French (In)Security: What were the issues?

• France shared a border with Germany

• Germany had been created in 1871 following two wars in which Prussia first defeated Austria and then France

• After defeating France the German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles

• The Germans also took Alsace-Lorraine

• Germany rapidly became a major economic power

• And it had an increasingly powerful military

• Its population was also bigger than that of France and the gap was only widening

• In WW1 German forces were twice within artillery range of Paris

• France wanted Germany weakened