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Third Republic: 1871–1914

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Main articles: International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919), French Third Republic, and French colonial empire
Europe after the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the forming of the German Reich and the French loss of Alsace-Lorraine

French diplomacy was largely independent of domestic affairs; economic, cultural and religious interest groups paid little attention to foreign affairs. Permanent professional diplomats and bureaucrats had developed their own traditions of how to operate at the Quai d'Orsay (where the Foreign Ministry was located), and their style changed little from generation to generation. Most of the diplomats came from high status or aristocratic families. Although France was one of the few republics in Europe, its diplomats mingled smoothly with the aristocratic representatives at the royal courts. Prime ministers and leading politicians generally paid little attention to foreign affairs, allowing a handful of senior men to control policy. In the decades before the First World War they dominated the embassies in the 10 major countries were France had an ambassador (elsewhere, they set lower-ranking ministers). They included Théophile Delcassé, the foreign minister from 1898 to 1905; Paul Cambon, the ambassador in London, 1890-1920; Jules Jusserand in Washington from 1902 two 1924; and Camille Barrere, in Rome from 1897 to 1924. In terms of foreign policy, there was general agreement about the need for high protective tariffs, which kept agricultural prices high. After the defeat by the Germans, there was a strong widespread anti-German sentiment focused on revanchism and regaining Alsace and Lorraine. The Empire was a matter of great pride, and service as administrators, soldiers and missionaries was a high status, occupation. [1] [2]

French foreign policy was based on a hatred of Germany—whose larger size and fast-growing economy could not be matched—combined with a revanchism that demanded the return of Alsace and Lorraine.[3] At the same time, imperialism was a factor.[4] In the midst of the Scramble for Africa, French and British interest in Africa came into conflict. The most dangerous episode was the Fashoda Incident of 1898 when French troops tried to claim an area in the Southern Sudan, and a British force purporting to be acting in the interests of the Khedive of Egypt arrived. Under heavy pressure the French withdrew securing Anglo-Egyptian control over the area. The status quo was recognised by an agreement between the two states acknowledging British control over Egypt, while France became the dominant power in Morocco, but France suffered a humiliating defeat overall.[5]

The Suez Canal, initially built by the French, became a joint British-French project in 1875, as both saw it as vital to maintaining their influence and empires in Asia. In 1882, ongoing civil disturbances in Egypt prompted Britain to intervene, extending a hand to France. The government allowed Britain to take effective control of Egypt.[6]

France had colonies in Asia and looked for alliances and found in Japan a possible ally. At Japan's request Paris sent military missions in 1872–1880, in 1884–1889 and in 1918–1919 to help modernize the Japanese army. Conflicts with China over Indochina climaxed during the Sino-French War (1884–1885). Admiral Courbet destroyed the Chinese fleet anchored at Foochow. The treaty ending the war, put France in a protectorate over northern and central Vietnam, which it divided into Tonkin and Annam.[7]

In an effort to isolate Germany, France went to great pains to woo Russia and Great Britain, first by means of the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, then the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Great Britain, and finally the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907 which became the Triple Entente. This formal alliance with Russia, and informal alignment with Britain, against Germany and Austria eventually led Russia and Britain to enter World War I as France's Allies.[8]

Under the leadership of expansionist Jules Ferry, the Third Republic greatly expanded the French colonial empire. Catholic missionaries played a major role. France acquired Indochina, Madagascar, vast territories in West Africa and Central Africa, and much of Polynesia.[9]

Third Republic: 1914–1940

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Further information: Diplomatic history of World War I; Paris Peace Conference, 1919; and International relations (1919–1939)

By 1914 French foreign policy was based on an alliance with Russia, and an informal understanding with Britain, all based on the assumption that the main threat was from Germany.[10][11] The crisis of 1914 was unexpected, and when Germany mobilized its forces in response to Russian mobilization, France also had to mobilize. Germany then invaded Belgium and France, and the World War I had begun.[12][13] France suffered very heavy losses, in terms of battle casualties and economic distress but came out on the winning side. At the Paris peace conference of 1919, vengeance against defeated Germany was the main French theme, and Prime Minister Clemenceau was largely effective against the moderating influences of the British and Americans.[14][15]

The main goal of foreign policy was the diplomatic response to the demands of the French army in the 1920s and 1930s to form alliances against the German threat, especially with Britain and with smaller countries in central Europe.[16][17]

Appeasement was increasingly adopted as Germany grew stronger after 1933, for France suffered a stagnant economy, unrest in its colonies, and bitter internal political fighting. Appeasement say Martin Thomas was not a coherent diplomatic strategy or a copying of the British.[18] France appeased Italy on the Ethiopia question because it could not afford to risk an alliance between Italy and Germany.[19] When Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland—the part of Germany where no troops were allowed—neither Paris nor London would risk war, and nothing was done.[20] The military alliance with Czechoslovakia was sacrificed at Hitler's demand when France and Britain agreed to his terms at Munich in 1938.[21][22]

Vichy regime: 1940–1944

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Main article: Foreign relations of Vichy France

The fall of France in June 1940 brought a new regime known as Vichy France. Theoretically it was neutral, and maintained formal relationships with the United States.[23] It was heavily influenced by Germany until November 1942, when Germany took full control.[24] Vichy was intensely conservative and anti-Communist, but independent action was impossible with Germany controlling half of France directly and holding nearly two million French POWs as hostages. Vichy finally collapsed when the Germans fled in summer 1944.[25]


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Further reading

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Main article: Charles de Gaulle § Foreign policy

European diplomacy

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  • Albrecht-Carrié, René. A Diplomatic History of Europe Since the Congress of Vienna (1958), 736pp, basic introduction 1815–1955
  • Black, Jeremy. European International Relations, 1648–1815 (2002) excerpt and text search
  • Clark, Christopher. The sleepwalkers: how Europe went to war in 1914 (2012)
  • Jarrett, Mark. The Congress of Vienna and Its Legacy: War and Great Power Diplomacy After Napoleon (IB Tauris, 2013)
  • Kissinger, Henry. Diplomacy (Simon and Schuster, 2012)
  • Langer, William. An Encyclopedia of World History (5th ed. 1973), very detailed outline
  • Langer, William L. European Alliances and Alignments, 1871–1890 (2nd ed. 1950)
  • Langer, William L. The Diplomacy of Imperialism 1890–1902 (2 vol, 1935)
  • Macmillan, Margaret. The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 (2013) cover 1890s to 1914; see esp. ch 6, 13
  • MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919: six months that changed the world (2007).
  • Mowat, R. B. A History of European Diplomacy 1815–1914 (1922), basic introduction
  • Rich, Norman. Great power diplomacy, 1814–1914 (1992).
  • Schroeder, Paul W. The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848 (1996); advanced analysis
  • Scott, Hamish M. The Birth of a Great Power System: 1740–1815 (2006)
  • Sontag, Raymond James. European Diplomatic History 1871-1932. (1933).
  • Steiner, Zara. The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919–1933 (2007) excerpt and text search
  • Steiner, Zara. The Triumph of the Dark: European International History 1933–1939 (2011) excerpt and text search
  • Taylor, A.J.P. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe: 1848–1918 (1954) excerpt and text search; advanced analysis



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  1. ^ Felix Gilbert, David Clay Large, The End of the European Era: 1890 to the Present (2002) p 64-65.
  2. ^ J.F.V. Keiger, France and the World since 1870 (2001) pp 25 – 47.
  3. ^ Eber Malcolm Carroll, French public opinion and foreign affairs, 1870–1914 (1964).
  4. ^ Agnes Murphy, The ideology of French imperialism, 1871–1881 (1968).
  5. ^ D.W. Brogan, France under the Republic: The Development of Modern France (1870–1930) (1940) pp 321–26
  6. ^ A.J.P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848–1918 (1954) pp 286–92
  7. ^ Frederic Wakeman, Jr., The Fall of Imperial China (1975) pp. 189–191.
  8. ^ Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848–1918 (1954) pp 345, 403–26
  9. ^ Robert Aldrich, Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion (1996)
  10. ^ Cody Nester, "France and the Great War: Belligerent Warmonger or Failed Peacekeeper? A Literature Review." History 12 (2015): 2.
  11. ^ John Keiger, France and the Origins of the First World War (1985) summary
  12. ^ Margaret MacMillan, The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 (2013).
  13. ^ Christopher Clark, The sleepwalkers: how Europe went to war in 1914 (2012).
  14. ^ George Noble, Policies and opinions at Paris, 1919: Wilsonian diplomacy, the Versailles Peace, and French public opinion (1968).
  15. ^ Margaret McMillan, Paris 1919: six months that changed the world (2007).
  16. ^ Peter Jackson, "France and the problems of security and international disarmament after the first world war." Journal of Strategic Studies 29#2 (2006): 247–280.
  17. ^ Nicole Jordan, "The Reorientation of French Diplomacy in the mid-1920s: the Role of Jacques Seydoux." English Historical Review 117.473 (2002): 867–888.
  18. ^ Martin Thomas, "Appeasement in the Late Third Republic." Diplomacy and Statecraft 19#3 (2008): 566–607.
  19. ^ Reynolds M. Salerno, "The French Navy and the Appeasement of Italy, 1937–9." English Historical Review 112#445 (1997): 66–104.
  20. ^ Stephen A. Schuker, "France and the Remilitarization of the Rhineland, 1936." French Historical Studies 14.3 (1986): 299–338.
  21. ^ Nicole Jordan, "Léon Blum and Czechoslovakia, 1936–1938." French History 5#1 (1991): 48–73.
  22. ^ Martin Thomas, "France and the Czechoslovak crisis." Diplomacy and Statecraft 10.23 (1999): 122–159.
  23. ^ William L. Langer, Our Vichy Gamble (1947)
  24. ^ Adrienne Hytier, Two years of French foreign policy: Vichy, 1940–1942 (Greenwood Press, 1974)
  25. ^ Peter Jackson and Simon Kitson, "The paradoxes of foreign policy in Vichy France." in Jonathan Adelman, ed., Hitler and His Allies in World War Two. (Routledge, 2007) pp 79–115 excerpt and text search
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