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Prologue
After the Great War, France was horrified by the devastation and sought to avoid another conflict with its neighbor Germany. Millions died in the war and much of the steel and coal producing areas of France remained in ruin. As a result, a large scale reconstruction project started funded primarily by German war reparations. In addition, work began on an 'impenetrable' Maginot Line trusted to defend France from another war and a 'paper wall' of treaties with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Russia was established.
When the stock market collapse hit, however, she was forced to abandon massive spending in favor of tax reform and a stable currency. The divided leftist groups, weakness of royalist conservatism groups, and success by centrist parties efforts to stave off a depression kept France under stable governance by the center-right pro-business Bloc national and the center-left pro-middle class 'Cartel des gauches'. Although France avoided a crisis seen in the United States and Germany, hundreds of thousands still remained unemployed and much of the post-war growth was lost.
Stavisky Affair ->
After the Great War, France was horrified by the devastation and sought to avoid another conflict with its neighbor Germany. Millions died in the war and much of the steel and coal producing areas of France remained in ruin. As a result, a large scale reconstruction project started funded primarily by German war reparations. In addition, work began on an 'impenetrable' Maginot Line trusted to defend France from another war and a 'paper wall' of treaties with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Russia was established.
When the stock market collapse hit, however, she was forced to abandon massive spending in favor of tax reform and a stable currency. The divided leftist groups, weakness of royalist conservatism groups, and success by centrist parties efforts to stave off a depression kept France under stable governance by the center-right pro-business Bloc national and the center-left pro-middle class 'Cartel des gauches'. Although France avoided a crisis seen in the United States and Germany, hundreds of thousands still remained unemployed and much of the post-war growth was lost.
Stavisky Affair ->
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A France AAR, hurrah! I shall read this. Hopefully, the circumstances that caused the picture in your first post won't occur in this timeline.
Allons! The Front Populaire shall (eventually I hope) bring progress and glory to France and her republic!
Stavisky Affair
A financial and political scandal shook France in 1934.
Serge Alexandre Stavisky, who became known as "le beau Sacha" ('Handsome Sasha'), was a Russian Jew born in Ukraine whose parents had moved to France. He tried various professions, working as a café singer, as a nightclub manager, as a worker in a soup factory, and as the operator of a gambling den. In the 1930s he managed municipal pawnshops in Bayonne but also moved in financial circles. He sold lots of worthless bonds and financed his 'hockshop' on the surety of what he called the emeralds of the late Empress of Germany — which later turned out to be glass.
Stavisky maintained his façade with his connections to various people in important positions. If some newspaper tried to investigate his affairs, he bought them off, sometimes with large advertisement contracts, sometimes by buying the paper.
In 1927, Stavisky was put on trial for fraud for the first time. However, the trial was postponed again and again and he was granted bail 19 times. He probably continued his scams during this time. One judge who claimed to hold secret documents was later found decapitated.
Faced with exposure in December 1933, Stavisky fled. On 8 January 1934, the police found him in a Chamonix chalet agonizing from a gun wound. Officially Stavisky committed suicide but there was a persistent speculation that police killed him. The latter is the theory proposed by Janet Flanner, writing as Genêt, in her 'Letter from Paris' column in the New Yorker. Fourteen Parisian newspapers called it suicide and eight did not. The distance the bullet had traveled led Le Canard enchaîné to propose the tongue-in-cheek theory that he had "a long arm".
Then Stavisky's long criminal record as an embezzler and confidence trickster went public. The suicide or murder, the losses many of the general public suffered, and his close involvement with so many ministers led to the resignation of premier Camille Chautemps amidst accusations from the right-wing opposition that Chautemps and his police had intentionally killed Stavisky to protect influential people.
Le Matin, February 7, 1934: "A day of civil war"
Chautemps was replaced by Édouard Daladier from the same Radical-Socialist Party. One of his first acts was to dismiss the prefect of the Paris police, Jean Chiappe, notorious for his right-wing sympathies and suspected of encouraging previous anti-government demonstrations. Next Daladier dismissed the director of the Comédie Française, who had been staging William Shakespeare's anti-democratic Coriolanus and replaced him with the head of the Sûreté-Générale, who was as reliably leftist as the Paris police chief had been of the right. He also appointed a new Interior Minister, Eugène Frot, who announced that demonstrators would be shot.
The dismissal of the Prefect by the Paris police was the immediate cause of the 6 February 1934 crisis, which the historian Alfred Cobban characterizes as a right-wing putsch. It would be more accurately characterized as a "putsch attempt", in the words of French historian Serge Bernstein. However, the left-wing at the time did fear an overt fascist conspiracy. Fomented by conservative, anti-Semitic, monarchist, and fascist groups, including Action Française (AF's leader, the novelist Léon Daudet, called the government "a gang of robbers and assassins"), the Croix-de-Feu and the Mouvement Franciste, the riots resulted in fourteen deaths over six hours on the night of 6–7 February 1934 at the hands of 800 police.
The event failed in its aim of overthrowing the Republic but Daladier had to resign. His successor was conservative Gaston Doumergue who created a coalition cabinet. It was the first time during the Third Republic that a government had to resign before the pressure of the streets.
The Stavisky Affair left France internally weakened. France remained deeply divided for the rest of the decade, but the political weaknesses it exposed and exacerbated were not confined to France. The Stavisky Affair was emblematic of a broader erosion of democratic values and institutions in post–World War I Europe.
<- Prologue | The Rise of Colonel De Gaulle ->
A financial and political scandal shook France in 1934.
Serge Alexandre Stavisky, who became known as "le beau Sacha" ('Handsome Sasha'), was a Russian Jew born in Ukraine whose parents had moved to France. He tried various professions, working as a café singer, as a nightclub manager, as a worker in a soup factory, and as the operator of a gambling den. In the 1930s he managed municipal pawnshops in Bayonne but also moved in financial circles. He sold lots of worthless bonds and financed his 'hockshop' on the surety of what he called the emeralds of the late Empress of Germany — which later turned out to be glass.
Stavisky maintained his façade with his connections to various people in important positions. If some newspaper tried to investigate his affairs, he bought them off, sometimes with large advertisement contracts, sometimes by buying the paper.
In 1927, Stavisky was put on trial for fraud for the first time. However, the trial was postponed again and again and he was granted bail 19 times. He probably continued his scams during this time. One judge who claimed to hold secret documents was later found decapitated.
Faced with exposure in December 1933, Stavisky fled. On 8 January 1934, the police found him in a Chamonix chalet agonizing from a gun wound. Officially Stavisky committed suicide but there was a persistent speculation that police killed him. The latter is the theory proposed by Janet Flanner, writing as Genêt, in her 'Letter from Paris' column in the New Yorker. Fourteen Parisian newspapers called it suicide and eight did not. The distance the bullet had traveled led Le Canard enchaîné to propose the tongue-in-cheek theory that he had "a long arm".
Then Stavisky's long criminal record as an embezzler and confidence trickster went public. The suicide or murder, the losses many of the general public suffered, and his close involvement with so many ministers led to the resignation of premier Camille Chautemps amidst accusations from the right-wing opposition that Chautemps and his police had intentionally killed Stavisky to protect influential people.
Le Matin, February 7, 1934: "A day of civil war"
Chautemps was replaced by Édouard Daladier from the same Radical-Socialist Party. One of his first acts was to dismiss the prefect of the Paris police, Jean Chiappe, notorious for his right-wing sympathies and suspected of encouraging previous anti-government demonstrations. Next Daladier dismissed the director of the Comédie Française, who had been staging William Shakespeare's anti-democratic Coriolanus and replaced him with the head of the Sûreté-Générale, who was as reliably leftist as the Paris police chief had been of the right. He also appointed a new Interior Minister, Eugène Frot, who announced that demonstrators would be shot.
The dismissal of the Prefect by the Paris police was the immediate cause of the 6 February 1934 crisis, which the historian Alfred Cobban characterizes as a right-wing putsch. It would be more accurately characterized as a "putsch attempt", in the words of French historian Serge Bernstein. However, the left-wing at the time did fear an overt fascist conspiracy. Fomented by conservative, anti-Semitic, monarchist, and fascist groups, including Action Française (AF's leader, the novelist Léon Daudet, called the government "a gang of robbers and assassins"), the Croix-de-Feu and the Mouvement Franciste, the riots resulted in fourteen deaths over six hours on the night of 6–7 February 1934 at the hands of 800 police.
The event failed in its aim of overthrowing the Republic but Daladier had to resign. His successor was conservative Gaston Doumergue who created a coalition cabinet. It was the first time during the Third Republic that a government had to resign before the pressure of the streets.
The Stavisky Affair left France internally weakened. France remained deeply divided for the rest of the decade, but the political weaknesses it exposed and exacerbated were not confined to France. The Stavisky Affair was emblematic of a broader erosion of democratic values and institutions in post–World War I Europe.
<- Prologue | The Rise of Colonel De Gaulle ->
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Ou, le Fernando, and le France, oh that's going to be yeah. The most gracious Empire of all times, in agony...that's going to be good ain't it? Hopefully you'll keep on explaining all that mad French 30's politics stuff. I've been doing a research on these due to stuff incoming and that was one hell of a madness down there. Does WiF have more stuff for France actually? Played it a bit but ain't seen nothing really new. It might be just that I didn't pay enough attention.
I for one would welcome Republic annihilating everything and everyone disobeying its will, so please go ahead and have no mercy. I always appreciate France Strong, leader of all the Europe, comparing to lol 1940 france lol xd. Make sure they'll regret it.
Centring whole text ain't that nice methinks, I'd keep it as usual to the right. But that's just a cosmetic change I guess.
I for one would welcome Republic annihilating everything and everyone disobeying its will, so please go ahead and have no mercy. I always appreciate France Strong, leader of all the Europe, comparing to lol 1940 france lol xd. Make sure they'll regret it.
Centring whole text ain't that nice methinks, I'd keep it as usual to the right. But that's just a cosmetic change I guess.
Gonna be following this one very closely! I look forward to seeing if you can hold out against the German Army when the blitzkrieg of 1940 comes!
WIF adds a few events and most of all, a lot of difficulty, to a France game.
Dissent was above 30% and took 3 years to be suppressed (started 3 effective IC..).
There is a nice event coming with De Gaulle though, which the next update will be about.
As for holding out against the Germans, it will be very unlikely given the difficulty. But France will fight on, anyway.
Stay tuned for the next update (upcoming)
Dissent was above 30% and took 3 years to be suppressed (started 3 effective IC..).
There is a nice event coming with De Gaulle though, which the next update will be about.
As for holding out against the Germans, it will be very unlikely given the difficulty. But France will fight on, anyway.
Stay tuned for the next update (upcoming)
The Rise of Colonel De Gaulle
Charles De Gaulle served with the Army of Occupation in the Rhineland in the mid-1920s. As a commandant by the late 1920s, he briefly commanded a light infantry battalion at Trier and then served a tour of duty in Syria, then a French protectorate under a mandate from the League of Nations.
During the 1930s, now a lieutenant-colonel, he served as a staff officer in France. In 1934 he wrote Vers l’Armée de Métier ("Toward a Professional Army"), which advocated a professional army based on mobile armored divisions. Such an army would both compensate for the poor French demography, and be an efficient tool to enforce international law, particularly the Treaty of Versailles which forbade Germany from rearming. The book sold only 700 copies in France, where Pétain advocated an infantry-based, defensive army, but 7,000 copies in Germany, where it was read aloud to Adolf Hitler.
Colonel De Gaulle speaking with President Albert Lebrun
This elite army would consist of a light division and 6 line divisions. The personnel would be 100 000 professional soldiers with 6-years contract. The parallel with the composition of PanzerGroup Kleist in 1940 is striking: 5 Panzer Divisions and 3 Motorized Divisions (approximately 100 000 men).
At that time, French defensive strategy inherited from the Great War could hardly justify such an offensive army. Colonel De Gaulle would then look for politicians support. In March 1935, Paul Reynaud would present before the Parliament De Gaulle's project at a time when the principal subject was: How to cope with French declining natality ? A longer military service or a professional army ?
The creation of Panzer Divisions in Germany would finally overcome all resistance against armored divisions. A few Generals would give their support to the creation of French "cuirassées" (armored) divisions. In 1938, a long time supporter of interarms cooperation, General Héring suggested that the armored division be organized in armored combat groups but he could not convince commander in chief General Gamelin. General Billotte would first support the decision to create two armored divisions in December 1938, and then to create a third one in December 1939.
<- Stavisky Affair | The Assassination of Louis Barthou ->
Charles De Gaulle served with the Army of Occupation in the Rhineland in the mid-1920s. As a commandant by the late 1920s, he briefly commanded a light infantry battalion at Trier and then served a tour of duty in Syria, then a French protectorate under a mandate from the League of Nations.
During the 1930s, now a lieutenant-colonel, he served as a staff officer in France. In 1934 he wrote Vers l’Armée de Métier ("Toward a Professional Army"), which advocated a professional army based on mobile armored divisions. Such an army would both compensate for the poor French demography, and be an efficient tool to enforce international law, particularly the Treaty of Versailles which forbade Germany from rearming. The book sold only 700 copies in France, where Pétain advocated an infantry-based, defensive army, but 7,000 copies in Germany, where it was read aloud to Adolf Hitler.
Colonel De Gaulle speaking with President Albert Lebrun
This elite army would consist of a light division and 6 line divisions. The personnel would be 100 000 professional soldiers with 6-years contract. The parallel with the composition of PanzerGroup Kleist in 1940 is striking: 5 Panzer Divisions and 3 Motorized Divisions (approximately 100 000 men).
At that time, French defensive strategy inherited from the Great War could hardly justify such an offensive army. Colonel De Gaulle would then look for politicians support. In March 1935, Paul Reynaud would present before the Parliament De Gaulle's project at a time when the principal subject was: How to cope with French declining natality ? A longer military service or a professional army ?
The creation of Panzer Divisions in Germany would finally overcome all resistance against armored divisions. A few Generals would give their support to the creation of French "cuirassées" (armored) divisions. In 1938, a long time supporter of interarms cooperation, General Héring suggested that the armored division be organized in armored combat groups but he could not convince commander in chief General Gamelin. General Billotte would first support the decision to create two armored divisions in December 1938, and then to create a third one in December 1939.
<- Stavisky Affair | The Assassination of Louis Barthou ->
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The Assassination of Louis Barthou
Jean Louis Barthou was a French politician who served as Prime Minister for eight months in 1913. He also served as Foreign Minister in 1934.
He was the primary figure behind the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance of 1935, though it was signed by his successor, Pierre Laval. As a national WWI hero and a recognized author, Barthou was elected to the Académie française at the end of WWI.
Barthou met King Alexander I of Yugoslavia during his visit to Marseilles in October 1934 to strengthen the two countries' alliance in the Little Entente. On 9 October, while Alexander was being driven in a car through the streets along with French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, a gunman, Vlado Chernozemski, stepped from the street and shot the King and the chauffeur. Alexander died instantly, slumped backwards in the car seat, eyes open. Barthou was wounded in the arm but died later due to inadequate medical treatment.
[video=youtube;B0pyyt_G0U8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0pyyt_G0U8[/video]
It was one of the first assassinations captured on film; the shooting occurred straight in front of the cameraman, who was only feet away at the time. While the exact moment of shooting was not captured on film, the events leading to the assassination and the immediate aftermath were. The body of the chauffeur (who had been killed instantly) became jammed against the brakes of the car, allowing the cameraman to continue filming from within inches of the King for a number of minutes afterwards.
The assassin, Vlado Chernozemski, was a Bulgarian, member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and an experienced marksman. Immediately after assassinating King Alexander, he was cut down by the sword of a mounted French policeman, and then beaten by the crowd. By the time he was removed from the scene, he was already dead. The IMRO was a political organization that fought for secession of Vardar Macedonia from Yugoslavia. The leader of the organization in that time was Ivan Mihailov.
IMRO worked in alliance with the Croatian Ustaše group led by Ante Pavelić. Chernozemski and three Croatian accomplices had travelled to France from Hungary via Switzerland. After the assassination, Chernozemski's fellows were arrested by French police. Although there is no final evidence that either Italian dictator Benito Mussolini or the Hungarian government were involved in the plot, the public opinion in Yugoslavia was that Italy had been crucial in the planning and directing of the assassination. The incident was later used by Yugoslavia as an argument to counter the Croatian attempts of secession and Italian and Hungarian revisionism.
<- The Rise of Colonel De Gaulle | The Saar Plebiscite ->
Jean Louis Barthou was a French politician who served as Prime Minister for eight months in 1913. He also served as Foreign Minister in 1934.
He was the primary figure behind the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance of 1935, though it was signed by his successor, Pierre Laval. As a national WWI hero and a recognized author, Barthou was elected to the Académie française at the end of WWI.
Barthou met King Alexander I of Yugoslavia during his visit to Marseilles in October 1934 to strengthen the two countries' alliance in the Little Entente. On 9 October, while Alexander was being driven in a car through the streets along with French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, a gunman, Vlado Chernozemski, stepped from the street and shot the King and the chauffeur. Alexander died instantly, slumped backwards in the car seat, eyes open. Barthou was wounded in the arm but died later due to inadequate medical treatment.
[video=youtube;B0pyyt_G0U8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0pyyt_G0U8[/video]
It was one of the first assassinations captured on film; the shooting occurred straight in front of the cameraman, who was only feet away at the time. While the exact moment of shooting was not captured on film, the events leading to the assassination and the immediate aftermath were. The body of the chauffeur (who had been killed instantly) became jammed against the brakes of the car, allowing the cameraman to continue filming from within inches of the King for a number of minutes afterwards.
The assassin, Vlado Chernozemski, was a Bulgarian, member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and an experienced marksman. Immediately after assassinating King Alexander, he was cut down by the sword of a mounted French policeman, and then beaten by the crowd. By the time he was removed from the scene, he was already dead. The IMRO was a political organization that fought for secession of Vardar Macedonia from Yugoslavia. The leader of the organization in that time was Ivan Mihailov.
IMRO worked in alliance with the Croatian Ustaše group led by Ante Pavelić. Chernozemski and three Croatian accomplices had travelled to France from Hungary via Switzerland. After the assassination, Chernozemski's fellows were arrested by French police. Although there is no final evidence that either Italian dictator Benito Mussolini or the Hungarian government were involved in the plot, the public opinion in Yugoslavia was that Italy had been crucial in the planning and directing of the assassination. The incident was later used by Yugoslavia as an argument to counter the Croatian attempts of secession and Italian and Hungarian revisionism.
<- The Rise of Colonel De Gaulle | The Saar Plebiscite ->
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The Saar plebiscite
Under the Treaty of Versailles, the highly industrialized Saarland was to be occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France under a League of Nations mandate for a period of fifteen years. Its coalfields were also to be ceded to France. During this time, the Saarland was governed by a five-person Commission made up of representatives of the occupation forces. Under the terms of the mandate, the Commission had to include at least one French person and one German resident of the Saar. After that time, a plebiscite would be implemented to determine the Saar's future status.
In 1933, a considerable number of political opponents of National Socialism moved to the Saar, as it was the only part of Germany that remained under foreign occupation following World War I. As a result, anti-Nazi groups agitated for the Saarland to remain under British and French occupation under a League of Nations mandate. However, as most of the region's population was German, the mandate was unpopular. A plebiscite was held in the territory on 13 January 1935.
With Adolf Hitler anxious for the propaganda advantages of the return of the Saar to Germany, Joseph Goebbels designed a concerted campaign to sway voters. The support of the local Catholic authorities for a return also helped, as did concerns about Bolshevism, against which Hitler was seen as a bulwark. With a voter participation of 98%, the result of the plebiscite was that the overwhelming majority, 90.8%, voted to re-join the German Reich, with only 8.8% wanting to retain the status quo, primarily as they did not wish to be ruled by Nazis. A third option of joining France received 0.4% of the vote.
On 17 January 1935, the territory's reunion with Germany was approved by the League Council. On 1 March, Germany re-integrated the region into the German Reich, appointing Josef Bürckel as Reichskommissar für die Rückgliederung des Saarlandes, ('Reich Commissioner for the reincorporation of the Saarland').
Following the vote, Hitler announced that Germany "had no further territorial demands to make of France". But can he be trusted?
<- The Assassination of Louis Barthou | Abyssinia Crisis ->
Under the Treaty of Versailles, the highly industrialized Saarland was to be occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France under a League of Nations mandate for a period of fifteen years. Its coalfields were also to be ceded to France. During this time, the Saarland was governed by a five-person Commission made up of representatives of the occupation forces. Under the terms of the mandate, the Commission had to include at least one French person and one German resident of the Saar. After that time, a plebiscite would be implemented to determine the Saar's future status.
In 1933, a considerable number of political opponents of National Socialism moved to the Saar, as it was the only part of Germany that remained under foreign occupation following World War I. As a result, anti-Nazi groups agitated for the Saarland to remain under British and French occupation under a League of Nations mandate. However, as most of the region's population was German, the mandate was unpopular. A plebiscite was held in the territory on 13 January 1935.
With Adolf Hitler anxious for the propaganda advantages of the return of the Saar to Germany, Joseph Goebbels designed a concerted campaign to sway voters. The support of the local Catholic authorities for a return also helped, as did concerns about Bolshevism, against which Hitler was seen as a bulwark. With a voter participation of 98%, the result of the plebiscite was that the overwhelming majority, 90.8%, voted to re-join the German Reich, with only 8.8% wanting to retain the status quo, primarily as they did not wish to be ruled by Nazis. A third option of joining France received 0.4% of the vote.
On 17 January 1935, the territory's reunion with Germany was approved by the League Council. On 1 March, Germany re-integrated the region into the German Reich, appointing Josef Bürckel as Reichskommissar für die Rückgliederung des Saarlandes, ('Reich Commissioner for the reincorporation of the Saarland').
Following the vote, Hitler announced that Germany "had no further territorial demands to make of France". But can he be trusted?
<- The Assassination of Louis Barthou | Abyssinia Crisis ->
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That goes really quick. And I mean, really. I hope you'll slow down at some point a bit.
Hell naw, ain't not trusting for dem Nazis. And, looking at the screen, why so many ships? Who needs them? Get more tanks!
Hell naw, ain't not trusting for dem Nazis. And, looking at the screen, why so many ships? Who needs them? Get more tanks!
I'm going quick through the interwar as there aren't many people who seem to be following the AAR. But of course I will slow down when the war begins.That goes really quick. And I mean, really. I hope you'll slow down at some point a bit.
Hell naw, ain't not trusting for dem Nazis. And, looking at the screen, why so many ships? Who needs them? Get more tanks!
As for the ships, they come with the starting build set. My military production was at zero at that time since I was focused on suppressing dissent (which took me almost 3 years with all the political scandals events). Later, I would scrap these ships and spend the military budget differently. Stay tuned.
