Global InformationInterwar France information
| Interwar France | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1918–1939 | |||
 6 February 1934 crisis also known as the Veterans' Riot | |||
| Location | France | ||
| Including | Années folles The Great Depression | ||
| President(s) | Raymond Poincaré Paul Deschanel Alexandre Millerand Gaston Doumergue Paul Doumer Albert Lebrun | ||
| Prime Minister(s) | Georges Clemenceau Alexandre Millerand Georges Leygues Aristide Briand Raymond Poincaré Frédéric François-Marsal Édouard Herriot Paul Painlevé André Tardieu Camille Chautemps Théodore Steeg Pierre Laval Joseph Paul-Boncour Édouard Daladier Albert Sarraut Pierre-Étienne Flandin Fernand Bouisson Léon Blum | ||
Chronology
| |||
| History of France |
|---|
 |
| Topics |
|
| Timeline |
 France portal |
Interwar France covers the political, economic, diplomatic, cultural and social history of France from 1918 to 1939. France suffered heavily during World War I in terms of lives lost, disabled veterans and ruined agricultural and industrial areas occupied by Germany as well as heavy borrowing from the United States, Britain, and the French people. However, postwar reconstruction was rapid, and the long history of political warfare along religious lines of the time was ended.
Parisian culture was world-famous in the 1920s, with expatriate artists, musicians and writers from across the globe contributing their cosmopolitanism, such as jazz music, and the French empire was in flourishing condition, especially in North Africa, and in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the official goal was complete assimilation, few colonial subjects were actually assimilated.
Major concerns were forcing Germany to pay for the war damage by reparations payments and guaranteeing that Germany, with its much larger population, would never be a military threat in the future. Efforts to set up military alliances worked poorly. Relations remained very tense with Germany until 1924, when they stabilized thanks to large American bank loans. However, after 1929 the German economy was very badly hit by the Great Depression, and its political scene descended into chaos and violence. The Nazis under Hitler took control in early 1933 and aggressively rearmed. Paris was bitterly divided between pacifism and rearmament, so it supported London's efforts to appease Hitler.
French domestic politics became increasingly chaotic and grim after 1932, moving back and forth between right and left, without clear goals in mind. The economy finally succumbed to the Great Depression by 1932 and did not recover. The popular mood turned very sour and focused its wrath on the corruption and scandals in high government places. There was a growing threat of politicized right-wing violence in the streets of Paris, but the numerous right-wing groupings were unable to forge a political coalition.
On the left, the Popular Front pulled together Radicals (a centrist group), socialists and communists. The coalition stayed in power for 13 months from 1936 to 1937. After massive labor union strikes, it passed a series of reforms designed to help the working classes. The reforms were mostly failures, and the disheartened Popular Front collapsed on foreign policy issues.
War came when Hitler's Germany stunningly reached a détente with Stalin's Soviet Union in August 1939, and both countries invaded Poland In September 1939. France and Britain had pledged to defend Poland and so declared war on Germany.