The French Third Republic was created following the defeat
of France by Prussia in 1871. After the war, the leader of the new
unified Germany,
Otto von Bismarck, was able to take Alsace and
Lorraine, Strasburg and the great fortress of Metz from France.
The new French parliament established after the Franco-Prussian
War, comprised an indirectly Senate and an elected Chamber of
Deputies. In 1914 Raymond Poincare was President of France and Rene
Viviani was his prime minister.
In the first decade of the
20th century France was still an overwhelmingly agricultural country and
was self-sufficient in food. France was one of the world's leading
trading nations but industrial production was lower than both Germany
and Britain.
The French government considered Germany
to be the main threat to its territory. This was reinforced by Germany's
decision in 1882 to form the Triple
Alliance. Under the terms of this military alliance, Germany,
Austria-Hungary
and Italy
agreed to support each other if attacked by either
France
or Russia.
Britain
shared France's fears concerning the
Triple Alliance and in 1904 the two countries signed the "Entente Cordiale". The objective of the alliance was to encourage
co-operation against the perceived threat of Germany.
Three years later, Russia,
who also feared the growth in the German
Army, joined Britain and France
to form the "Triple
Entente".
The French Army Air
Service (Aéronautique Militaire) was formed in October 1910. France
led the world in early aircraft design and by mid-1912 they had five
squadrons (escadrilles). This had grown to 132 machines (21 escadrilles)
by 1914.
Expenditure on the French
Navy doubled between 1910 and 1914. By the summer of 1914 France had
19 battleships,
32 cruisers,
86 destroyers,
34 submarines
and 115 torpedo boats.
The French government had ordered another 14 battleships
but they were still waiting for them to be delivered.
Created on ... août 20, 2003