In 1870-1871 a coalition of German states led by Prussia quickly defeated France’s fielded forces in a matter of weeks before becoming bogged down in a lengthy “people’s war” ( Volkskrieg) something we might now call an “insurgency”. There is a similar continuity running across Franco-German conflicts from 1870 to 1940, which helps to contextualize the war on the Western Front. There is a longue durée concept of fortified defence running from Vauban through to the great forts that existed in 1914 (Verdun, Belfort, Toul) and the later Maginot Line.
In the 1600s, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707) famously sought to design and build an interlinking series of forts (which he called the “ pré carré”) to shelter France’s eastern border from attacks that might come through Central Europe. The region had been of critical importance for French security for centuries. In many ways the war on the Western Front began as a fundamentally Franco-German conflict, and one with deep historical roots.
