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French Military War Aims, 1914–1916

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Roy A. Prete
Roy A. Prete
Affiliation:
Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario
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Extract

In his recent book, French war aims against Germany, 1914–1919, David Stevenson comes to the heart of the problem relative to the diplomatic prolongation of World War I. ‘No Government’, he asserts, ‘was willing to jettison its war aims in the interest of a compromise peace, or to place itself at the enemy's mercy while a chance of victory remained’. His work is to be applauded, therefore, for he has given us the first succinct and judicious account of the course of official French war aims from 1916 to 1919, enlarging upon a topic heretofore treated in scholarly articles. Using the wealth of archival documentation now available, and the private papers of numerous participants, Stevenson has made a major and much-needed contribution to our knowledge of the subject by tracing the relationship between official war aims policy, peace diplomacy and the diplomatic impact of allied policy on French war aims from their inception to the Versailles settlement.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , December 1985 , pp. 887 - 899
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Stevenson, D., French war aims against Germany, 1914–1919 (Oxford, 1982), p. vGoogle Scholar.

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27 Cf. Becker, Jean-Jacques, ‘Union sacrée et idéologic bourgeoise’, Revue Historique, CCLXIV (1980), 65–74Google Scholar.

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36 Joffe, , Mémoires, 11, 363Google Scholar. Joffre's entire armistice and peace plan, though edited, was related in his memoirs. When these were translated into English, however, the translator Colonel T. Bentley Mott, decided that they were of ‘a purely academic interest’ and omitted them. ([General Joffre, Joseph J. -C.], The personal memoirs of Joffre: Field Marshal of the French army, tr. by Mott, Colonel T. Bentley (2 vols. New York and London, 1932), 11, 517, n. 17Google Scholar.)

37 Henry, Contamine, La revanche (1871–1914) (Paris, 1957), p. 124Google Scholar; cf. Tanenbaum, Jan Karl, General Maurice Sarrail, 1956–1929: The French army and left-wing politics (Chapel Hill, 1974), p. 34Google Scholar, who indicates Joffre's job was on the line in favour of Sarrail in 1914 as a result of increased Socialist strength in the 1913 election.

38 See, for example, Challener, Richard D., The French theory of the nation in arms, 1866–1939 (New York, 1965)Google Scholar.

39 Journal de Marche, vol. 11, 26 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, 14N2Google Scholar.

40 Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, pp. 6–7Google Scholar; McDougall, , France's Rhineland diplomacy, p. 17Google Scholar; ‘Observations Justificatives des solutions proposées’, 25 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, AG, 14N35Google Scholar.

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52 Ibid.

53 ‘Observations Justificatives…’, 25 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, 14N35Google Scholar.

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56 ‘Conditions de la Paix’, 25 08 1916, Etat-Major Général, 2e Bur., Fonds Joffre, 14N35Google Scholar.

57 Ibid.

58 Ibid.

59 Poincaré's, ‘Notes Journalières’, Bibliothèque Nationale, NAF 16024–39, a valuable source which might have allowed one to tie this all together, unfortunately has a gap for the period 1 January 1916 to 30 03 1919Google Scholar.

60 Soutou, , ‘Marches de l'Est’, pp. 356–8Google Scholar; cf. Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, pp. 12–13Google Scholar.

61 Stevenson, , War aims, pp. 48–9 ffGoogle Scholar. Albert Thomas, the one remaining Socialist in the government, appears to have been absent during these discussions. (Ibid.)

62 Soutou, , ‘Marches de l'Est’, pp. 356–8Google Scholar; cf. Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, pp. 12–20Google Scholar.

63 Soutou, , ‘Marches de l'Est’, pp. 362–6Google Scholar; cf. Suarez, , Briand, IV, 127–34, for the textGoogle Scholar. The evidence from Russian diplomatic sources, presented by Smith, C. J. Jr, The Russian struggle for power, 1914–1917: A study of Russian foreign policy during the First World War (New York; 1956), pp. 105–6, 459–66Google Scholar, lends further support to Soutou's thesis.

64 See Stevenson, , War aims, pp. 36–44Google Scholar. For the later impact of the French army on the formulation of policy, see ibid. pp. 72–4, 117–27ff.

65 Bertie, of Thame, , The diary of Lord Bertie of Thame, 1914–1918, ed. by Lennox, Lady Algernon Gordon (2 vols. London, 1924), vol. u, 25 July 1917, p. 160Google Scholar; ‘Note du 12 juillet sur les conditions du futur traité de paix’, AG, 16N3059, reproduced in extenso in Guy Pedroncini, Les négotiations secrètes pendant la Grande Guerre (Paris, 1969), pp. 110–11Google Scholar.

66 See Renouvin, Pierre, L'Armistice de Rethondes, 11 novembre 1918 (Paris, 1968), pp. 195–7, 204–4Google Scholar; also Stevenson, , War aims, pp. 117–205ffGoogle Scholar.