Other than ww2, where they were entirely destroyed militarily by Germany just like other European countries, the french have been one of if not the strongest land military throughout modern European history.
from ww2 on they have been one of the weakest military's in the world. Not to mention that when you are one of the biggest contenders in the first world war to losing your entire nation in 1 year it is hard to say they are much of a contender.
The large part was due to the fact that the French, aside from the Germans lost the most lives out of all the European Powers. The French people had no want for war but preparations were made but the German war machine was far superior to the French. No one expected the Germans to do what they managed to do. The Germans completely circumvented most of the French defenses along the common border between Germany and france by going trough neutral countries. France wasn't worried about tiny Belgium or other smaller countries so they didn't defend those regions. Also mechanized warfare made the advances made by the Germans significantly faster than had be previously done in ww1. When your slowest unit is a truck you can do a lot more much more quickly than of your army moved at the speed of a foot soldier.
so their army was less superior due to them relying on someone to attack their placement guns and due to them lacking in mobility correct. Yes they had plenty of reason to assume germany would attack from Belgium due to germany declaring war against france and due to them doing the exact same thing in ww1. Their army was inferior in many ways and still seems to be that way.
Their defence budget is slightly larger than the UK's at the moment I believe. Not that this means they are better or larger, but I as a Brit am not happy about it
Pretty much the U.S russia and china all the large nations. Even though they claim they have the 5th best they are really crunched up with the other 20-30 countries. Whereas the top 4 or 5 nations are leagues above it in both air force numbers tanks navy. pretty much everything.
they need it for the same reason armies have always needed military's defense of your country. After all relations between the 3 big nations are not the best and if history repeats which it tends to no one truly escapes the effect of war. I mean when you have the U.S, U.K. And Russia fighting off all the threats for you it tends to make you a weaker more relaxed country.
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