DBWI: Why'd France fall to extremism and start WW2?

JJohnson

Banned
I'm in a study abroad at Straßburg University in Germany, just completing a field study taking me to Breslau, Posen, Danzig, Munich, Berlin, and Konigsberg, gathering some 'living history' - stories from the people, pictures and documents from the places where things really happened. It's part of my Master's thesis in 20th century Germany as to why Germany turned around after the first world war, and France fell to extremism. Anyone have any popular theories or people I could look up? And why'd France make the alliances it did? And should I include anything on Austria's two weird non-contiguous states of Böhmen and Sudetenland in there when I talk about Austria? Should I even include Austria in this paper? Maybe a contrast between Austria/Germany and how Austria struggled a bit more with its extremist parties than Germany? Many thanks in advance!
 

katchen

Banned
Well France DID have Georges Sorel, and Michels who acted as theoreticians, teaching extremists how to create myths, social trances and synarchy that would attract a mass following as well as how a foco of the most committed could control a political party. And naturally, the most committed ARE extremists.
And look into how Poincaire got France into the Great War simply to keep the scandal of his mistress from coming out. It was not difficult at all to cast Poincaire's mistress in the role of a double agent, even though theories vary as to whether she was an agent of Germany or Russia.
 
I think the roots lie in the Great War - With the treaties of Brest Litovsk and Bucharest the Central powers had knocked out their enemies in the East - and the south was still holding. At the same time Caporetto was also a full sucess - even leaving some bridgeheads over the Piave. - this bridgeheads convinced the German High Command that a third Entente nation COULD be knocked out before enough US troops would arrive in Italy and France to make a differece.

Change only a few minor details - the Caporetto/Piave offensive is a bit less sucessful, maybe retreat behind the Piave (and pressure is lifted off Italy, keeping them in the war). So the Germans transfer their troops not to the south but to the west where they do NOT have an overwhelming superiority in numbers. The war might not end in May 1918, but drag on another year or two.

So the Push to Bologna - despite knocking out Italy - taught the Germans a valuable lesson - that the Entente HAD supplies/reserves enough to survive a few more defeats on the battlefield - something that is not true for Germay nad its allies - the next major defeat would mean the end.

So despite military sucess the cooler heads in Germany - taking Wilhelm III - then Crown Prince and Rupprecht von Bayern as figureheads - managed to gain enough support to oust the OHL and make a peace offer to the Entente -which after the shock of loosing 3 allies in short order - did not see the real situation and accepted a cease fire and this led to the Geneva peace talks.

Once the guns fell silent the "western" democracies realized they were NOT losing (especially as the US was only beginning to make their weight feel). But they also realized that the "political" window of opportunity had closed. If THEY started hostilities again they might trigger a "minor revolution" at home.

Sure Germany had to moderate the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and accept the loss of most of its colonies, but the gains in the east (especially the Baltic Duchy) outweiged the reverses in the west. Russia was gone as a major power, so German no longer was in danger of being encircled. Germany and Austria had financed the war domestically while the entente borrowed in the US.

Eacjh mark paid back immediately went into German domestic consumption, While france (and Britain) repaid their loans too, but them money went west.

Thus the "lost Victories" myth in France and the American Vampire were making the soil fertile for nationalistic and xenophobic movements. The "american jewish banker" also was a sterotype that found easily entrance into the thought of the French.

While Britan (and Dominions) could claim to have reached their Goals (Colonies, Belgian sovereignity) France did NOT achieve its main goal (take Germany down a peg and get back Alsace-Lorraine).

But this development could easily be reversed if Germany did not use its last opportunity and is beaten militarily. Now Germany loses what it lost OTL and much more - maybe even having repaying UKs and Frances debt to the US.

And please don't include Austria (and the other CP members) - How Austria-Hungary fell is a totally different story - And Austrian/Hungarian enmity is still a couse of unrest today. The South East European Treaty Organisation (SEETO-Austria/Poland/Romania/Greater Croatia) almost forming a strangling ring around the Hungarian Czech Alliance - only the small Czech-German and Hungarian-Bulgarian borders break this ring.

Not surprising that Hungary became a willing French ally later.

And Italy? well despite losing the war they DID achieve their ends - Trentino and a border strip to Croatia along the Isonzo became Italian in 1924...
 
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