Michael Bjorklund

HIST-1510

 

                This paper was a good experience to learn how to do research on history and to try and think critical about different views on the Maginot line and how it affected the relations in Europe. I feel that I was able to get a much greater understanding of how research papers work and the importance of studying in depth certain subjects.


Michael Bjorklund

Dr. Beurtheret

History 1510

TR 11:30 am

History Essay

 

Topic: The Maginot Line in the international relation context of the interwar period (1919-1939)

Thesis: During the interwar period, how did France’s creation of the Maginot line influence the nations of Europe while trying to contain Germany physically and politically?

 

Introduction

The Maginot Line shaped the international affairs and relations between the European nations during the Interwar period of 1919-1939. At the end of WWI the nations of Europe were in a frenzy of affairs, treaties, and packs to protect their own states. This Line was a fortified line of defenses built between France and Germany. It was meant to act as a deterrent against the Germanic offensive strategies. During the interwar period, how did France’s creation of the Maginot line influence the nations of Europe while trying to contain Germany physically and politically? This essay will focus first on defining the Maginot line, searching for security behind a political “Maginot Line”, and the Germanic policies that undermine France’s political and physical defenses.

 

 

Part One: What is the Maginot line?

World War I ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The war had devastated Europe. It lasted 1,565 days, one-fifth of the 65,000,000 soldiers died, and had a financial cost totaling $186 billion.1 The world had never seen a war at this magnitude before. This treaty was dominated by several points of negotiations: the wording and creation of a League of Nation’s Covenant; the question of French Security and the fate of the left bank of the Rhine; the Italian and Polish claims; the disposition of the former German colonies and the former possessions of the Turkish Empire; the reparation for damages that was to be demanded from Germany. Around fifty to sixty countries attended the treaty.1 The major flaw was that no Central Power was represented. Even Russia didn’t attend due to civil war. Right from the beginning of the interwar period, the national relations of Europe were in a fragile state.

 

In the middle of the raging international relations, the United States failed to ratify the 1919 Treaty of Versailles with France and other nations.4 This made the nations of Europe feel like the United State had turned its back on them. France, who had taken the brunt of the casualties and whose land had suffered the most from the war, looked toward its own self and smaller nations for providing security and peace to Europe mainland. 

 

Germany insisted it could not possibly pay any more reparations, the sum of which was practically impossible to pay, France, Belgium, and Italy launched a strike against Germany.  They seized much of the Rhineland which acted as a buffer state between France and Germany being a demilitarized zone. In January 1923, French, Belgian, and Italian troops occupied the Ruhr district as far East as Dortmund. The British called the occupation illegal. Acting as they did, France, Italy, and Belgium justified this seizure with claims that Germany had broken the Treaty of Versailles. If they weren’t going to pay the fine, then they would pay with land. By doing this Germany would be burdened even more. Much of the territory taken by France was land they had claim to before WWI and had lost, also the other nations involved had economic interests and wanted expansion. When France withdrew from the Rhineland they knew they needed enhanced protection.

 

The Maginot Line was a great set of complex fortifications constructed by France. By the end of WWI, France had fought an offensive war against fortified German positions. With little offensive technology, they suffered millions of casualties. After such a loss in man power they didn’t want to accept Charles de Gaulle’s modern military plan of a more mobile army and air force that came with an offensive strategy.7 Many of the French leaders wished to be defensive like the Germans had been. By building great defensive fortifications, anyone who would attack them, would be forced to charge the fortifications, just like the valiant French soldiers did in WWI. This would preserve more man power. The defense would allow much faster mobilization of troops behind the line, and they didn’t have the political stability to be able to sustain any offensive campaigns. France didn’t want another war and didn’t want to press war with such little recourses. They were in a tight spot. Their defensive policy was a realistic goal.

 

The French built a fortified defensive position on the border of Germany, ranging from the south near the Rhine River up to the north to Luxembourg. This plan was thought up by Marshall Patain and was favored by Andre Maginot who was the Minister of War. However the Maginot Line wouldn’t be finished till the end of the 1920’s and beginning of 30’s when Maginot returned to government office.2 This was built at the end of the Great War (WWI) with the intention to prevent or slow any German attack on French people. There by allowing the mobilization of troops and an effective defense to be put in place. It consisted of thousands of miles of trenches, tunnels, forts, machinegun bunkers, concrete, steal, wires and mines. It also was used as a symbol of power to deter any future aggressive Germanic plans against France.

 

Part Two: The Search for Peace through a Political Maginot Line

This mentality led to a political “Maginot Line” of alliances, treaties, and packs to box Germany in and bring peace to an economically and politically troubled Europe. France was in a state of Maginot mentality, they were static, defensive, and wanted to cage the German nation. Knowing fully well that they didn’t have the manpower or resources to challenge Germany, they looked for allied help.11 This masked Europe with a facade of alliances that had very little veracity and few were binding.

 

On December 1, 1925 Germany, France, and Belgian signed the Locarno Pacts, which included the guarantees of the national borders with Italy and Britain being the guarantors by providing military assistance to the party wronged if pack was broken.9 Other treaties that were signed were: The Four-Power Pact, The Four-Power Treaty, Franco-British boundary agreement, Franco-Italian Agreement, Franco-Polish alliance, Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance, Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence, and many others. All of which were a type of Political Maginot Line.6 Many of these agreements were to define and defend boundaries, essentially picking teams. This set Europe up for a “domino effect”. Example if nation “X” is attacked by nation “b” than nations “Y” and “Z” will come to the aid of nation “X”. This provided a great deterrent of war at first. No nation wanted to start a war due to the amount of treaties.

 

The nations surrounding Germany who were allied or friendly to France knew that France was not in a great position politically to be able to wage another war. They had a fairly good size army, navy, and air force. The main problem was they were not modernized and most were old or young men due to the casualties of The Great War. For France, an important treaty that was signed was that of the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance. Pushed by Louis Barthou, was meant to encircling Nazi Germany, and create a balance of power. This defensive treaty was that either nation would come to the aid of the other, if they were attacked and hadn’t provoked a nation with aggressive behavior. The problem was that Russia never fully trusted France would come to their aid, and France didn’t trust them.

 

The biggest internal problem facing that French was their government and coalitions. The Maginot line was a symbol that France couldn’t lead other nations at this time, and wanted to separate itself physically from them. France was made up of a multi-party parliamentary system. The cabinets and local governments rose and fell with alarming frequency. First the Bloc Nation was in charge. They were conservative and moderate. When this party fell apart, the Cartel des Gauches party took over, but still stuck with the failing economy lost power quickly. Within three years six more governments rose and fell trying to help France. One leader that had hope for change was, Leon Blum. HE was part of the Popular Front, a socialist party that took over during part of the depression, who helped stabilized and regulated prices of products, restructured the national bank, introduced the forty hour work week. When trying to deal with rising strikes and social problems, he was denied by the upper house, he then resigned.3 Their politics were divided and there was a lack of leadership of leaders wanting to tackle hard tough issues.  The failure to unite the nation under a working government forced France to stay defensive, and hindered their production

 

One nation that was put on edge by the construction of the Maginot Line was Belgium. Being located in-between France and Germany, they were on alert to resist foreign rule and maintain their autonomy. Being north of the Maginot Line also meant that if war broke out again between Germany and France the battling would most likely stretch up through their land and country. Belgium refused to allow French or English soldiers to be stationed in their land. They also knew that they had to keep in friendly terms with them incase Germany decides to push an assault; they would have friends come to their rescue. This put them in daunting position. They tried to decide what would be the best form of action in protecting their land without foreign influence. They were however declared neutrality, not wanting any part of the European wars and desiring to keep its independence. France honored their desires and failed to construct fortifications along the Belgium boarder, as to not show that they were going to abandon them or just hide behind their wall. In effect Britain and France still honored the Treaty of London signed almost one hundred years ago and as part of their plan would both help to defend Belgium.13 Belgium wasn’t the only nation that felt that they needed more protection.

 

Russia had just concluded a terrible civil war in which the Czars had been overthrown and the Communist party had taken over. Knowing that France was weak and in no position to stand up to Germany alone, they were the only other nation that could maintain the balance of power if Germany launched another offensive in mainland Europe. Also the fact that the Maginot Line had been constructed Russia knew that there was a chance if Germany returned to power they would focus on the East rather than try to fight through the fortified West. Another role of Russia was that they were a protectorate of the other smaller Slavic countries which were under threat of invasion from the Germanic or Austrian nations. The lack of a strong balance of powers through Europe put the Russian nation on edge, especially because Stalin was in the middle of purging his army.4 He had little trust in anyone but himself. He killed many of his Generals and high ranked officers and reorganized his military.

 

Part Three: Germanic Policies Used to Undermine the Maginot Line.

Germany was forced into a terrible position; they had lost the war and because they started it they must pay for it. They had no representation on their behalf to defend them or argue in their behalf.  The stiff penalties put on them by the Treaty of Versailles were devastating to their Economy. Germany’s infrastructure was destroyed and many of them felt betrayed by their government. The German industry was gone, there was nothing left, and not even a wheel barrel of money had enough value to buy bread. Then nation was in ruin, looking for something to change, someone to help.

 

When Hitler came to power he started he set about to complete his agenda of restoring Germany to its old power. To the Germans especially a rising Nazi Germany could see that France didn’t want an offensive war and that they were on the defensive. Hiding behind The Maginot Line was a sign of hate, fear, and anger by the French. Hitler was able to us this time to play right into his plan. Knowing that France was on the defensive and wasn’t in the position to launch a major military campaign and Russia was distracted with the purging of its army. Only Britain would be in the way.

 

By undermining the political and defensive alliances and treaties that surrounded his nation, Hitler was able to slowly tear apart this political Maginot Line. First he withdrew Germany from the League of Nations in 1933.1 Second he signed a ten-year none-aggression pact with Poland. This treaty signed in 1934, pledged to resolve their problems through bilateral negotiations and to forgo armed conflicts. This was a huge blow to France. Before this Poland, France, and England had all agreed to come to the aid of the other if one nation was attacked. Now Poland was at peace with Germany. Not too long after Hitler made the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of June 1935, which was a bilateral concord between Britain and Germany countenancing a German navy but limiting it to 35 percent of the size of the British Navy.10 This not only allowed Germany to violate the Treaty of Versailles, it also aided them in the growth of their navy. The last blow to France was the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union.8 This agreement gave Hitler the go ahead to invade Poland and a week later allowing Russia to invade the east while guaranteeing that the nations won’t fight in the USSR.

 

These significant treaties and pacts gave the French reason that they were alone. And if that wasn’t enough to undermine the Maginot Line of alliance that France had made against Germany, Hitler also took apart the treaty of Versailles, built up his army, and in 1936 he remilitarization the Rhineland.4 All of these Germany policies and movements were declared as a need to defend themselves from the great nations around them, Hitler emphasized how all he wanted was peace and to restore Germany. While France saw that these actions were leading up to war. Other great nations like Britain, the U.S., Russia and smaller nations like Poland, Italy, and the Baltic States hid behind their own personal Maginot Lines, hoping that the German power would stop its thirst for power if they could just appease them.

 

Conclusion

The Nations of Europe were clouded by a Maginot Mentality. They wanted peace; they searched for peace, and tried to talk about peace. In the end they only received war. There are times when a nation physically doesn’t have the power by itself to eliminate a threat before it starts. This is what happened to France. They knew Germany still had power, they could see that there was much more that still needed to be done to keep Germany under control. The failure of the Maginot Line and Mentality was that of the combined powers of Europe to act and hold Germany to the Treaty of Versailles and force them to stop their military plans. Because they didn’t want another war, they ended up having to fight a war much greater than if they would have if only they all acted together. A more offensive plan and confident leadership would have aided Europe more than hiding behind a wall of fear, hate, and anger.

BIBLIOAGRAPH

 

1.      Political and Intellectual Trends of the Interwar Years (1919-1938) (Walter Langham, Otis Mitchell, The World Since 1919) http://hst86.hubpages.com/hub/Political-and-Intellectual-Trends-of-the-Interwar-Years-1919-193

2.       http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/maginot_line.htm

3.       History 369: The world since 1914, Lecture notes on England and France in the Interwar Period, http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/BrFr.html

4.       World War II: a Military and Social History, by Professor Thomas Childers, Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, http://www.scribd.com/doc/38410884/WWII-A-Military-and-Social-History

5.       Spark Notes, History Study Guides, The Interwar Years (1919-1938), http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/interwaryears/section5.rhtml

6.       Wikipedia, Category: Interwar Treaties, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Interwar_treaties

7.       Wikipedia, Maginot Line, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line

8.       Wikipedia, Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Non-Aggression_between_Germany_and_the_Soviet_Union

9.       Britannica Academic Edition, Pact of Locarno, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/345660/Pact-of-Locarno

10.   Britannica Academic Edition, Anglo-German Naval Agreement, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/25048/Anglo-German-Naval-Agreement

11.   France’s Strategy, May 15, 2012, by George Friedman, http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/frances-strategy

12.   Inter-War Diplomacy, http://rpfuller.freeservers.com/gcse/history/4.html

13.   History Learning Site, The Maginot Line, http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/maginot_line.htm

14.   History Channel, World War I ends, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/world-war-i-ends

15.   Primary Documents, Treaty of London, 1839, http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/london1839.htm