ABSTRACT
The most important difference between the situations in Italy and Germany and that in France in 1934 was that the rightwing agitation of February 6, 1934 provoked a broad union of leftwing forces that temporarily consolidated the democratic republic. While Leon Blum prepared to assume the premiership, the Popular Front movement boiled over into a nationwide wave of industrial strikes more extensive than those of 1906 or 1920. The uproar against the government’s use of force on demonstrators, including wounded war veterans, led the Radical Prime Minister Edouard Daladier to resign. Part of the Blum government’s economic difficulties stemmed from the rapidly deteriorating international situation. Hitler’s remilitarization of the Rhineland had tilted the military balance toward a rapidly rearming Germany. Although reluctance to contemplate another war was almost universal in France during the 1930s, no one could ignore the growing threat from Germany after 1933.
