On May 10, 1940, the German team attacked the Netherlands, Belgium and France in Western Europe, and the Battle of France officially broke out. The battle began and ended beyond all expectations. Just 42 days after the war began, France, known as the world's largest army power, surrendered. More than half of France was occupied by Germany. Many people can't figure out why Germany didn't occupy the whole of France, but only half of it, when France had surrendered. The main thing is that the benefits of half are too much, or that there is no need to occupy the whole of France.
Soon after the start of World War II, Germany occupied Poland, and many countries thought that Germany would continue to advance eastward, and then there would be a war with the Soviet Union. As a result, immediately after the occupation of Poland, Germany took the lead in turning west and attacking the countries of Western Europe, and France was to some extent taken by surprise. On June 22, 1940, France surrendered, and the world was caught off guard by this move. No one thought that France would lose, and no one could have imagined that France would surrender so quickly. The surrender of France was still humiliating, with numerous harsh conditions.
When France signed the instrument of surrender, Hitler specifically found the Foch carriage. Because when Germany surrendered in World War I, it was here that it surrendered to France, and Hitler did this to avenge the revenge of the year. Of course, it is not particularly important where the surrender is signed, the content of the surrender is the most important. The general content of the surrender was that "Germany will occupy the northern half of France and the Atlantic coast of France." The French ** team was dismissed. France will pay for the German occupation forces, etc. "The most conspicuous of these is the most humiliating of all when France cedes territory to Germany.
The territory occupied by Germany amounted to 60% of the territory of France, which was directly ruled by Germany. As for the remaining 40% of the territory of France, it is continued to be ruled by the French before**. However, the French ** institution was moved from Paris to Vichy, so the whole ** is also called Vichy France.
This was the situation after the surrender of France, which occupied 60% of its territory by Germany and 40% of its own. Many people can't figure out that since France has surrendered, with Germany's military strength at that time, it is fully capable of occupying the whole of France. At that time, France will perish, and Germany will have direct control over the whole of France on its own. It seems that this is fine, and Germany can do it. But Germany doesn't do it for its own reasons.
First of all, it has to do with European history. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Europe entered a feudal society. The feudalism of Europe was an authentic feudal state, with princes divided and wars constantly. However, the war in Europe is very different from the feudal society in our country, although they will defeat each other, they will not annex each other, and they will hardly destroy each other's country. You're the one who defeats another country, and you're just letting another person run it, and it's rare that the country will be canceled. One of the consequences of this is that many countries in Europe have a long history, and even now many small countries in Europe have a history of thousands of years.
As for the history of France, not to mention, more than a thousand years. With such a long history, Germany could not have completely destroyed it. Once Germany perishes, it will cause a lot of opposition. After all, this is not in keeping with traditional European history.
Secondly, it has to do with the relationship between Germany and France. The two countries of Germany and France are not just neighbors, they are feuding with each other. The hatred between Germany and France is not as simple as years or decades, but as a thousand years. After Charlemagne's empire was divided into three, the relationship between the predecessors of France and Germany was not good, and there were constant wars between the two great powers. In modern times, during the Franco-Prussian War, Germany defeated France. In World War I, France defeated Germany. Now in World War II, Germany has defeated France again. The hatred between them is getting deeper and deeper, and it is difficult to dissolve.
If, after defeating France, Germany completely annihilates France, and directly occupies the whole of France, the entire French people will resolutely oppose it. Moreover, in modern times, nationalism was formed, and France and Germany were two completely different peoples. Once Germany occupied all of France, the French would absolutely oppose the rule of the Germanic people. After all, modern Europe is basically a nation-state, and it is difficult for all ethnic groups to accept foreign rule.
The third is that the cost of occupying all of France is too high. Although Germany was able to defeat France in the Battle of France and occupy many French territories, France still had strong strength. Especially the military strength of France, the French losses in the French campaign were not large, a total of only 90,000 killed and 200,000 wounded. France's military strength was not limited to this at all, and even at the time of surrender, it still had a large number of troops. If Germany had forcibly occupied all of France, these servicemen would have resisted.
In addition to the French rebellion, the French people would also resist if they saw that Germany was going to occupy all of France. In this case, the German army will have a big **, and in any case, it will not be cost-effective.
The fourth is that Germany can control the whole of France. After the surrender of France, although Germany occupied only half of France, the whole of France was controlled by Germany. Needless to say, the territories in northern France occupied by Germany were already under German control. As for Vichy France in the south, nominally an independent regime but in fact security was a puppet, and they were in many ways subordinate to France. One might say that Vichy France could secretly rebel against Germany, but in fact this state of affairs did not exist at all. Let's not say whether Vichy France would oppose Germany, and even if Vichy France did oppose Germany, it would certainly not succeed.
Although France had many advantages in its territory, one of its fatal drawbacks was that once the northern regions were occupied, it was easy to move south to occupy the rest of the southern regions. At this time, the German ** team was stationed in northern France, and Vichy France really had no resistance in front of the German army, and they couldn't resist if they wanted to.
The fifth is to use French influence to control more resources. Although Germany occupied part of French territory and France surrendered to Germany, Germany could not replace France. The most important of these was to replace the French influence in the international arena and the control of the French colonies. Although France surrendered, the influence did not disappear completely, but only weakened. Since Germany did not occupy all of France, France** still existed. France still had some influence around the world, especially in the French colonies, and most of them obeyed France. When Germany takes control of France, it can also control France's colonies and expand its influence around the world.
This is still a good deal. Even if France's colonies could not all be controlled by Germany, it would not be easy for other countries to control them. After all, the French are still there, and they still have a lot of influence here.
The sixth is to show other countries。Germany's goal is not just France, but the whole of Europe, and indeed the whole world. If France is defeated, Germany will occupy all of France and rule it directly. The other countries that were not occupied by Germany would definitely resolutely oppose Germany in the future, after all, if they did not oppose it, they would die. But it was not the same when Germany allowed Vichy France to exist, although everyone knew that this regime was a puppet of Germany, but the French still had their own **. In this way, Germany would also have less resistance when attacking other countries.
That's why Germany didn't occupy all of France. Of course, Vichy France still had certain rights in the early stage. However, as the war progressed, the regime was largely under complete German control in the later period. But Germany never destroyed Vichy France and allowed it to exist. The main thing is that it is not cost-effective to destroy this regime and occupy the whole of France.