Carte du Front

The idealized Western Front according to a French daily newspaper.

This ‘Map of the Front edited by the Petite Gironde [newspaper]’ actually doesn’t depict any ‘real’ Western Front as it existed during the war years of 1914 – 1918. Rather, it presents idealized borders in the contested area between Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg that would see the region of Alsace-Lorraine returned to the French.

It was likely published near the end of the war in 1918, when Allied victory was assured and negotiations on German concessions were heating up among the winning powers. France was eager to regain territory lost to the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and was ultimately validated by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919, which closely reflect the borders depicted here.

La Petite Gironde was a French newspaper that was popular in the southern regions of the country and operated between 1872 and 1944 (particularly relevant dates in French history). Though originally centrist, it grew into a right-leaning, monarchist publication that was banned late in World War II for collaboration with the Nazi regime during the occupation of France.