Introduction

Abstract

In June 1940, after a battle which had lasted only six weeks, the French government signed an Armistice agreement with Germany. If he had wished to do so, Hitler could have overrun the whole of France without difficulty, since the French Army had been routed and further resistance was out of the question. Recognising, however, that such action might provoke the French government to flee abroad and there continue the fight, he chose instead to offer terms which to a nation and government reeling from the shock of defeat seemed more generous than they had a right to expect. The French Fleet was to be demilitarised, but remained in French hands. The Colonial Empire was untouched. Most important of all, a substantial portion of French metropolitan territory was left unoccupied and a government enjoying at least some of the attributes of sovereignty was allowed to establish itself in Vichy.