Reconstructing the Environment, 1944–1955

Abstract

In 1918, after four years of war, the French Minster for Agriculture declared that ‘several years will suffice to restore Reims cathedral if we commit the necessary resources. But however much we spend, it will take at least a century before the forest of Viel-Armand will recover its former splendour.’1 Like its predecessor in 1918, the French government faced the daunting task of repairing environmental war damage once the Liberation began to unfold across French territory from the summer of 1944 onwards. As it had during the preceding years of war and occupation, nature continued to matter in post-war France. This was a chaotic time, characterised by a volatile mixture of public expectations, official and unofficial purges of collaborators, roaming bands of maquisards and the presence of a new set of foreign troops stationed on French soil. Yet despite these upheavals, continuities are evident in France’s environmental history, as in its political and social histories. Not least, intense civilian and military pressures continued to be exerted on limited natural resources, such as timber, which became potentially potent sources of conflict.