>>7402399In the meantime, a french general by the name of Jean Baptiste Estienne had another idea for tanks. Instead of making these large and heavy tanks like the british, he had the is idea of a «mosquito tank» (char moustique), a small-sized, cheeap and lightweight vehicle that could be used in overwhelming numbers. These small machines could be used in charges of hundreds of tanks at once. But the rest of the military was not keen on his idea, and so he decided to take another approach, by contacting the car manufacturer renault directly, and task him with creating a prototype he could then show to the military. Renault agreed, and in early 1917 it was accepted in service as the Renault FT.
Unlike previous tanks, this one had a lot of very interesting and innovative solutions: it was the first tank to be built with a rotating turret, where the main gun was placed. Unlike british tanks, which had multiple guns, and more crewmembers to man them, the FT only required two people to operate: one driver, and one tank commander which also used the gun. This meant, in turn, that the tank could be made smaller and lighter. Where british designs sat at around 30 tons, the FT only weighed 7, making it cheaper and easier to transport. It's no surprise, knowing this, that the FT was by far the most heavily produced tank of WWI, with around 6000 vehicles being manufactured before the armistice.
The tank also had a huge impact worldwide: after WWI, most countries noticed the FT, and sought to buy it. Thankfully for them, France had thousands of tanks sitting around, and sold them to whoever wanted one. From the US to Poland, to Italy and many more, the FT became the basis of tank design for a good decade after that. It is often considered the first «modern» tank.
