10 - The First World War

Summary

Preparing France psychologically for war had posed a huge challenge for the authorities, but fighting that war would provide an even sterner test of the bold words and egalitarian resolutions of the pre-war years. The French government did not, of course, hesitate when war was declared; it did not challenge established ideas of duty or the need for universal conscription. Nor did the young men who were called up flinch from their duty, and the myth grew, as powerful in its way as the myth of the levée en masse itself, that they had come forward willingly, sharing a common enthusiasm for their country's defence that recalled the valour of their forebears in the revolutionary armies at Valmy and Jemappes. It was even claimed that they rushed headlong to the front, chatting, laughing, some cheering, all intent on gaining belated revenge for the French defeat in 1871 and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine. The truth, of course, was less heroic. There were isolated instances of joy and exhilaration expressed in public, largely in Paris; and certain newspapers made it their business to repeat such stories as they desperately tried to stir up patriotism among their readers. But these were rare aberrations in a country where the general mood was much more sombre. The great mass of French people did not whoop with joy or long for a war of revenge, and the dominant mood in the country was one of resignation and acceptance, often mingled with anguish and scarcely concealed fear.