page_title: Paris in World War I
section_title: Paris mobilizes
hierarchical_section_title: Paris in World War I / Paris mobilizes
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Mobilized people in front of the gare de l'Est, on august, 2 1914. The gateway between the station and the hotel on the left has been destroyed later, but the doors on each side are yet visible Français&#160;: Les mobilisés parisiens devant la gare de l'Est le 2 août 1914. La passerelle entre la gare et l'hôtel sur la gauche a depuis été détruite, mais les portes d'accès des deux côtés restent visibles
context_page_description: Parisians entered the First World War in August 1914 on a wave of patriotic fervor, but within a few weeks Paris was close to the front lines and bombarded by German aircraft and artillery. The Parisians endured food shortages, rationing, and an epidemic of influenza, but morale remained high until near the end of the war. With the departure of young men to the front lines, women took a much greater place in the work force. The city also saw a large influx of immigrants who came to work in the defense factories. The end of the war on November 11, 1918 saw huge celebrations on the boulevards of Paris.
context_section_description: On June 28, 1914, the news reached Paris of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Serbian nationalists in Sarajevo. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, and following the terms of their alliances, the German Empire joined Austria-Hungary, while Russia, Great Britain and France went to war against Austria-Hungary and Germany in quick succession. The war was opposed by some prominent socialists and pacifists, but the press and most political leaders pressed for war. On July 31, one day before a general mobilization was declared in France, one of the most prominent leaders of the French Left, the socialist politician Jean Jaurès, an outspoken opponent of going to war, was assassinated at the Café Croissant on Montmartre, not far from the offices of the socialist newspaper L'Humanité, by Raoul Villain, a mentally-unstable man who considered Jaurès an "enemy of France." 
  Most male Parisians of military age were required to report on August 2 to designated stations around the city for mobilization into the army. The army command expected that up to thirteen percent would not appear, but to their surprise all but one percent appeared as ordered. The poet and novelist Anatole France, at the age of seventy, appeared at the recruitment station to show his support. The Ministry of the Interior was prepared to arrest prominent pacifists and socialists who opposed the war, but, in the face of little opposition to the war, the arrests were never carried out. The next day, August 3, Germany declared war on France.
caption: A crowd of reservists being mobilized at the Gare de l'Est (2 August 1914)
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