How to make French/British interwar tensions increase to the point of war?

Okay, so what if the Great Coalition of the Weimar Republic remains in power as a safeguard against Nazi or Communist takeover of Germany? They were relatively peaceful towards French occupation of the Ruhr and successfully pushed them out, meanwhile the Labours in power in Britain saw Germany as a friend against an imperialistic France. Maybe this fosters relations that France doesn't like?

Yeah but Germany is an effectively neutered country. Strong and stable enough that nobody will want to try and swallow that porcupine but not strong enough to intervene on anyone's side, especially since they are stuck between France and Russia. Kind of like France in johnboy's "Errant Shell" scenario.
 
Yeah but Germany is an effectively neutered country. Strong and stable enough that nobody will want to try and swallow that porcupine but not strong enough to intervene on anyone's side, especially since they are stuck between France and Russia. Kind of like France in johnboy's "Errant Shell" scenario.

So just kind of like a rock in the way?

But surely Germany would respond with force to a French invasion group, no?
 
By the way, does anyone know why the National Bloc collapsed?

And @Zheng He, do you have any suggestions for colonial PODs that would create tension between British/French?
 
By the way, does anyone know why the National Bloc collapsed?

And @Zheng He, do you have any suggestions for colonial PODs that would create tension between British/French?

Here are a couple wild ones:

1. Militarist France's support to Franco gets the Fascists the win in the Spanish Civil War and now the French-Spanish Alliance threatens Gibraltar in a big way plus France and Spain making nice with Fascist Italy pretty much hangs out Malta out to dry and now Britain's position in the Western and Central Mediterranean is basically untenable.

2. Militarist France and Militarist Japan pressure Thailand to permit a joint French-Japanese canal project across the neck of Thailand (the British actually worked with the King of Siam in the late 19th Century to prevent the French from pursuing such a project). This of course threatens the British position in the Far East.

Like I said, a France-Italy-Japan Axis presents a very interesting problem set.
 
France going to either the extreme right or the extreme left in this period is very difficult to achieve - the French political system at the time very much favored the Radicals (who were actually quite conservative).

It's also pretty difficult to get a war between France and Britain - France knew Britain utterly outclassed her - that, and fear of German resurgence, was why French foreign policy had as its first priority keeping the Brits buttered up. To change that, you need either a PoD before WW1, the interwar period turning into a real Francewank (so that France IS actually strong enough that someone sufficiently stupid would not make concessions as soon as Britain got too grumpy), or you need someone really REALLY stupid to get absolute power in France.

And anyone getting absolute power in France during this period is getting very close to ASB.

The whole "France goes Fascist in the interwar period" is a common trope on here, but it makes zero sense when you look at how French politics worked both on a systematic level and on the level of what the groups with political power wanted and feared.

What is more easily achievable is for Britain to go Fascist, and for the glorious leader to decide that a quick glorious war with the Frogs for some colonial territory would be a good idea.

I think that is also highly unlikely however.

fasquardon
 
That's a great scenario!

Though I believe at that point France would lean towards a military dictatorship (Fourth Republic, maybe?) due to their infatuation of Eastern European unity against the hostile Soviet Union, not to mention the Germans, and it could work because French leadership always did want good relations with the other Mediterranean power.

We could even combine the scenarios presented by @Tallil2long as well as @Cryhavoc101, unless that would become simply too unbelievable.

For a military dictatorship to start in France before a huge defeat you need a coup that would start a civil war.

This results in drawing in the Soviet union and Fascist Italy and despite no clear winner Communist elements attempt to bring the 'revolution to Portugal' through force of arms expecting the people to rise up.

France helping any side of the SCW with it's full might will see the war over in less than a year.
 
If we can't get a Fascist regime in France, can we go the other route? France's economic straits and wartime trauma brings about a Socialist government, which then tries to establish control over the Ruhr and Rhineland partly out of Socialist sympathy, and partly out of historic security fears?

I should think that would push Britain's buttons.

Maybe it's a dumb idea, y'all can judge.
 
If we can't get a Fascist regime in France, can we go the other route? France's economic straits and wartime trauma brings about a Socialist government, which then tries to establish control over the Ruhr and Rhineland partly out of Socialist sympathy, and partly out of historic security fears?

I should think that would push Britain's buttons.

Maybe it's a dumb idea, y'all can judge.

Any real left wing government in France would be an alliance between the PCF and the SFIO (so impossible before 1936 for various reasons), both mostly pacifists parties. The PCF for example protested the occupation of the Ruhr. What you could see if there was a stronger left wing majority in the popular front (ie the popular front don't need the PRRRS (the Parti Radical, Republicain et Radical-Socialiste) would be an intervention in Spain to support the Republicans, which would probably cause trouble in France (though i doubt it would turn to a full blown civil war, most of the army of this era would probably obey the government), but while this could start a break in Franco-English relationship, it would not start a Franco-British war as the Brits were already wary of Hitler.

Incidently there is a Jour J comics that is mostly the scenario other have in mind : IIRC there is a far right coup in 1935, and the French air force bomb Stuttgart in 1936 when Hitler re militarize the Rhineland. Hitler falls and France become the dominant power in Europe (allied with Italy and Poland IIRC). The war start in 1942 between France and the UK over the death of St-Exupéry. But like most Jour J while the story is sometimes good, the AH behind it is often very weak.
 
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