ABSTRACT
The fall of France in June 1940 has been described as 'one of the defining events in twentieth-century world politics'. It has also been claimed that 'No event in contemporary history has caused greater shock and consternation than the fall of France in June 1940', since it was so sudden, so unexpected and so complete. A view widely shared, particularly among French intellectuals, was that France by the 1930s had become 'decadent'. It is not immediately clear why this should have been so, since France in those years was not conspicuously scandal-prone, immoral, unstable or self-indulgent. During the inter-war period France sought security through diplomacy as well as through military defence. Appeasement characterized the foreign policies of Britain and France towards Italy and Germany from 1935 until the spring of 1939. De Gaulle claimed that France had been overwhelmed, not by German numerical superiority, but by German tanks, aircraft and military tactics.
