative, hostile to democracy and devoted to the defence of property, the family, and the nation against the threat of decay or leftist revolution. The motto of PSF was "
travail, famille, patrie
''Travail, famille, patrie'' was the tripartite motto of Vichy France during World War II. It had replaced the republican motto ''Liberté, égalité, fraternité'' of the Third French Republic.
Institution
The Law of 10 July 1940 gave Mars ...
" ("work, family, fatherland"). Its base was in urban areas, especially Paris, the industrial North, and Algeria. Most members were young (born after 1890) and middle-class, and it had few blue collar or farm workers. The PSF grew rapidly in the late 1930s, with more members than the communists and socialists combined. It reached out to include more workers and rural elements. De La Rocque was a charismatic leader but a poor politician with vague ideas. His movement opposed the far-right Vichy regime and its leaders were arrested and the PSF vanished.
It was never invited to join a governing coalition. Whether or not it was "fascist" is debated by scholars. Many resemblances existed but not the key fascist promise of the creation of a revolutionary "new fascist man". Instead, its goal was to return to the past and to rely upon the old traditional values of Church and Army.
Non-conformists of the 1930s
The non-conformists of the 1930s were intellectuals seeking new solutions to face the political, economic and social crisis. The movement revolved around
Emmanuel Mounier
Emmanuel Mounier (; ; 1 April 1905 – 22 March 1950) was a French philosopher, Catholic theologian, teacher and essayist.
Biography
Mounier was the guiding spirit in the French personalist movement, and founder and director of '' Esprit'', the ...
's
personalism
Personalism is an intellectual stance that emphasizes the importance of human persons. Personalism exists in many different versions, and this makes it somewhat difficult to define as a philosophical and theological movement. Friedrich Schleie ...
. They attempted to find a "third (
communitarian
Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based on the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely molded by community relation ...
) alternative" between socialism and capitalism and opposed both liberalism and fascism.
Three main currents were active:
*The review ''
Esprit'', founded in 1931 by Mounier and was the main mouthpiece of personalism.
*The ''Ordre nouveau'' (New Order) group, created by
Alexandre Marc and influenced by
Robert Aron
Robert Aron (; ; 25 May 1898 – 19 April 1975) was a French historian and writer who wrote several books on politics and European history.
Early life and career
Robert Aron was born in Le Vésinet on 25 May 1898 to an upper-class Jewish family f ...
and
Arnaud Dandieu's works.
Jean Coutrot became during the Popular Front vice-president of the Committee of Scientific Organisation of Labour of the Minister
Charles Spinasse and participated in the technical reunions of ''Ordre nouveau''.
*The ''Jeune Droite'' ("Young Right") gathered young intellectuals who had broken with the far-right ''
Action Française
''Action Française'' (, AF; ) is a French far-right monarchist and nationalist political movement. The name was also given to a journal associated with the movement, '' L'Action Française'', sold by its own youth organization, the Camelot ...
'', including
Jean de Fabrègues,
Jean-Pierre Maxence
Jean-Pierre Maxence (20 August 1906 – 16 May 1956) was a French writer who was one of the so-called Non-conformists of the 1930s. Maxence was a leading figure within the so-called ''Jeune Droite'' tendency and was associated with other Catholic ...
,
Thierry Maulnier
Thierry Maulnier (born Jacques Talagrand; 1 October 1909 – 9 January 1988) was a French journalist, essayist, dramatist, and literary critic who was born in Alès and died in Marnes-la-Coquette. He was married to theatre director Marcelle ...
, and
Maurice Blanchot
Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...
.
The young intellectuals (most were about 25 years old) all considered that France was confronted by a "civilisation crisis" and, despite their differences, opposed what Mounier called the "established disorder" (''le désordre établi''); he meant capitalism, individualism, economic liberalism and materialism. They aimed at creating the conditions of a "spiritual revolution" that would simultaneously transform Man and things. They called for a "New Order", which would be beyond individualism and collectivism and oriented towards a "federalist", "communautary and personalist" organisation of social relations.
The non-conformists were influenced both by socialism, in particular by
Proudhonism and by
Social Catholicism, which permeated ''Esprit'' and the ''Jeune Droite''. They inherited from both currents a form of scepticism towards politics, which explains some stances towards
anti-statism
Anti-statism is an approach to social, economic or political philosophy that opposes the influence of the state over society. It emerged in reaction to the formation of modern sovereign states, which anti-statists considered to work against the ...
and renewed interest in social and economical transformations. The movement paid attention to
civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.[Bertrand de Jouvenel
Bertrand de Jouvenel des Ursins (; 31 October 1903 – 1 March 1987) was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist. He taught at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of Manchester, Yale University, ...]
made the link between the non-conformists and the supporters of ''
planisme'', a new economical theory invented by the Belgian
Henri de Man as well as with the
technocratic
Technocracy is a form of government in which decision-makers appoint knowledge experts in specific domains to provide them with advice and guidance in various areas of their policy-making responsibilities. Technocracy follows largely in the tra ...
''
Groupe X-Crise''. They influenced both Vichy's ''
Révolution nationale
The ''Révolution nationale'' (, ''National Revolution'') was the official ideological program promoted by the Vichy regime (the “French State”) which had been established in July 1940 and led by Marshal Philippe Pétain. Pétain's regim ...
'' and the
Resistance (''
Combat
Combat (French language, French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent Conflict (process), conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (Hand-to-hand combat, not usin ...
'', ''
Défense de la France'',
Organisation civile et militaire etc.)
Popular Front: 1936–1937
As the Great Depression finally hit France hard in 1932, the popular mood became hostile. A series of cabinets were wholly ineffective, and anger at the mounting unemployment caused xenophobia, borders being closed and a startling growth in anti-Semitism. Distrust of the entire political system grew rapidly, especially during the dramatic
Stavisky Affair, a massive financial fraud that involving many deputies and top government officials. The promise of democracy seemed a failure in France and many other countries as they turned toward authoritarian rule, a trend that began by Lenin in Russia in 1918 and Mussolini in Italy in 1922 and continued in Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Baltic countries, the Balkans, Japan, Latin America and, most horrifying of all, by Hitler in Nazi Germany in January 1933. It now threatened France after the scandal's exposure brought huge mobs into the streets of Paris.
All night on
February 6 and 7, 1934, attacks took place against the police defending Parliament from physical assault, mostly by right-wing attackers. The police killed 15 demonstrators and halted their advance. Journalist
Alexander Werth argues:
:At that time the Croix de Feu, the Royalists, the Solidarité and the Jeunesses Patriotes had no more than a few thousand active members between them, and that they would have been incapable of a real armed uprising. What they reckoned on was the support of the Paris public as a whole; and the most that they could reasonably have aimed at was the resignation of the Daladier Government. When this happened, on February 7, Colonel de la Rocque announced that 'the first objective had been attained.'
The 6 February outrage shocked centrists and leftists, which had been feuding ceaselessly for decades. On February 12, a huge leftist counterdemonstration had communist workers spontaneously joined with the Radical Socialists and Socialists against what seemed to them to be a serious fascist threat. Centrists and leftists slowly began to assemble an unprecedented three-way coalition, with socialists being the largest party, followed by the Radicals and then the
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
. Stalin had recently ordered that all Communist Parties should stop fighting the socialists and combine to form an antifascist popular front, which was carried out in France. The communists supported the government but refused to take any cabinet seats.
The 3 May
1936 French legislative election confirmed the political upheaval. Conservative forces were decimated, and the socialist
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister of France. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of socialist l ...
, who led the largest coalition party,
SFIO
The C programming language provides many standard library functions for file input and output. These functions make up the bulk of the C standard library header . The functionality descends from a "portable I/O package" written by Mike Lesk at ...
, became the prime minister. A massive wave of strikes occurred in which 2 million workers shut down French industry and paralyzed the forces of business and conservatism. That inspired the coalition government to pass hurriedly multiple packages of new programs designed for the benefit of the working class.
The key provisions included immediate wage increases of 12 percent, general collective bargaining with unions, a 40-hour week, paid vacations, compulsory arbitration of labor disputes and the nationalisation of the Bank of France and some key munitions plants. The conservative opposition was dissolved, most notably the Croix de Feu, but it reorganised quickly as a political party.
The left had assumed such reforms would liberate the workers and also the entire economy, but the economy did not respond well. Prices rose, and inflation negated the wage increases and hurt the middle class by sharply cutting into their savings accounts. Industrial production did not increase, and militant workers made sure that even if demand was very strong, factories would shut down after 40 hours. Unemployment remained high, the government deficit soared and the government was forced to devalue the franc.
Blum had never been accustomed to working with coalition partners, and his coalition started coming apart until it completely collapsed in June 1937, after only 380 days in office. Despite strong working class support for the Popular Front, there was strong middle class opposition.
Appeasement and war: 1938–1939
Appeasement was increasingly adopted as Germany grew stronger after 1933 since France suffered a stagnant economy, unrest in its colonies and bitter internal political fighting. Martin Thomas believed that appeasement was neither a coherent diplomatic strategy nor a copy of British policy. France appeased Italy over Ethiopia for fear of an alliance between Italy and Germany.
When Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, an area of Germany in which no troops were allowed, neither Paris nor London risked war and so nothing was done.
The Blum government joined Britain in establishing an arms embargo during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
(1936–39). Blum rejected support for the Spanish Republicans because his opponents threatened to spread the civil war to the deeply-divided France. As the Republicans faltered in Spain, Blum secretly supplied the cause with arms, funds and sanctuaries. Financial support and military co-operation with Poland also occurred. The government nationalized arms suppliers and dramatically increased its program of rearming the French military in a last-minute catch up with the Germans.
France sought peace, even in the face of Hitler's escalating demands, by appeasing Germany, in co-operation with Britain.
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical Party (France), Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, who was the Prime Minister of France in 1933, 1934 and again from 1938 to 1940. he signed the Munich Agreeme ...
refused to go to war against Germany and Italy without British support when
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...
tried to save peace through the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...
in 1938. France's military alliance with Czechoslovakia was sacrificed at Hitler's demand when France and Britain agreed to his terms at Munich.
Overseas empire

French census statistics from 1931 show an imperial population, outside of France itself, of 64.3 million people living on 11.9 million square kilometres. Of the total population, 39.1 million lived in Africa, 24.5 million lived in Asia and 700,000 lived in the Caribbeans or islands in the South Pacific. The largest colonies were Indochina with 21.5 million (in five separate colonies), Algeria with 6.6 million, Morocco with 5.4 million and West Africa with 14.6 million in nine colonies. The total included 1.9 million Europeans and 350,000 "assimilated" natives.
A hallmark of the French colonial project from the late 19th century until the Second World war was the
civilising mission
The civilizing mission (; ; ) is a political rationale for military intervention and for colonization purporting to facilitate the cultural assimilation of indigenous peoples, especially in the period from the 15th to the 20th centuries. As ...
(''mission civilisatrice''). Its principle was that it was France's duty to bring civilisation to benighted peoples. As such, colonial officials undertook a policy of Franco-Europeanisation in French colonies, most notably
French West Africa
French West Africa (, ) was a federation of eight French colonial empires#Second French colonial empire, French colonial territories in West Africa: Colonial Mauritania, Mauritania, French Senegal, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guin ...
and
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
.
Catholicism was a major factor in the civilising mission, and many missionaries were sent and often operated schools and hospitals. During the 19th century, French citizenship, along with the right to elect a deputy to the French Chamber of Deputies, was granted to the four old colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyanne, and Réunion as well as to the residents of the "
Four Communes" in Senegal. Typically, the elected deputies were white Frenchmen, but there were some blacks, such as the Senegalese
Blaise Diagne, who was elected in 1914.
[Spencer Segalla, ''The Moroccan Soul: French Education, Colonial Ethnology, and Muslim Resistance, 1912–1956''. 2009)] Elsewhere, in the largest and most populous colonies, a strict separation between "sujets français" (natives) and "citoyens français" (males of European extraction), with different rights and duties, was maintained until 1946.
French colonial law held that the granting of French citizenship to natives was a privilege, not a right. Two 1912 decrees dealing with French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa enumerated the conditions that a native had to meet to be granted French citizenship (they included speaking and writing French, earning a decent living and displaying good moral standards). For the 116 years from 1830 to 1946, only between 3000 and 6000 native Algerians were granted French citizenship. Well under 10 percent of the Algerian population was of European descent, and there were more Spanish and Italians than those who migrated from Metropolitan France. The Europeans controlled virtually the entire Algerian economy and political system, and few Muslims progressed out of poverty. In French West Africa, outside of the Four Communes, there were 2,500 "citoyens indigènes" out of a total population of 15 million.
French conservatives had been denouncing the assimilationist policies as products of a dangerous liberal fantasy. In the Protectorate of Morocco, the French administration attempted to use urban planning and colonial education to prevent cultural mixing and to uphold the traditional society upon which the French depended for collaboration but with only mixed results. After the Second World War, the segregationist approach modeled in Morocco had been discredited by its connections to Vichyism, and assimilationism enjoyed a brief renaissance.
Critics of French colonialism gained an international audience in the 1920s and often used documentary reportage and access to agencies such as the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
and the
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...
to make their protests heard. The main criticism was the high level of violence and suffering among the natives. Major critics included
Albert Londres
Albert Londres (1 November 1884 – 16 May 1932) was a French journalist and writer. One of the inventors of investigative journalism, Londres not only reported news but created it, and reported it from a personal perspective. He criticized abu ...
,
Félicien Challaye
Félicien Robert Challaye (1 November 1875 – 26 April 1967) was a French philosopher, anti-colonialist and human rights activist.
Early life
Félicien Challaye was born on 1 November 1875 in Lyon, France. He earned the agrégation in Philosop ...
, and
Paul Monet, whose books and articles were widely read.
[J.P. Daughton, "Behind the Imperial Curtain: International Humanitarian Efforts and the Critique of French Colonialism in the Interwar Years", ''French Historical Studies'', (2011) 34#3 pp. 503–28]
See also
*
French Third Republic#Interwar period
*
1919 in France
*
1920 in France
Events from the year 1920 in France.
Incumbents
*President:
** until 18 February: Raymond Poincaré
** 18 February – 21 September: Paul Deschanel
** starting 21 September: Alexandre Millerand
*President of the Council of Ministers:
** un ...
*
1921 in France
*
1922 in France
*
1923 in France
*
1924 in France
*
1925 in France
Events from the year 1925 in France.
Incumbents
*President of France, President: Gaston Doumergue
*Prime Minister of France, President of the Council of Ministers:
** until 17 April: Édouard Herriot
** 17 April-28 November: Paul Painlevé
* ...
*
1926 in France
*
1927 in France
Events from the year 1927 in France.
Incumbents
*President of France, President: Gaston Doumergue
*Prime Minister of France, President of the Council of Ministers: Raymond Poincaré
Events
*20 May–21 May – First solo non-stop Trans-Atlan ...
*
1928 in France
Events from the year 1928 in France.
Incumbents
*President: Gaston Doumergue
*President of the Council of Ministers: Raymond Poincaré
Events
*22 April – Legislative Election held.
*29 April – Legislative Election held.
*7 July – The ...
*
1929 in France
Events from the year 1929 in France.
Incumbents
*President: Gaston Doumergue
*President of the Council of Ministers:
** until 29 July: Raymond Poincaré
** 29 July-2 November: Aristide Briand
** starting 2 November: André Tardieu
Events
*2 ...
*
1930 in France
Events from the year 1930 in France.
Incumbents
* President: Gaston Doumergue
*President of the Council of Ministers:
** until 21 February: André Tardieu
** 21 February-2 March: Camille Chautemps
** 2 March-13 December: André Tardieu
** ...
*
1931 in France
Events from the year 1931 in France.
Incumbents
*President of France, President: Gaston Doumergue (until 13 June), Paul Doumer (starting 13 June)
*Prime Minister of France, President of the Council of Ministers: Theodore Steeg (until 27 Januar ...
*
1932 in France
Events from the year 1932 in France.
Incumbents
*President of France, President: Paul Doumer (until 7 May), Albert Lebrun (starting 10 May)
*Prime Minister of France, President of the Council of Ministers:
** until 20 February: Pierre Laval
...
*
1933 in France
*
1934 in France
*
1935 in France
Events from the year 1935 in France.
Incumbents
*President: Albert Lebrun
*President of the Council of Ministers:
** until 1 June: Pierre-Étienne Flandin
** 1 June-7 June: Fernand Bouisson
** starting 7 June: Pierre Laval
Events
*January ...
*
1936 in France
*
1937 in France
Events from the year 1937 in France.
Incumbents
*President of France, President: Albert Lebrun
*Prime Minister of France, President of the Council of Ministers: Léon Blum (until 22 June), Camille Chautemps (starting 22 June)
Events
*April � ...
*
1938 in France
Events from the year 1938 in France.
Incumbents
*President: Albert Lebrun
*President of the Council of Ministers:
** until 13 March: Camille Chautemps
** 13 March-10 April: Léon Blum
** starting 10 April: Édouard Daladier
Events
*1 Jan ...
*
1939 in France
*
Interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
, worldwide
*
Interwar Britain
In the United Kingdom, the interwar period (1918–1939) entered a period of relative stability after the Partition of Ireland, although it was also characterised by economic stagnation. In politics, the Liberal Party collapsed and the Labo ...
Notes
Further reading
* Bell, David, et al. ''A Biographical Dictionary of French Political Leaders since 1870'' (1990)
* Bernard, Philippe, and Henri Dubief. ''The Decline of the Third Republic, 1914–1938'' (1988
excerpt and text search by French scholars
* Brogan, D. W ''The development of modern France (1870–1939)'' (1953
online* Bury, J. P. T. ''France, 1814–1940'' (2003) ch. 9–16
* Fortescue, William. ''The Third Republic in France, 1870–1940: Conflicts and Continuities'' (2000
excerpt and text search* Hutton, Patrick H., ed. ''Historical Dictionary of the Third French Republic, 1870–1940'' (Greenwood, 1986
online edition* Larkin, Maurice. ''France since the Popular Front: Government and People, 1936–1986'' (Oxford UP, 1988
online free to borrow*
Shirer, William L. ''The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France'', (1969
excerpt* Thomson, David. ''Democracy in France: The Third Republic'' (1952
online
* Wolf, John B. ''France: 1815 to the Present'' (1940
online freepp. 349–501.
* Wright, Gordon. ''France in Modern Times'' (5th ed. 1995) pp. 221–382
Scholarly studies
* Adamthwaite, Anthony. ''Grandeur and Misery: France's Bid for Power in Europe 1914–1940'' (1995
excerpt and text search* Copley, A. R. H. ''Sexual Moralities in France, 1780–1980: New Ideas on the Family, Divorce and Homosexuality'' (1992)
* Davis, Richard. ''Anglo-French relations before the Second World War: appeasement and crisis'' (Springer, 2001).
* Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste. ''France and the Nazi Threat: The Collapse of French Diplomacy 1932–1939'' (2004); Translation of his highly influential ''La décadence, 1932–1939'' (1979)
* Hansen, Arlen J. ''Expatriate Paris: A Cultural and Literary Guide to Paris of the 1920s'' (1920)
* Irvine, William D. ''French Conservatism in Crisis: The Republican Federation of France in the 1930s'' (1979).
* Jackson, Julian. ''The Politics of Depression in France 1932–1936'' (2002
excerpt and text search* Jackson, Julian. ''The Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy, 1934-38'' (1990).
* Kennedy, Sean. ''Reconciling France Against Democracy: the Croix de feu and the Parti social français, 1927–1945'' (McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, 2007)
* Kreuzer, Marcus. ''Institutions and Innovation: Voters, Parties, and Interest Groups in the Consolidation of Democracy—France and Germany, 1870–1939'' (U. of Michigan Press, 2001)
* Larmour, Peter J. ''The French Radical Party in the 1930s'' (1964).
* MacMillan, Margaret. ''Paris 1919: six months that changed the world'' (2007). The peace conference.
* McAuliffe, Mary. ''When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends'' (2016
excerpt*
* Millington, Chris. "Political Violence in Interwar France." ''History Compass'' 10.3 (2012): 246–259.
* Millington, Chris. 2014. “Revolution Nationale.” ''History Today'' 64 (3): 38–45. on Right-wing politics 1930–1944.
* Nere, J. ''Foreign Policy of France 1914–45'' (2010)
* Passmore, Kevin. "The French Third Republic: Stalemate Society or Cradle of Fascism?" ''French History'' (1993) 7#4 417–449 doi=10.1093/fh/7.4.417
* Quinn, Frederick. ''The French Overseas Empire'' (2001).
* Reynolds, Siân. ''France between the Wars: Gender and Politics'' (1996)
Online* Weber, Eugen. ''The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s'' (1996)
* Werth, Alexander and D. W. Brogan. ''The Twilight of France, 1933-1940'' (1942
Online* Williams, Stuart. ''Socialism in France: from Jaurès to Mitterrand'' (1983)
ree to borrow* Zeldin, Theodore. ''France: 1848–1945: Politics and Anger; Anxiety and Hypocrisy; Taste and Corruption; Intellect and Pride; Ambition and Love'' (2 vol 1979), topical history
Historiography
* Cairns, John C. "Some Recent Historians and the 'Strange Defeat' of 1940" ''Journal of Modern History'' 46#1 (1974), pp. 60–8
online* Jackson, Peter. "Post-War Politics and the Historiography of French Strategy and Diplomacy Before the Second World War." ''History Compass'' 4.5 (2006): 870–905.
{{France topics
1920s in France
1930s in France