France's Demands during the Two World Wars - Essay Example

Justifying Frances Demands during the Two World Wars Peace is the nature of human. Even a war is fought in the hope of attaining peace. War is accepted when the situation goes out of control. It expresses solidarity of a nation and helps release the emotion and the tension. When the First World War was accepted none of the countries realized that it would last for years nor did they anticipate the devastation that was left behind. The world knows that the name or the word ‘Adolf Hitler’ is synonymous with terror and the greatest impact of this ‘terror’ was felt by France. The Germans were ruthless and harsh. During both the wars they attacked France from fronts where she was undefended. They searched the French people in the newly occupied areas and forced the French coal miners to work under their supervision during the Second World War. The terror and atrocities prevailed all over. Sleepless nights, uncertainty of returning in the evening to one’s home, fear of separation any moment from the family, burning figures everywhere, unable to leave home without a gas mask, German soldiers walking into homes to rape women and cut off children’s arms, dead bodies strewn all over …this was the scene that existed during both the wars. The soldiers’ life became secluded in the trenches and food became sparse; medical help and sanitation declined. The troops living in the muddy, rat-infested trenches died due to diseases rather than attack of the enemies. Even then the fellow feeling and the attitude to share prevailed unlike the Germans where solidarity gave way to social unrest. The atrocities of the Germans on France were not limited to humans alone. They tormented and used the French circus elephants to haul timber as the Germans felled trees for trench props. During the war France lost vital iron ore and coal resources; territory was lost too. Women and children had to take over the farms and agriculture as 41% of the men mobilized for the war were peasants. This caused great losses in cattle and grains too. In the Second World War France lost about 25 % of its wealth and people compared to 10% in First World War. People were either missing or had died during the war. The battlefields were scarred by trenches and littered with dead bodies. France suffered the most as most of the fighting took place on her soil and she lost millions in the trench warfare. The devastation that was left behind after both the wars can move mountains, why just humans. The country was in ruins with much damage done to the historic buildings and monuments, including the Champs-Elysees, Place de la Concorde or even the Notre-Dame. The once beautiful city of Paris wore a subdued and forlorn look; the women still elegant but mournful. Flags of victory were little solace to the victims who were left limbless or to those who had lost the dear ones. The parks and the greenery, the flowers and the streams all whispered of the beauty that was. Trees were cut and windows bombed; rubble could be seen all over the place. The people were weary after the war which writ large on their faces. The prolonged war had left the nation crippled economically and socially; the nation was under the grip of domestic crisis. Strikes and protests marked the exhaustion which the war had left behind. What could be more distressing than to see soldiers in uniforms begging for change at street corners? All was not lost. A few flowers still bloomed, which while reminding of a gloomy past was a symbol of hope. Soft music conveyed the message of victory over Germany and of the new world that was to come. It was at this juncture that the leaders of the nations got together to find a solution in 1919. Were the demands of France unjustified against the damages that she was faced to cope with? Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau rightly said, “Yes, we have won the war and not without difficulty; but now we are going to have to win the peace, and that will perhaps be even more difficult”. In January 1919, the victorious powers after World War I, led by President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Premier Georges Clemenceau of France, and Britain’s Prime Minister Lloyd George began negotiations for what will later be known as the “Treaty of Versailles.” The main goal of the treaty is, at the very least, to ensure the stability of the international system after the war (Treaty of Versailles, Article 1). During negotiations, France insisted on the following demands: control over the left bank of the Rhine, the occupation and status of Saar under French control, the organization of the League of Nations to aid France in case of a German attack, reparations from Germany, and promised guarantees of French security, and the return of territories to France (Florinsky 1934: 335). All these demands had one goal in mind – to ensure France’s security against the German threat. In addition, variations of these demands were also echoed even after the Second War. Was France unjustified in her demands? France, of all the super powers had the most at stake in the German peace terms. Clemenceau wanted reparations from Germany to rebuild the “war-torn country”. With factories and houses severely damaged the demand was far from unjustified. With the coal mines flooded and the factories razed to the ground were the demands unjustified? Returning Alsace-Lorraine back to France, which had been captured by the Germans during the war in 1871, was it unjustified? The Germans had always taken France by surprise, so was Clemenceau unjustified when he demanded a demilitarization of the Rhineland in Germany? France demanded control of many of Germany’s factories as part of reparations. Was it unjustified when her own factories were ruthlessly razed to the ground? France justified its demands on the basis of economic reconstruction. With this in regard, France has demanded the payment of reparations from Germany to help alleviate France of her large loans from the United States. After the First World War, France was in a state of financial and economic crisis. Her national debt reached almost half of her national assets, her sources of fuel were either damaged or taken by Germany, and her colonial territories declined by 11% and were still continuously occupied by Germany (Bell 1946: 59). The demand for reparations is therefore not only justified, but also owed to France. “The greater the sanguinary catastrophe which devastated and ruined one of the richest regions of France, the more ample and more splendid should be the reparation - not merely the reparation for material acts, the ordinary reparation, if I may venture to say so, which is due to us - but the nobler and loftier reparation - we are going to try to secure, so that the peoples may at last escape from this fatal embrace, which, heaping up ruins and sorrows, terrorizes the populations and prevents them from devoting themselves freely to their work for fear of the enemies who may spring up at any moment’, were Clemenceau’s opening words at Versailles. The French allies felt Clemenceau was greedy in his demands simply because they had not experienced what France had undergone. They had not suffered what France had suffered. Today the war memorials in every city, town and village amply tell of the sufferings and the losses. France lost a higher percentage of population than any other country. Had the other leaders witnessed the damages that had left France crippled, they would have better understood the demands. France wanted revenge and compensation but security was the prime concern. Clemenceau realized that the support of the allies was very important at this point. France wanted to preserve her great empires and colonies and how was this going to be possible without the damages being made good? Punishment has to be borne for the wrong done and France was just demanding that. Yes, Clemenceau and her people did want to punish Germany but the underlying reason was the fear of threat and need for security. It was for this reason that the French Prime Minister demanded that naval blockades be created around Germany so that France could control the trade to and from Germany. They wanted to impose policies to ‘cripple Germany economically, politically and militarily’. The outbreak of the war was with a hope to have a better world with a new age of humanity. Post wars the scene was of great disappointment which left the society shattered, homeless and hopeless. There was an air of mourning instead of jubilation and celebrations. The Treaty of Versailles left the post war-world even further disheartened. Thus France’s demands under the two world wars - control over the left bank of the Rhine, aid for France in case of a German attack, reparations from Germany, and promised guarantees of French security are rightly justified. These justifications include: the reality of a German threat, at least from the point of view of France, the unfortunate experience of having its perceived allies back out on its obligations, the threat of a declining French population vis-à-vis Germany, the strength of Frenchmen’s public opinion, and the need for economic recovery. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I#Social_effects> Read More