World War I
- The Guardian explores a little bit about Paris in 1900–or, “la belle époque” before the first World War broke out.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/15/paris-1900-belle-epoque-exhibition-petit-palais - A timeline and World War I by the numbers.
http://www.france-pub.com/world-war-1.php- How do these numbers compare to World War II?
- Fleury-devant-Douaumont, one of the villages destroyed during the Battle of Verdun, remains as empty today as it was by the end of the war.
https://travelfranceonline.com/fleury-devant-douaumont-destroyed-village-verdun-wwi/ - Battle of Verdun was a turning point for the French during the war, but it came at a cost to the people of the region.
http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-battle-of-verdun - The Treaty of Versailles was the end result of World War I, and it is regarded as an act of humiliating Germany, as well as an unfair treaty.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/paris-peace- In what ways did the French government leverage themselves in the Treaty of Versailles?
World War II
- Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong, “World War II: The Unforgotten War” PDF
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “German Invasion of Western Europe, May 1940”: exploring the links through this page, there are maps showing the lines of invasion in Western Europe, photographs of the destruction, and even more resources.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005181 - World War II by the numbers.
http://www.shmoop.com/wwii/statistics.html - In 1940, the south of France became Nazi-occupied; this region is known as Vichy France and it was led by Phillipe Pétain. This minute-long video gives a short history of the Vichy regime, and the articles explain the stigma against having knowledge of this regime, or of acknowledging it.
Article 1: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35188755
Article 2: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/france-making-thousands-vichy-era-documents-public-180957661/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmhnyZ3XZQI - World War II left an enormous impact on societies throughout the world, shaping governmental structure, public policies, race relations, communities, and so on. France was shaped by World War II as well, in more ways than one.
http://www.euronews.com/2015/05/05/how-world-war-ii-shaped-modern-france - A thematic, rather than chronological approach, to understanding the occupation in Paris.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-history-of-paris-during-nazi-occupation/2014/08/29/fce9e112-222c-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html?utm_term=.e838b775ca61