 The great conclusion that was drawn in Paris after the "Ruhrkampf" and the 1924 London conference was that France could not make unilateral military moves to uphold Versailles as the resulting British hostility to such moves was too dangerous to the republic.Beyond that, the French were well aware of the contribution of Britain and its Dominions to the victory of 1918, and French decision-makers believed that they needed Britain's help to win another war; the French could only go so far with alienating the British.From 1871 onward, French elites had concluded that France had no hope of defeating Germany on its own, and France would need an alliance with another great power to defeat the "Reich".