Editing History of France (section)

=== Interwar years: Foreign policy and Great Depression ===
{{Further|Interwar France|Great Depression in France}}
[[File:French enter Essen.jpg|thumb|French cavalry entering [[Essen]] during the [[Occupation of the Ruhr]]]]
France was part of the Allied force that [[Occupation of the Rhineland|occupied the Rhineland]] following the Armistice. Foch supported Poland in the [[Greater Poland Uprising (1918–19)|Greater Poland Uprising]] and in the [[Polish–Soviet War]] and France also joined Spain during the [[Rif War (1920)|Rif War]]. From 1925 until his death in 1932, [[Aristide Briand]], as [[Prime Minister of France|Prime Minister]] during five short intervals, directed French foreign policy, using his diplomatic skills and sense of timing to forge friendly relations with [[Weimar Germany]] as the basis of a genuine peace within the framework of the [[League of Nations]]. He realized France could neither contain the much larger Germany by itself nor secure effective support from Britain or the League.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Eugen |title=The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s |date=1996 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-3933-1479-3 |page=125 |author-link=Eugen Weber}}</ref>

As a response to the Weimar Republic's default on its reparations in the aftermath of World War I, France [[Occupation of the Ruhr|occupied the industrial region]] of the [[Ruhr]] as a means of ensuring German payments. The intervention was a failure, and France accepted the international solution to the reparations issues, as expressed in the [[Dawes Plan]] and the [[Young Plan]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dawes Plan, the Young Plan, German Reparations, and Inter-allied War Debts |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/dawes |access-date=26 October 2023 |website=Dept. of State, Office of the Historian}}</ref>

Politically, the 1920s was dominated by the Right, with right-wing coalitions in 1919, 1926, and 1928, and later in 1934 and 1938.<ref>Coalition Governments in India Problems and Prospects Edited by Kotta P. Karunakaran, 1975, P.105</ref>

In the 1920s, France established an elaborate system of border defences called the [[Maginot Line]], designed to fight off any German attack. The Line did not extend into Belgium, which Germany would exploit in 1940. Military alliances were signed with weak powers in 1920–21, called the "[[Little Entente]]".

The [[Great Depression in France|Great Depression affected France]] a bit later than other countries, hitting around 1931.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laufenburger |first=Henry |date=1936 |title=France and the Depression |journal=International Affairs |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=202–224 |doi=10.2307/2601740 |jstor=2601740}}</ref> While the GDP in the 1920s grew at the very strong rate of 4.43% per year, the 1930s rate fell to only 0.63%.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dormois |first=Jean-Pierre |title=The French Economy in the Twentieth Century |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-5216-6092-1 |page=31 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511616969}}</ref> The depression was relatively mild: unemployment peaked under 5%, the fall in production was at most 20% below the 1929 output; there was no banking crisis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Beaudry |first1=Paul |last2=Portier |first2=Franck |date=2002 |title=The French Depression in the 1930s |journal=[[Review of Economic Dynamics]] |volume=5 |issue=73–99 |pages=73–99 |doi=10.1006/redy.2001.0143}}</ref>

In contrast to the mild economic upheaval, the political upheaval was enormous. Socialist [[Leon Blum]], leading the [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]], brought together Socialists and Radicals to become Prime Minister from 1936 to 1937; he was the first Jew and the first Socialist to lead France.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birnbaum |first=Pierre |title=Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist |date=2015 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-3002-1373-7 |author-link=Pierre Birnbaum}}</ref> The Communists in the [[Chamber of Deputies (France)|Chamber of Deputies]] voted to keep the government in power, and generally supported the government's economic policies, but rejected its foreign policies. The Popular Front passed numerous labor reforms, which increased wages, cut working hours to 40 hours with overtime illegal and provided many lesser benefits to the working class such as mandatory two-week paid vacations. However, renewed inflation cancelled the gains in wage rates, unemployment did not fall, and economic recovery was very slow. The Popular Front failed in economics, foreign policy, and long-term stability: "Disappointment and failure was the legacy of the Popular Front."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Julian |title=Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy 1934–1938 |date=1988 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5213-1252-3 |pages=172, 215, 278–287, quotation on page 287}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Douglas |date=1970 |title=Léon Blum and the Popular Front |journal=[[History Today]] |volume=55 |issue=184 |pages=199–206|doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1970.tb02493.x}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bernard |first1=Philippe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFLMJnHQaGwC&pg=PA328 |title=The Decline of the Third Republic, 1914–1938 |last2=Dubief |first2=Henri |date=1988 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5213-5854-5 |page=328}}</ref> At first the Popular Front created enormous excitement and expectations on the left—including very large scale sitdown strikes—but in the end it failed to live up to its promise. However, Socialists would later take inspiration from the attempts of the Popular Front to set up a welfare state.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wall |first=Irwin M. |date=1987 |title=Teaching the Popular Front |journal=History Teacher |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=361–378 |doi=10.2307/493125 |jstor=493125}}</ref>

The government joined Britain in establishing an arms embargo during the [[Spanish Civil War]] (1936–1939). Blum rejected support for the Spanish Republicans because of his fear that civil war might spread to deeply divided France. Financial support in military cooperation with Poland was also a policy. The government nationalized arms suppliers, and dramatically increased its program of rearming the French military in a last-minute catch-up with the Germans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Larkin |first=Maurice |title=France since the Popular Front: Government and People, 1936–1986 |date=1988 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-1987-3034-7 |pages=45–62}}</ref>

[[Appeasement]] of Germany, in cooperation with Britain, was the policy after 1936, as France sought peace even in the face of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s escalating demands. [[Prime Minister of France|Prime Minister]] [[Édouard Daladier]] refused to go to war against Germany and Italy without British support as [[Neville Chamberlain]] wanted to [[Munich Agreement|save peace at Munich]] in 1938.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJXqvBz3JHcC&pg=PA137 |title=Britain, France and Appeasement: Anglo-French Relations in the Popular Front Era |date=1996 |publisher=Berg Publishers |isbn=978-1-8597-3192-5 |page=137}}</ref>{{Sfnp|Larkin|1988|pp=63–81}}