Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T14:29:31.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

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.)

References

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

2 Note in particular Renouvin, Pierre, ‘Les buts de guerre du gouvernement français 1914–1918’, Revue Historique, CCXXXV (1966), 1–38Google Scholar; Soutou, Georges-Henri, ‘La France et les Marches de l'Est 1914–1919’, Revue Historique, CCLX (1978), 341–88Google Scholar; Andrew, C. M. and Kanya-Forstner, A. S., ‘The French colonial party and French colonial war aims, 1914–1918’, Historical Journal, XVIII, 1 (1974), 76–106Google Scholar; Stevenson, David, ‘French war aims and the American challenge, 1914–1918’, Historical Journal, XXII, 4(1979), 877–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McCrum, Robert, ‘French Rhineland policy and the Paris peace conference, 1919;’, Historical Journal, XXI, 3 (1978), 623–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Trachtenberg, Marc, ‘A new economic order: Etienne Clémentel and French economic diplomacy during the First World War’, French Historical Studies, X (1977), 315—41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Stevenson, , War aims, p. viGoogle Scholar.

4 Andrew, Christopher M. and Kanya-Forstner, A. S., France overseas: The Great War and the climax of French imperialism (London 1981)Google Scholar.

5 Trachtenberg, , ‘A new economic order’, pp. 315–41Google Scholar.

6 Général [Maurice/ Gamelin, , Servir: II, Le prologue du drame (1930 – août 1939) (Paris, 1946), p. 66Google Scholar.

7 French diaries, 25 Sept. 1914, Imperial War Museum, 75/46/2, vol. F.

8 Soutou, , ‘Marches de l'Est’, p. 345Google Scholar. Cf. Lenzi, William A., ‘Who composed ‘Sazonov's Thirteen Points’? A reexamination of Russia's war aims of 1914’, American Historical Review, LXXXVII (04 1983), 348–57Google Scholar.

9 See Prestwich, Patricia E., ‘French attitudes toward Britain, 1911–1914’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1973), pp. 311–12Google Scholar; Hart, B. H. Liddell, Foch, the man of Orleans (London, 1931), pp. 34–5 ffGoogle Scholar.

10 Personal letter, Foch (at Cassel) to Paul Cambon, 29 Nov. 1914, Foch papers, Archives of Henri Fournier-Foch, Chalet St. Nicolas, Cordon, 74700-Sallanches, France dos. ‘Paul Cambon et F. Foch’

11 Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, pp. 2–3Google Scholar; Soutou, , ‘Marches de l'Est’, p. 344Google Scholar.

12 Foch, to Cambon, P., 29 11 1914, Foch papers, dos. ‘Paul Cambon et F. Foch’Google Scholar; cf. Wilson, diaries, 28 11 1914, v, Imperial War Museum, DS/Misc/80, ‘Foch told me that after the war he was going to ask for the Command of the troops between the Meuse & the Rhine & establish his HdQr at Metz! He wants me to come & stay with him’Google Scholar.

Foch claimed to see an official tendency in support of his views on the future settlement. 'Le discours de notre Président remettant la médaille Mre au Gal Joffre, m'est guarant que le gouvernement entre dans ces vues, et se fait déjà une mentalité de vainqueur – exigeant, opiniâtre, tenace.! (Foch, to Cambon, P., 29 11 1914, Foch papers, dos. ‘Paul Cambon et F. Foch’Google Scholar.)

13 Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, p. 7Google Scholar.

14 Cleveland, Eugene, ‘French attitudes toward the German problem, 1914–1918’ (unpublished D. dissertation, University of Nebraska, 1957), p. 92Google Scholar.

15 Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, p. 4Google Scholar.

16 Cleveland, , ‘French attitudes’, p. 92Google Scholar.

17 Gamelin, , Servir, II, 66Google Scholar; Adams, Wallace Earl, ‘André Tardieu and French foreign policy, 1902–1919’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1959), p. 283Google Scholar.

18 Millerand's, handwritten notes on Allied conference of 29 03 1915, Millerand papers, Bibliothèque Nationale, (old) carton 20Google Scholar; also no. 10486, Minutes of meeting of 29 Mar. 1915, in Archives de Guerre, Vincennes, 16N1905, GQG, EM, 3e Bur., dos. Armée Anglaise, no. 31.

19 Joffre, Maréchal [JosephJ. -C.], Mémoires du Maréchal Joffre, 1910–1917 (2 vols. Paris, 1932), I, 389–Google Scholar.

20 McDougall, Walter A., France's Rhineland diplomacy, 1914–1924: The last bid for a balance of power in Europe (Princeton, 1978), pp. 35, 59Google Scholar; Pierrefeu, Jean de, GQG, Secteur I: Trois ans au Grand Quartier Général par le rédacteur du communiqué (2 vols. Paris, 1920), I, 169Google Scholar.

21 Général Pichot-Duclos, [R. A.], Réflexions sur ma vie militaire: Au G. Q. G. de Joffre (Paris, 1947), pp. 360–1Google Scholar.

22 Pierrefeu, , GQG, I, 169–70Google Scholar.

23 Soutou, , ‘Marches de l'Est’, pp. 46–52Google Scholar; cf. Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, pp. 5–6Google Scholar; Stevenson, , War aims, pp. 26–7Google Scholar.

24 Soutou, , ‘Marches de l'Est’, pp. 352–3Google Scholar.

25 Stevenson, , War aims, p. 23Google Scholar.

26 Ibid. pp. 48–9.

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

28 Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, pp. 3–9Google Scholar.

29 Ibid. p. 9.

30 Ibid. p. 10; McDougall, , France's Rhineland diplomacy, p. 19Google Scholar; Suarez, Georges, Briand (6 vols. Paris, 1939), III, 407–12Google Scholar.

31 Renouvin, , ‘Les buts de guerre’, pp. 10–11Google Scholar.

32 Ibid. pp. 11–12.

33 Joffre, , Mtmoires, II, 252Google Scholar.

34 Journal de Marche (du General Joffre), vol. II, 12 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, AG, 14N2Google Scholar; cf. Joffre, , Mémoires, II, 253Google Scholar. The ministère des affaires étrangères confirmed the growing opposition to the war effort within the Hungarian parliament in a telegram of the same evening and, basing its information on a report from Berne, foresaw the possibility of the fall of the Tisza ministry if Russian successes were to continue. (Journal de Marche, vol. II, 12 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, 14N2Google Scholar.)

35 Journal de Marche, vol. II, 12 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, 14N2Google Scholar.

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.

41 ‘Observations Justificatives…’, 25 08 1916, joffre, Fonds, 14N35Google Scholar.

42 ‘Armistice Général’, 25 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, 14N35Google Scholar; Foch, Maréchal Ferdinand, Ménoires pour sevir à l'histoire de la Guerre de 1914–1918 (2 vols. Paris, 1931), 11, 278–9Google Scholar.

43 ‘Armistice Général’, 25 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, 14N35Google Scholar.

44 Ibid.

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

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

47 Stevenson, , War aims, p. 39Google Scholar.

48 McDougall, , France's Rhineland diplomacy, p. 19Google Scholar; cf. Joffre, , Mémoires, 11, 371–2Google Scholar.

49 ‘Armistice Général’, 25 08 1916, Joffre, Fonds, 14N35Google Scholar.

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

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

52 Ibid.

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

54 Journal de Marche, vol. IV, 6 10 1916, Joffre, Fonds, 16N2Google Scholar.

55 ‘Conditions de la Paix’, Le Statut del'Allemagne, Etat-Major Général, 2e Bureau, 10 1916, Fonds Joffre, 16N35Google Scholar; cf. Joffre, , Mémoires, 11, 377–8Google Scholar.

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.