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The Collapse Of The Third Republic
''The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940'' by William L. Shirer (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1969) deals with the collapse of the French Third Republic as a result of Hitler's invasion during World War II. Prewar As a CBS correspondent in Germany during the climactic events under discussion and as a frequent visitor to and correspondent from prewar France, Shirer was left to question how Germany had overrun France within weeks in 1940. Both countries had fought each other for four years in 1914-1918, with France successfully resisting Germany at every turn of battle along the Western Front during World War I. Shirer, who knew French, did much of his own research for his 1969 book by speaking with surviving politicians and French leaders from the immediate prewar period as well as those who were on duty during the final catastrophe. His conclusion was that France's defeat had been self-inflicted. Unhealed wounds in its civil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Shirer
William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian. His '' The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany, has been read by many and cited in scholarly works for more than 60 years; its 50th anniversary was marked by a new edition of the book. As a young man just out of college, in 1925 Shirer was hired by the ''Chicago Tribune'' and later worked for the International News Service; he was the first reporter hired by Edward R. Murrow for what became a CBS radio team of journalists known as " Murrow's Boys". He became well known for his broadcasts from Berlin, from the rise of the Nazi dictatorship through the first year of World War II. Together with Murrow, on Sunday, March 13, 1938, he organized the first broadcast world news roundup, a format still followed by news broadcasts. Shirer published 14 books besides ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', including '' Berlin Diary' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 (1938–1945), German annexation of part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland, where 3 million people, mainly Sudeten Germans, ethnic Germans, lived. The pact is known in some areas as the Munich Betrayal (; ), because of a previous 1924 alliance agreement and a 1925 military pact between France and the Czechoslovak Republic. Germany had started a Sudetendeutsches Freikorps#Undeclared German–Czechoslovak War, low-intensity undeclared war on Czechoslovakia on 17 September 1938. In reaction, Britain and France on 20 September formally requested Czechoslovakia cede the Sudetenland territory to Germany. This was followed by Polish and Hungarian territorial demands brought on 21 and 22 September, respectively. Meanwhile, German forces conquered part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liberation Of France
The liberation of France () in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance. Nazi Germany invaded France in May 1940. Their rapid advance through the almost undefended Ardennes caused a crisis in the French government; the French Third Republic dissolved itself in July, and handed over absolute power to Marshal Philippe Pétain, an elderly hero of World War I. Pétain signed an armistice with Germany with the north and west of France under German military occupation. Pétain, charged with calling a Constitutional Authority, instead established an authoritarian government in the spa town of Vichy, in the southern ''zone libre'' ("free zone"). Though nominally independent, Vichy France became a collaborationist regime and was little more than a Nazi client state that actively participated in Jewish deportations and aided German ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French State
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against Germany. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy. Officially independent, but with half of its territory occupied under the harsh terms of the 1940 armistice with Nazi Germany, it adopted a policy of collaboration. Though Paris was nominally its capital, the government established itself in Vichy in the unoccupied "free zone" (). The occupation of France by Germany at first affected only the northern and western portions of the country. In November 1942, the Allies occupied French North Africa, and in response the Germans and Italians occupied the entirety of Metropolitan France, ending any pretence of independence by the Vichy government. On 10 May 1940, France was invaded by Nazi Germany. Paul Reynaud resign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vichy
Vichy (, ; ) is a city in the central French department of Allier. Located on the Allier river, it is a major spa and resort town and during World War II was the capital of Vichy France. As of 2021, Vichy has a population of 25,789. Known for its mineral springs since the Roman times, Vichy had become a major destination for the French nobility and the wealthy by the late 18th century. The town developed further under the patronage of Napoleon III. Following the 1940 armistice, the pro-German collaborationist government headed by Philippe Pétain was set up at Vichy, which remained the de facto capital of the French rump state for the next four years. After the war, the city experienced a period of great prosperity but went into decline from the 1960s. In 2021, the town became part of the transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name " Great Spa Towns of Europe" because of its famous baths and its architectural testimony to the popularity of spa towns in Europe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, fourth-most populous city in the European Union and the List of cities proper by population density, 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2022. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, culture, Fashion capital, fashion, and gastronomy. Because of its leading role in the French art, arts and Science and technology in France, sciences and its early adoption of extensive street lighting, Paris became known as the City of Light in the 19th century. The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-France region, or Paris Region, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 inhabitants in January 2023, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Parliament
The French Parliament (, ) is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of the French Fifth Republic, consisting of the Senate (France), Senate (), and the National Assembly (France), National Assembly (). Each assembly conducts legislative sessions at separate locations in Paris: the Senate meets in the Luxembourg Palace, Palais du Luxembourg, the National Assembly convenes at the Palais Bourbon, both on the Rive Gauche. Each house has its own regulations and rules of procedure. However, occasionally they may meet as a single house known as the Congress of the French Parliament (), convened at the Palace of Versailles, to revise and amend the Constitution of France. History and name The French Parliament, as a legislative body, should not be confused with the various parlements of the Ancien Régime in France, which were regional appeals courts with certain administrative functions varying from province to province and as to whether the local law was written and Roman, or cust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Order (political System)
“The New Order” () of Europe collectively refers to various political and social concepts Nazi Germany sought to impose on German-occupied Europe and beyond. Planning for the commenced prior to World War II, but Adolf Hitler first proclaimed a "European New Order" 30 January 1941. Among other things, the New Order followed an emergent Nazi vision for a pan-German racial state structured to the benefit of a perceived Aryan- Nordic master race, and drafted plans for German colonization into Central and Eastern Europe alongside the continued Holocaust of Jews, Roma, and other ethnicities deemed " unworthy of life". These plans intersected with the proposed extermination, expulsion or enslavement of most of the Slavic Peoples (especially Poles and Russians) and other " racially inferior" groups. Nazi Germany's aggressive desire for territorial expansion () ranks as a major cause of World War II. There remains historical contention on the ultimate scope involved with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Laval
Pierre Jean Marie Laval (; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic (France), Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vichy France. After the war, Laval was tried as a Vichy France#Collaboration with Nazi Germany, Nazi collaborator and executed for treason. A socialist early in his life, Laval became a lawyer in 1909 and was famous for his defence of strikers, trade unionists and leftists from government prosecution. In 1914, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies (France), Chamber of Deputies as a member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), and he remained committed to his pacifist convictions during the First World War. After his defeat in the 1919 election, Laval left the SFIO and became mayor of Aubervilliers. In 1924 he returned to the Chamber as an independent, and was elected to the Senate (France), Senate three years later. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Armistice At Compiègne
The Armistice of 22 June 1940, sometimes referred to as the Second Armistice at Compiègne, was an agreement signed at 18:36 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne, France by officials of Nazi Germany and the French Third Republic. It became effective at midnight on 25 June. Signatories for Germany included Wilhelm Keitel, a senior military officer of the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces), while those on the French side held lower ranks, including general Charles Huntziger. Following the decisive German victory in the Battle of France, the armistice established German military administration in occupied France during World War II, a German occupation zone in Northern and Western France that encompassed about three-fifths of Metropolitan France, France's European territory, including all English Channel and Atlantic Ocean ports. The remainder of the country was to be left unoccupied, although Vichy France, the new regime that replaced the Third Republic was mutually recognised as the l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, French Air and Space Force, and the National Gendarmerie. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Staff of the French Army (CEMAT), who is subordinate of the Chief of the Defence Staff (France), Chief of the Defence Staff (CEMA), who commands active service Army units and in turn is responsible to the President of France. CEMAT is also directly responsible to the Ministry of Armed Forces (France), Ministry of the Armed Forces for administration, preparation, and equipment. The French Army, following the French Revolution, has generally been composed of a mixed force of conscripts and professional volunteers. It is now considered a professional force, since the French Parliament suspended the Conscription in France, conscription of soldiers. Acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blitzkrieg
''Blitzkrieg'(Lightning/Flash Warfare)'' is a word used to describe a combined arms surprise attack, using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with artillery, air assault, and close air support. The intent is to break through an opponent's lines of defense, dislocate the defenders, confuse the enemy by making it difficult to respond to the continuously changing front, and defeat them in a decisive : a battle of annihilation. During the interwar period, aircraft and tank technologies matured and were combined with the systematic application of the traditional German tactic of (maneuver warfare), involving the deep penetrations and the bypassing of enemy strong points to encircle and destroy opposing forces in a (cauldron battle/battle of encirclement). During the invasion of Poland, Western journalists adopted the term ''blitzkrieg'' to describe that form of armored warfare. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
