Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:53:19.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2014

Elizabeth Greenhalgh
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Get access

Summary

On the evening of 24 July 1914, the French war minister, Colonel Adolphe Messimy, summoned the commander-in-chief designate of the French Army, General Joseph Joffre. Messimy told him that, following the assassination in Sarajevo, Germany supported Austria-Hungary’s firm stance against Serbia in the matter. That support would represent direct opposition to Russia’s support for Serbia; hence France’s military agreements with Russia might come into play. Joffre recorded in his memoirs that he replied to Messimy: ‘Well, monsieur le ministre, if we have to make war we will do so.’ It must be presumed, therefore, that Joffre believed that France could emerge victorious. This book examines the French Army, which Joffre was to use to defeat Germany, in order to evaluate how well it performed. It begins with the reforms following the disastrous Franco-Prussian war, when France was defeated and humiliated, examines the battles between 1914 and 1918, and explains how France did indeed emerge victorious to sit at the victors’ table in 1919 for the signatures on the Treaty of Versailles.

The prelude to the First World War took place in North Africa. In 1911, at the height of the second Moroccan crisis, when the German gunboat Panther anchored off Agadir in order to protect the rights of German merchants in the North African country where French economic interests were growing, Europe feared a general war. France’s then premier, Joseph Caillaux, asked Joffre what France’s chances of victory were if such a war resulted from the crisis. He reminded Joffre that Napoleon Bonaparte had stated that a general should have at least a 70 per cent chance of victory before embarking on a battle, and Joffre replied that France did not possess such a margin. Caillaux ended the Moroccan crisis diplomatically, therefore, ceding a portion of the French Cameroons to Germany in return for German recognition of France’s protectorate in Morocco. War had been averted for three years.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Elizabeth Greenhalgh, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: The French Army and the First World War
  • Online publication: 05 November 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511998133.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Elizabeth Greenhalgh, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: The French Army and the First World War
  • Online publication: 05 November 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511998133.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Elizabeth Greenhalgh, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: The French Army and the First World War
  • Online publication: 05 November 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511998133.002
Available formats
×