In addition, the French kept the Rhineland under military
occupation for part of the decade, which is the frontier/border region between the two
countries. Even later in the decade when the French withdrew, they required that Germany keep
the Rhineland demilitarized.
They also spent huge sums of
money--$200 million at tne time, billions in today's dollars--constructing an elaborate defensive
line of fortifications, bunkers, gun emplacements and tank traps called the Maginot Line, which
covered the entire German-French border (just not the border with Luxembourg and Belgium, which
would later prove to be fatal). They also maintained a very large standing army hoping this
would be a deterrent to any kind of German aggression in the future. It also led to their
overconfidence, believing no German attack could be successful. They didn't count on the
Blitzkrieg.
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