France

===Early to mid-20th century (1914–1946)===
{{Main|History of France (1900–present)}}
France was [[French entry into World War I|invaded by Germany and defended by Great Britain]] to start World War I in August 1914. A rich industrial area in the northeast was occupied. France and the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] emerged victorious against the [[Central Powers]] at a tremendous human and material cost. World War I left 1.4&nbsp;million French soldiers dead, 4% of its population.<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 January 2008 |title=France's oldest WWI veteran dies |publisher=BBC News |location=London |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7199127.stm}}</ref> Between 27 and 30% of soldiers conscripted from 1912 to 1915 were killed.<ref>Spencer C. Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2005). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&pg=PR25 Encyclopedia Of World War I: A Political, Social, And Military History]''. ABC-CLIO. {{ISBN|978-1-85109-420-2}}</ref> The interbellum years were marked by [[Events preceding World War II in Europe|intense international tensions]] and a variety of social reforms introduced by the [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front government]] (e.g., [[annual leave]], [[Eight-hour day|eight-hour workdays]], [[women in government]]).
[[File:El 114 de infantería, en París, el 14 de julio de 1917, León Gimpel.jpg|thumb|French [[Poilu]]s posing with their war-torn flag in 1917, during World War I]]In 1940, France was [[Battle of France|invaded and quickly defeated]] by [[Nazi Germany]]. France was divided into a [[German military administration in occupied France during World War II|German occupation zone]] in the north, an [[Italian occupation of France|Italian occupation zone]] in the southeast and an unoccupied territory, the rest of France, which consisted of the southern French metropolitan territory (two-fifths of pre-war metropolitan France) and the French empire (including [[French protectorate of Tunisia|French Tunisia]], [[French protectorate in Morocco|French Morocco]], and [[French Algeria]]); the [[Vichy France|Vichy government]], a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, ruled the unoccupied territory. [[Free France]], the government-in-exile led by&nbsp;[[Charles de Gaulle]], was set up in London.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crémieux-Brilhac |first=Jean-Louis |title=La France libre |publisher=Gallimard |year=1996 |isbn=2-07-073032-8 |location=Paris |language=fr}}</ref>

From 1942 to 1944, about 160,000 French citizens, including around [[The Holocaust in France|75,000 Jews]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies |url=http://www.holocaust-education.dk/holocaust/deportationer.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416061232/http://www.holocaust-education.dk/holocaust/deportationer.asp |archive-date=16 April 2014}}; {{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/jewish_deportation_01.shtml|title=BBC – History – World Wars: The Vichy Policy on Jewish Deportation|publisher=BBC}}; France, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, {{Cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005429|title=France|access-date=16 October 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206075910/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005429|archive-date=6 December 2014}}</ref> were deported to [[Extermination camp|death camps]] and [[Internment|concentration camps]] in Germany and [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|occupied Poland]].<ref>Noir sur Blanc: Les premières photos du camp de concentration
de Buchenwald après la libération,{{Cite web |title=Archived copy |url=http://www.ain.fr/upload/docs/application/pdf/2011-05/dp_expo_schwartz_auf_weiss_nantua_2011bd.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109055804/http://www.ain.fr/upload/docs/application/pdf/2011-05/dp_expo_schwartz_auf_weiss_nantua_2011bd.pdf |archive-date=9 November 2014 |access-date=14 October 2014}} (French)</ref> In September 1943, [[Corsica]] was the first French metropolitan territory to liberate itself from the [[Axis powers]]. On 6 June 1944, the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] [[Operation Overlord|invaded Normandy]], and in August they [[Operation Dragoon|invaded Provence]]. Over the following year, the Allies and the [[French Resistance]] emerged victorious, and French sovereignty was restored with the establishment of the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic]] (GPRF). This interim government, established by de Gaulle, aimed to continue to [[Western Allied invasion of Germany|wage war against Germany]] and to [[Épuration légale|purge collaborators from office]]. It also made several important reforms (e.g., suffrage extended to women and the creation of a [[Social security in France|social security]] system).