“Yet the french had spent the previous 50 years with their primary foreign policy aim being the re taking of the German speaking provinces previously taken by Louis 14.”
Harkening back to Louis the 14th, though I don’t doubt people did, is a little like Hitler harkening back to Frederick the Great: anachronistic, neither here nor there, and simply a rhetorical surface cover for deeper motivation. France didn’t want to restore it’s “natural borders”. It wanted revenge for Sedan, if anything. But even that was less on its mind than the spectre of a Germany that absolutely wanted to finish the job.
What do you mean “the spectre of Germany that absolutely wanted to finish the job”? The leaders of the “partial” united Germany thatresulted from frances war in the 1870’s actually were hesitant and feared taking back the German areas from france. Do you really believe that they wanted gay Parie? Come on now.