Fall Of France Research Paper

The Fall of France

Ana Veros

The fall of France was inevitable because of the divided politics and low national morale. France, in political chaos before germany even attacked, was in a winless situation because it was weakened by their internal conflict, antiwar ideas, and limited support of the allies. A political revolving door in France’s government created problems with their war debt, poor national security, and weak alliances, which weakened France’s confidence. Also, France gave up it’s diplomatic freedom to the allies, which stirred up internal confusion. Furthermore, the French military made mistakes in investing into defense rather than offense because of biased teachings in the French military schools, leading to using less

If difficult decisions were made to change the French alliance policy, arms production schedules, military organization, and military training, or even just one change was made could have created a different outcome. France hoped that with the maginot line, France and Belgium armies would prepare together to fight the Germans. France should have been able to defend themselves with their inexpensive anti-tank mines and powerful anti-tank guns, which would beat Germany’s tanks, but could not due to their poor organization. France failed to properly train their soldiers to use their fantastic weapons, but could have easily avoided it by French officers conducting their training as well as Germany. Additionally, France could have made progress by negotiating with the Soviet Union, winning over Belgium with a policy of neutrality, and convincing Great Britain to use resources to defend continentally, but did not because of a lack of good leaders. Despite the defeat of the French soldiers in the north, if there had been French leaders to inspire the people of France to resist in the south, and surrender the urban armies and put up a fight with France’s vast colonial resources the French could have fought for