text: what was the economic situation of france in world war 2?   actually, france was not in good shape in 1940, regardless of what conservative revisionism would have you believe. france never really recovered from the great depression because the conservatives never allowed any sort of monetary reform but instead stayed with the gold standard which allowed no fiscal flexibility. france had further ruined herself with the construction of the maginot line which was cripplingly expensive. during the time when germany was still making reparations, the french government seemed more interested in punishing germany than in rebuilding france, so many of the products demanded were expensive yet only moderately useful. when the liberal government came to power, entrenched business interests further weakened the economy rather than see socialists have any good news. then, when germany invaded poland, marshall gaimlan (i'm sure the spelling is way wrong) felt that it was better to have germany bordering russia than to have a free poland, so he did not allow french armies to advance even to the rhine and then quickly retreated. as to the advice received that the invasion would be through holland, britain sent two of its best agents to investigate but it turned out to be a plant and the agents were captured and spent the entire war in captivity. in the interwar years, all of france's eastern european allies had signed separate non-agression pacts with germany, while england and the conservatives in france would not allow any sort of meaningful negotiations with soviet russia (not necessarily a bad idea since stalin was so untrustworthy and had made a total mess of spain). when the invasion finally did occur, the french nation was economically exhausted, politically isolated, and militarily led by officers who thought only of their own political careers, who would rather see hitler victorious than see daladier have another term as premier.