1914 French mobilization

The 1914 French <a href="/facts/Mobilization/XXDdQkgl">mobilization</a> was the set of operations at the very start of <a href="/facts/World_War_I/vITTUanQ">World War I</a> that put the <a href="/facts/French_Army/NCnjovlu">French Army</a> and <a href="/facts/French_Navy/hL9F15Wk">Navy</a> in a position for war, including the theoretical call to arms of all Frenchmen fit for <a href="/facts/Conscription_in_France/dK73Wxgd">military service</a>. Planned long before 1914 (via <a href="/facts/Plan_XVII/Gm8zw9NI">Plan XVII</a>), each man's assignment was based on his age and residence.
It was triggered in response to equivalent measures taken by Germany, the French <a href="/facts/Mobilization/XXDdQkgl">mobilization</a> took place over 17 days, from August 2 to 18, 1914, and involved transporting, clothing, equipping and arming more than three million men in all French territories, both in <a href="/facts/Metropolitan_France/azPuzr4V">metropolitan France</a> and in some of the <a href="/facts/List_of_French_possessions_and_colonies/T1pTy70Y">colonies</a>, and then transporting them by rail to the potential theater of war, which at the time was considered to be the <a href="/facts/France%25E2%2580%2593Germany_border/HoDbUygI">Franco-German border</a>.
Such event had political (<a href="/facts/Sacred_Union/bjahTx84">Sacred Union</a>), socio-economic (due to the departure of almost all young men) and, of course, military consequences (the start of the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_the_Frontiers/FPBH5CWn">Battle of the Frontiers</a>). It was the first time that a general mobilization was declared in France (in 1870, only the professional army was mobilized); the second took place in 1939. In August 1914, 3,780,000 men were mobilized; in total, throughout the war, some 8,410,000 French soldiers and sailors were mobilized, including 7% indigenous soldiers.

1914 French mobilization open-in-new

1914 French mobilization