France in the Twentieth CenturyI. France in World War I 1914: Germany decla

France in the Twentieth Century
Good morning, everyone. Today we will continue our discussion about French history, particularly French history in the 20th Century. We may divide the 20th century portion of history into five periods: World War I, post-World War I, World War II, post-World War II, and after 1968.
First of all, France in World War I. In 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne,[1]the German Army declared war on France and quickly invaded. Drawn-out battles in hellish trenches led to devastating losses on both sides. The Allies, namely France, Britain and the United States, won the battle of Verdun, but 700,000 lives were lost.[2]The tide finally turned and the Germans surrendered in 1918, ceding the hotly-contested regions of Alsace and Lorraine back to France. But at what price? It is evidenced by the long lists of names recorded on solemn memorials in every French town.
Paris, on the other hand, emerged from the wreckage of World War I with its customary elan.[3]In the 1920’s, it was a gold mine of literary talent, brimming with British and American expatriates like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Henry Miller and Gertrude Stein. Marcel Proust defined the "coming of age novel" with his A la Recherche du temps perdu. Once again, this giddily optimistic period was short-lived.[4]The worldwide economic depression caught up with France in the early 1930’s.
Now, about France in World War II. In this period of time, ominous military build-up began in Germany and Italy.[5]The Germans reclaimed Alsace-Lorraine in 1936, and invaded Poland in 1939. Because Britain and France had treaties with Poland, they were forced to declare war on Germany. France was overconfident of its famed Maginot Line, a fortified wall stretching across Alsace-Lorraine; the Germans approached from Belgium, surrounded it and seized it handily. In 1940, the French Army collapsed, and Paris was taken without a fight. The country was divided into an occupied zone and an unoccupied zone, with its seat of government in Vichy. A famous World War I general, Henri Philippe Petain, was made leader, and the Vichy government was later judged to have collaborated with the Nazis. General Charles de Gaulle, the Under-secretary of State for National Defense, had fled to London.[6]He organized a government in exile to support the Free French in their resistance effort.[7]When the Allies landed in French North Africa in 1942, German troops marched into the unoccupied zone. Two long years later, the Allies finally got a foothold on the beaches of Normandy, June 6, 1944, and entered Paris in 1944. Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower very diplomatically allowed French troops to enter the city first, to riotous cheers, heartfelt embraces, and unashamed tears.
[8]Fourthly, about Post-War France. France’s position in 1945 was more tenuous than it had been for centuries. Its cities and architectural treasures had been bombed to bits by both the Germans and the Allies.[9]Its national pride was shattered by defeat and accusations of collaboration. In a world now dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union, where did France fit in? Immediately after the war, thousands of suspected collaborators were executed. Former colonies like Indochina and Algeria were deemed too troublesome and divested. Charles de Gaulle returned to power and urged France to "marry the century" and adapt to the modern world.[10]Alienating his wartime Allies—Britain, Russia and the U.S.—he urged Europeans to stick together and create a power bloc. French culture underwent yet another resurgence,[11]led by the chic pessimism of existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s Le petit Prince depicted a world without poetry and love. Playwrights Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco pioneered the "theater of the absurd." Clothing designers Chanel, Dior, St. Laurent, Givenchy and other designers revolutionized haute couture in the postwar years.[12]France’s importance in European and world cinema is evidenced by the International Film Festival in Cannes each year.
De Gaulle held onto power for 10 years after having installed the V Republic in 1958. That marked the fifth period of modern France.[13]In 1968, a series of students and leftist riots and a general strike paralyzed the country,[14]and the next year, he stepped down. He was succeeded by his former Prime Minister George Pompidou. Subsequent elections swung between rightists and leftists. After de Gaulle, Mitterrand has had the most influence on 20th-century French society. He declared, "Visitors will come to see the Paris of architecture, sculpture, museums and gardens; a city open to imagination, ideas and youth" The conservative, Jacques Chirac, ex-mayor of Paris, was elected in 1995 and finished his second term in 2007.
But another Mitterrand project changed forever the relationship of France and England. With British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Mitterrand agreed to create one of the 20th century’s grandest engineering projects: the Channel Tunnel. When French and British construction workers met beneath the English Channel in 1990, Continental Europe was linked to Britain for the first time in 7,000 years.[15]Today, the road and rail link handles one third of all the traffic between the two countries. Although leaders like de Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard, Mitterrand and Chirac were wildly different, France has continued to function with continuity and minimal turmoil. The system of cohabitation—overlapping terms of office of a president and a premier from opposing political camps—seems to give French government the checks and balances it needs. France continues to both impress and confound the rest of the world, just as it always has!
OK. With this background, you should understand the chain of events and the artistic and architectural trends that accompanied historic events in France. As you visit monuments and museums during our orientation program next week, we hope that having this background will help you enjoy more fully your cross-cultural experience in France.