We know that the United Nations is arguably the most influential international organization in the world today, and the United Nations has a Security Council with only five permanent members: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China.
Just from the composition of the Security Council, it can be seen that China, the United States, Britain, France and Russia are the five most influential powers in the world today, and among them, there is one country with an interesting history, which surrendered after a month of fighting with Germany after the start of World War II, and this country became one of the five major powers in the world after the war.
Great views of France
This country is France, which faced the same problem as other capitalist countries on the eve of World War II - the economic recession brought about by the Great Economic Crisis. In 1929, an unprecedented economic crisis broke out in the capitalist world, and in the face of the crisis, European and American countries responded differently.
The United States alleviated the crisis through the "Roosevelt New Deal", and the fascist forces in Japan and Germany seized the opportunity to control state power and embarked on the fascist road. On the other hand, France, although France did not embark on the "crooked road" of Japan and Germany, it failed to alleviate the economic crisis like the United States, and the French economy continued to decline and the political situation was very unstable, which gave Germany an opportunity.
Germany on the path of fascism
After Hitler came to power in Germany, he integrated party, government and military power, and in order to get rid of the economic crisis and the impact of the defeat in World War I, Hitler decided to lead Germany on the road of foreign expansion. Hitler gained a strong fighting power through the centralization of power, while France, which was in political turmoil at this time, did not have a firm position in foreign policy.
France and Germany have been old enemies on the European continent for hundreds of years, and in the face of Hitler's external expansion after coming to power, France seems to be somewhat inadequate, and in terms of national cohesion and execution on the eve of World War II, France has lost to Germany.
The appeasement policies of France and Britain also nourished Nazi Germany step by step, enabling Nazi Germany to seize more war resources and more combat effectiveness.
French landscapes
It was not until Nazi Germany annexed Poland that France suddenly came back to its senses, realized that Germany's ambitions did not stop there, and hurriedly declared war on Germany.
Hitler also decided to attack France. Because France was caught off guard by the "Schlieffen Project" during World War I, France built the Maginot Line after World War I, and France pinned its hopes on the Maginot Line, who knew that Nazi Germany had produced a military wizard called "Manstein".
Manstein believed that the war should be won by surprise, so in the battle with France, Manstein took advantage of the high mobility of German tanks, adopted the method of blitzkrieg warfare, and cleverly used the German army to form a siege of the French army, and made France have to surrender within a month.
French woman
After the surrender, France also formed a "government-in-exile" in Britain, and France later completed the Normandy landings with Britain and the United States with the successful withdrawal of troops in the Dunkirk operation, and finally successfully restored the country.
After World War II, France, as a victorious power, also successfully entered the United Nations Security Council and became one of the five major powers in the world.
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