KidZone History: France

Both World Wars in the 20th Century had a huge impact on France as a land, people and culture. Each time, Germany invaded and occupied parts of the country against an allied defense including Britain (and the British Empire including Australia, India, Canada and New Zealand among others), Free French forces, Russia and late in each conflict, America.

World War One occured between 1914 and 1918. Many technologies that we recognize today were only in their infancy so planes, tanks and submarines featured less so than in modern conflicts. This resulted in a large amount of trench warfare. The two sides sat a mile apart in heavily fortified ditches attempting to force the other side to retreat backward. This had huge impacts on the number of injuries across the conflict. Approximately 70 million people died in the 4 year conflict. The effect of this on France was profound, as the damage done to agricultural land and infrastructure hampered recovery.

World War Two followed twenty years later between 1939 and 1945. Many of the factors behind it related to German dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War One. This conflict was on a huge scale and was much more mobile than the first world war with tanks, submarines, planes and other vehicles playing a major role. The conflict lasted 6 years during which time Germany and it’s allies Italy and Japan took control of large portions of France.

The war had a devastating effect on France, infrastructure was in a horrible state of repair and farming was only 40% of necessary levels. Due to this, the French government invested large amounts of money to rebuild the country. France was also central to the many treaties and groups that were formed. Some of these include the United Nations and the European Union.