France, officially the French Republic, is a unitary semi-presidential
republic in Western Europe, with a number of overseas regions and
territories. France is the largest country in Western Europe and the
third largest in Europe as a whole, extending from the Mediterranean Sea
to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the
Atlantic Ocean. Save for Morocco and Spain, it is the only country that
has both an Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline.
As one of the oldest countries in the world,
France has a long and eventful history. Today it stands as one of the world’s major powers,
with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in
Europe and around the world.
History of France: Early History and People
Stone tools recovered in the area now known as France suggest that early
humans may have inhabited the region at least 1.5 million years ago.
Neanderthals, who inhabited France during the Middle Paleolithic period
(90,000-40,000 B.C.), are the first known people to have lived in the
region. These Homo sapiens hunted animals, made crude tools from
flake-stone and lived in caves. In the late 19th century, Neanderthal skeletons were found in caves located at Le Bugue, a French region in the Vezere Valley in Dordogne.
Evidence of Cro-Magnons in France has also been found. A taller Homo
sapiens variety, Cro-Magnons are thought to have existed in the region
approximately 35,000 years ago. These early humans had larger brains
than their ancestors, long and narrow skulls, and short, wide faces.
With much nimbler hands, Cro-Magnons were able to construct more
advanced tools for hunting a number of species, including reindeer,
bison, horses and mammoths. They played music, danced and had fairly
complicated social patterns. Archaeological treasures from this period
can still be seen today in the museums of Strasbourg.
The Cro-Magnon people were also artists—primarily crude drawings that
have helped archaeologists to somewhat piece together their history. A
tour of Grotte de Lascaux in France—a replica of the Lascaux cave where
one of the world’s best examples of Cro-Magnon drawings were found in
1940—illustrates how early elemental drawings and etchings of animals
gradually became more detailed and realistic. Nicknamed “Perigord’s
Sistine Chapel,” the Lascaux cave is one of 25 known caves decorated in
Dordogne’s Vezere Valley.
The Neolithic period, also known as the New Stone Age, also produced
France’s incredible collection of menhirs and dolmens. An ode to these
megalithic monuments can be seen on the Morbihan Coast in Brittany.
During this era, warmer weather caused great changes in the natural
flora and fauna, and saw the beginning of activities such as farming and
raising stock. Peas, beans, lentils and cereals were grown, and
villages were settled. Decorated pottery, woven fabrics and polished
stone tools also became common household items.
History of France: Gaul and the Roman Conquest
The Gauls, a predominantly Celtic people, moved into the region now
known as France between 1500 and 500 B.C., establishing trading links by
approximately 600 B.C. with the Greeks, whose colonies included
Massilia (Marseille) on the Mediterranean coast. From a geographic
perspective, Gaul, as a region, comprised all lands from the Pyrenees
and the Mediterranean coast of modern France to the English Channel and
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rhine River and the western Alps. In
short, the Gaul was not a “natural” unit but a Roman construct, the
result of a decision to defend Italy from across the Alps.
In the 2nd century B.C., Rome intervened on the side of
Massilia in its conflicts against the tribes of Gaul, its core aim being
the protection of the route from Italy to its new possessions in Spain.
The end result of this backing was the formation of the Provincia
(Province), a region spanning from the Mediterranean coast to Lake
Geneva, with its capital at Narbo (Narbonne). In the years from 58 B.C.
to 50 B.C., Caesar seized the remainder of Gaul. Although motivated my
power and personal ambition, Caesar justified the seizure by appealing
to deep-seated fear of Celtic war bands and further Germanic
incursions. Centuries of conflict between the Gauls and Romans ended in
52 B.C. when Caesar’s legions crushed a revolt led by the Gallic chief
Vercingétorix in Gergovia, near present-day Clermont-Ferrand.
The Gallic people quickly assimilated to the new Greco-Roman way of
life. The period that followed the Roman conquest gave rise to
magnificent structures: baths, temples, public buildings and aqueducts
such as the Pont du Gard. Stunning theatres and amphitheatres were
built in places like Autun, Lyon, Vienne, Arles and Orange. Lyon also
has an excellent Gallo-Roman civilization museum. Stones from
Periguex’s first-century Roman amphitheater, which was torn down
sometime in the 3rd century, were later used to build the city walls.
France remained under Roman rule until the 5th century, when
the Franks and the Alemanii overran the country from the east. These
people adopted important elements of Gallo-Roman civilization (including
Christianity) and their eventual assimilation resulted in a type of
fusion in which elements of the Germanic culture were combined with that
of the Celts (Gauls) and Romans.
History of France: A Look at the Dynasties
Around 450 AD, various groups of Franks moved southwards. The Ripuarian
Franks, as they would come to be known, settled near present-day
Cologne, in the middle of the Rhine area, and along the lower forks of
the Moselle and Meuse rivers. There were also what would become the
Salian Franks, who settled along the Atlantic coast region. The Salian
Franks, along the Atlantic coastline, were divided into many small
kingdoms. One of the better-known groups established itself in and
around the city of Tournai; its kinglet was Childeric (died c.
481/482), who traditionally is regarded as a close relative in the male
line of Merovech, eponymous ancestor of the Merovingian dynasty.
Merovingian Dynasty
Childeric was succeeded by his son, Clovis (481/482-511), as King of the
Merovingian dynasty. Among other accomplishments, Clovis was
responsible for unifying Gaul, with the exception of a few regions in
the southeast. He consolidated the position of the Franks in northern
Gaul during the years following his accession. In 486 he defeated
Syagrius, the last Roman ruler in Gaul, and in a series of later
campaigns, with strong Gallo-Roman support, he occupied an area situated
between the new Frankish kingdoms of Tournai, the Visigothic and
Burgundian kingdoms, and the lands occupied by the Ripuarian Franks and
the Alemanni, removing it from imperial control once more.
Clovis established Paris as the capital of his new kingdom, and in 508
he received some sort of recognition from Emperor Anastasius, possibly
an honorary consulship, and the right to use the imperial insignia.
These privileges gave the new king a credibility of sorts that were
useful in gaining the support of his Gallo-Roman subjects. Clovis,
together with his army of 3,000, converted to Christianity in 498,
becoming the first Franks to do so. When Clovis died in 511 the kingdom
was divided between his four sons, who continued to make new conquests,
particularly those in Burgundy and Southern Germany.
The Carolingian Dynasty
As power was handed down for generations to the next son in the
Merovingian bloodline, the dynasty continued to rule the country until
751, although in the 720s they became mainly puppet authorities, as
effective power was increasingly concentrated in the hands of the
Pippinids (later the Carolingian Dynasty), who thanks to their valuable
landholdings and loyal retainers, maintained a monopoly on the office of
mayor of the palace.Because of their family’s disposition for the name
Charles and because of the significance of Charlemagne in the family’s
history, modern historians have traditionally called the Pippinids the
Carolingian Dynasty.
The Carolingian Dynasty ruled the Frankish kingdom from the 8th century to the 10th
century. Upon the death of Pippin II in 714, the Carolingian hegemony
was in jeopardy. His heir was a grandchild, entrusted to the regency of
his widow, Plectrude. During his brief reign the Saxons crossed the
Rhine, and the Arabs crossed the Pyrenees, thus putting the kingdom at
great risk. However, the situation was rectified by Pippin’s
illegitimate son, Charles Martel. When Charles defeated the Neustrians
at Ambleve (716), Vincy (717), and Soissons (719), he declared himself
master of northern Francia (although he never received the title of
king). Martel is best known for reestablishing Frankish authority in
southern Gaul, where he prevented the Moors from taking control (as they
did in Spain) during the Battle of Tours (732) in Poitiers.
At the death of Charles Martel (741), the lands and powers in his hands
were divided between his two sons, Carloman and Pippin III (the Short),
as was the custom. This partition was followed by unsuccessful
insurrections in the peripheral duchies—Aquitaine, Alemannia, and
Bavaria.
Pippin III remained loyal to the custom of the Carolingian dynasty, and
upon his death in 768 his kingdom was divided between his two sons,
Charles (Charlemagne) and Carloman. The succession did not proceed
smoothly, however, as Charlemagne faced a serious revolt in Aquitaine as
well as the enmity of his brother, who refused to help suppress the
revolt. Carloman’s death in 771 saved the kingdom from civil war.
Charlemagne dispossessed his nephews from their inheritance and reunited
the kingdom under his own authority. Charlemagne ruled the Frankish
kingdom from 742-814 and is generally considered one of the foremost
leaders in world history. By extending the boundaries of the kingdoms
through a number of bloody conflicts he was ultimately named the Holy
Emperor of Rome (Emperor of the West) in 800. During the 9th
century, however, Scandinavian Vikings (Norsemen or Normans) raided
France’s western coast, settling in the lower Seine Valley and forming
the duchy of Normandy a century later.
Capetian Dynasty
The Carolingian Dynasty ruled France until the late 10th
century, up until Hugh Capet was crowned king in 987, establishing the
Capetian Dynasty. Capet’s then-modest domain, which at the time
consisted of a parcel of land surrounding Paris and Orleans—was hardly
representative of a dynasty that would rule France, one of the most
powerful countries on earth, for the next 800 years.
It was during this time that William the Conqueror and his Norman forces
occupied England in 1066, making Normandy and, later, Plantagenet-ruled
England formidable rivals of the kingdom of France. In 1152 Eleanor of
Aquitaine wed Henry of Anjou, bringing a further third of France under
the control of the English crown. The bitter rival that followed
between France and England for Control of Aquitaine and the vast English
territories in France lasted three centuries.
In 1095, at what is now Clermont-Ferrand, Pope Urban II preached the
First Crusade, prompting France to play a leading role in the Crusades
and giving rise to some splendid Christian cathedrals, including Reims,
Strasbourg, Metz and Chartres. In 1309, French- born Pope Clement V
moved the papal headquarters from Rome to Avignon, and Avignon’s third
pope, Benoit XII, started work on the magnificent Palais de Papes (Palace of the Pope). The Holy See remained in France until 1337.
History of France: The Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years War was a series of battles between England and
France. The war can be traced back to William the Conqueror, crowned
King of England in 1066, who, after defeating the French at the Battle
of Hastings, united England and Normandy and wanted to rule both as his
own. Things finally boiled over between the Capetians and England’s King
Edward III in 1337, sparking a conflict that would officially last
until 1453. The French suffered particularly nasty defeats at Crécy and
Agincourt (home to a great multimedia battle museum). Abbey-studded
Mont St-Michel was the only place in northern and western France not to
fall into English hands.
Five years later, the dukes of Burgundy (allied with the English)
occupied Paris, and in 1422, John Plantagenet, duke of Bedford, was made
regent of France for England’s King Henry VI, then an infant. Less than
a decade later he was crowned king of France at Paris’ Notre Dame
Cathedral.
It was right about this time that a seventeen year-old woman came along
by the name of Jeanne d’ Arc (Joan of Arc). In 1429, she persuaded
French legitimist Charles VII that she had a divine mission from God to
expel the English from France and usher in Charles as King. Joan of Arc
was convicted of performing witchcraft and heresy by a tribunal of
French church officials and subsequently sold to the English in 1430,
where she was burned at the stake.
Charles VII did finally return to Paris in 1437, however, it was not
until 1453 that the English were ultimately driven from French
territory. In 1491, at the Chateau de Langeais, Charles VIII wed Anne
de Bretagne, signaling the unification of France with independent
Brittany.
History of France: Renaissance
Chateau Chambord
When the Italian Renaissance movement made its way to
France during the reign of Francois I (1517-47), the focus shifted to
France’s Loire Valley. There Italian and French artists adored the
royal castles in places such as Amboise, Blois, Chambord and Chaumont,
including the renowned Leonardo da Vinci, who lived in Le Clos Luce in
Amboise from 1516 until his death. Disciples of Michelangelo and
Raphael—artists and architects—were very influential during this period,
as were writers such as Ronsard, Rabelais and Marot. Many noted
Renaissance ideas of geography and science were lauded, and discovery
assumed a new importance, as did the value of secular over religious
life.
History of France: The Reformation
The Reformation blew into Europe and began to take hold in the 1530s.
The ideas of Martin Luther were strengthened by those of John Calvin
(1509-64), a Frenchman born in Noyon (Picardie) but exiled to Geneva.
Following the Edict of January 1562, which gave Protestant certain
rights, the Wars of Religion (1562-68) erupted between the Huguenots
(French Protestants who received help from the mostly-Protestant
English), the Catholic League (led by the House of Guise) and the
Catholic Monarchs. In 1588, the Catholic League forced Henry III, who
ruled from 1574-1589, to flee the royal court at the Louvre and the next
year the monarch was assassinated.
Succeeding Henry III (ruled 1589-1610) on the throne was Henri IV,
representing the onset of the Bourbon Dynasty. He was succeeded by
Louis XIII, known as Fontainebleau. Louis XIII had a fairly
undistinguished reign and he remained under the thumb of his chief
minister Cardinal Richelieu, best known for his untiring efforts to
establish an all-powerful monarchy in France and French Supremacy in
Europe.
History of France: Louis XIV, Louis XV, and the Seven Years War
Louis XIV, familiarly known as the “Sun King,” ascended to the throne in
1643 at age 5, and would remain the King of France until 1715.
Brazened by claims of French divine right, Louis XIV involved the
country of France in a number of wars and battles; conflicts that gained
territory for France but alarmed its neighbors and nearly drained the
national treasury. In France, he helped to quell the ambitious, feuding
aristocracy and created the first centralized French state. In the town
of Versailles, some 23 kilometers outside of Paris, he built a
magnificent and lush palace and made courtiers compete with each other
for royal favor.
Louis XV, the grandson of Louis XIV, ascended to the throne in 1715 and
continued to rule the country until his death in 1774. Not nearly the
statesman that his grandfather was, Louis XV allowed his regent, the
Duke of Orleans, to shift the court back to Paris. As the 18th
century progressed, the old-order Monarchy became increasingly at odds
with the French people. In this Age of Enlightenment, where the
anti-establishment and anti-church ideas of Voltaire, Rousseau and
Montesquieu, the royal court also became threatened.
The Seven Years War of 1756-63 pitted France and Austria against Prussia
and the British. This was just one of the many wars that spelled doom
for Louis XV, leading to the loss of France’s flourishing colonies in
Canada, the West Indies and India to the British. It was a pricey war
to say the least, especially for the monarchy, as it helped to
disseminate in France the radical democratic ideas that had been placed
on the world stage during the American Revolutionary War.
History of France: The French Revolution
The latter half of the 18th century saw revolution come to
France, marked by a number of social and economic crises. In hopes of
deflecting some of this personal dissatisfaction among the people, Louis
XV’s successor, Louis XVI, called a meeting of the Etats Generaux
(Estates General) in 1789, a body made up of representatives of the
nobility (First Estate), clergy (Second Estate) and the remaining 90
percent of the population (Third Estate). When the people’s or Third
Estate’s call for a system of proportionate voting was denied, it
claimed itself a National Assembly and demanded a constitution. On the
streets, a mob of French citizens took the matter into their own hands
by raiding armories for weapons and storming the doors of the prison at
Bastille, now one of France’s most popular landmarks.
France was declared a constitutional monarchy and many reforms were
enacted. However, as the new government readied itself for threats
posed by Austria, Prussia and the many exiled French nobles, patriotism
and nationalism butted heads with revolutionary fervor. Soon after, the
moderate republican Girondins lost power to the radical Jacobins led by
Robespierre, Danton and Marat, and in September 1792 France’s First
Republic was declared. Louis XVI was publicly guillotined in January
1793 on Paris’ Place de la Concorde, and his queen, the vilified Marie-Antoinette, faced a similar fate several months later.
The horrifying Reign of Terror, from September 1793 to July 1794, saw
religious freedoms revoked, churches closed, cathedrals transformed into
‘Temples of Reason’ and thousands incarcerated in dungeons in Paris’
Conciergerie before being beheaded.
Following the Revolution, a five-man delegation of moderate republicans,
led by Paul Barras, was founded as a Directory to rule the new French
Republic. This would be short-lived, however, due largely to the
arrival of a young Corsican general named Napoleon Bonaparte
(1769-1821).
History of France: Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon was a charismatic leader whose skills and military tactics
rapidly transformed him into an independent political force. In 1799 he
overthrew the newly-created Directory and assumed power as consul of the
First Empire. In 1802, a referendum declared him consul of France for
life, his birthday became a national holiday, and in 1804 he was crowned
emperor of the French by Pope Pius VII at Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral.
Two years later, he commissioned the world’s largest triumphal arch to
be built in his honor.
To broaden and make more credible his authority, Napoleon waged a series
of large-scale wars, gaining control of most of Europe in the process,
including Spain. In 1812, Napoleon’s troops captured Moscow, but the
long and brutal Russian winter proved too much for his army and most
either died or fled. Two years later, Allied armies entered Paris,
exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba and restored the House of Bourbon
to the French throne at the Congress of Vienna (1814-15). However,
this was not the last France would hear about Napoleon. Three years
later, in 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba, landed in southern Europe
and marched on Paris. His brief “Hundred Days” back in power ended with
the Battle of Waterloo and his return to exile, this time to the South
Atlantic island of St. Helena. Napoleon Bonaparte died there in 1821,
and in 1840 his remains were returned to Paris.
History of France: 19th Century France
Once power was restored to the House of Bourbon, three fairly
ineffective French Kings—Louis XVIII (1815-24), Charles X (1824-30) and
Louis Philippe—tried to restore France to the strong monarchy it enjoyed
in the past. However, the people who saw the changes wrought by the
French Revolution and the radicals of the poor working-class were not
willing to return to the old status quo. The people revolted, once in
1830 and again in 1848, the latter resulting in Louis Philippe’s ouster
as king.
The Second Republic in France was established soon after and elections
brought Napoleon’s nephew, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, to the office of
president. Two years later, in 1851, Louis Napoleon led a coup d’état
and proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III of the Second Empire
(1852-70).
Arc de Triomphe
During the Second Empire, France enjoyed significant
economic growth. Paris was completely remade under urban planner Baron
Haussmann, who created the 12 enormous boulevards radiating from the Arc
de Triomphe. Meanwhile, Napoleon III, who is was a fairly ineffective
leader, threw glittering parties at the royal palace, and vacationed in
places like Biarritz and Deauville.
Like his uncle, Napoleon III involved France in a variety of bloody
conflicts, including the Crimean War (1853-56) and the devastating
Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), a conflict that ended with Prussia taking
Napoleon III prisoner. Upon hearing the news, the defiant and poor
Parisian masses demanded a new republic be installed.
The Third Republic began in 1870 as a provisional government of national
defense. However, it was quickly besieged by the Prussians who
attacked Paris and demanded National Assembly elections be held. The
first move made by the resultant monarchist-controlled assembly was to
ratify the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871), the harsh terms of which—a 5
billion-franc war indemnity and surrender of the provinces of Alsace and
Lorraine—prompted immediate revolt. During the Semaine Sanglante, or “Bloody Week,” several thousand rebels were killed and a further 20,000 were later executed.
Despite its conflict-ridden start, the Third Republic is known as the
Beautiful Age, a time in which Art Nouveau architecture, advances in
science and engineering, and a number of different artistic styles, from
impressionism onwards, were ushered in. World Exhibitions were held in
the capital city of Paris in both 1889 and 1901, the former of which
was highlighted by the showcasing of the Eiffel Tower.
Colonial rivalry in Africa that existed between France and Great Britain
ended in 1904 with the Entente Cordiale (Cordial Understanding),
marking the start of a friendship/cooperation between the two nations
that has, for the most part, lasted to this day.
History of France: World War I
Of the eight million French men that served in the Great War (World War
I), 1.3 million were killed and another one million were crippled. Much
of the war took place in northeastern France, with trench warfare using
thousands of soldiers as cannon fodder merely to gain a few yards of
territory.
France’s desire to enter World War I against Austria-Hungary and Germany
stemmed from its desire to regain Alsace and Lorraine. The war
officially ended in 1919 when the leaders of France, Great Britain,
Italy and the United States signed the Treaty of Versailles in France.
Among its harsh terms included the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France
and a reparations bill of 33 billion for Germany.
Although industrial production dropped by 40 percent in France and threw
the country into financial crisis, Paris continued to sparkle during
the 1920s and 1930s, drawing artists and writers attracted to the city’s
liberal atmosphere.
History of France: World War II
The decade of relative harmony and compromise between France and Germany
hit a bit of a snag when Adolf Hitler was named the Chancellor of
Germany in 1933. At first, France tried to work with the new leader but
when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, the country joined with Britain in
declaring war against Germany.
Although an ill-prepared force from France tried to subdue the German
armies, by June 1940 France had capitulated. The British had tried to
help the French by sending in an expeditionary force. However, the
members of this unit just managed to escape capture themselves by
retreating to Dunkirk and crossing the English Channel in small boats.
The Maginot Line the French had established during the war proved
futile, as the German military outflanked the line by traveling through
Belgium.
During the war, Germany divided France into a zone under direct German
occupation (in the north and along the western coast) and a puppet state
led by aging WWI hero General Petain in the spa town of Vichy—the
demarcation line between the two areas ran through Chateau de Cheniceau
in the Loire Valley. Today, visitors can get a sense of what life was
like for the French in the Nazi-occupied north by visiting the WWII
museum at La Coupole.
The regime occupying the Vichy region was very prejudiced against the
Jews. They forced the local police forces in France to assist them in
rounding up French Jews for their eventual deportation to Auschwitz and
other death camps run by the Nazis. Only one Nazi concentration camp
lied within French borders: Natzweiler-Strutfoh. Today, it can still be visited by people interested in WWII history.
On June 6, 1944, Allied troops, most of them American, stormed the
beaches at Normandy and Brittany, liberating both. Marching on, they
also liberated Paris on August 25 with the help of Free French units,
sent in ahead of the Americans, so that the French would have the honor
of liberating their own country.
History of France: Post-World War II
The damage caused by World War II would take the French decades to
rectify. During the war, the Germans requisitioned practically
everything that wasn’t nailed down to feed their war machine, including
ferrous and non ferrous metals, statues, zinc bar tops, coal, leather,
textiles and chemicals. Agriculture, strangled by the lack of raw
materials, fell by nearly 30 percent.
As they fled France, the Germans burned a total of 2,600 bridges. The
Allied bombardments also took their toll on France, damaging nearly
40,000 kilometers of railway tracks. Roadways were damaged and nearly
500,000 buildings and 60,000 factories were either damaged or
destroyed. The French were forced to pay the occupying German forces up
to 400 million Francs a day, nearly emptying the public coffers.
The damage and humiliation suffered by the French at the hands of the
Germans was no secret to France’s colonies. As the economy tightened in
France, the native people of these colonies began to notice they were
bearing the brunt of this disaster. In Algeria, a movement for greater
autonomy at the beginning of the war turned into an all-out independence
movement by the war’s end. The resistance movement in Vietnam during
the war, when the Japanese moved into strategic positions in Indochina,
took on an ant-French, nationalistic tone, setting the stage for
Vietnam’s ultimate independence.
A Closer Look at the Fourth Republic
Charles de Gaulle
Following France’s liberation in 1944, General Charles de
Gaulle faced the ominous task of putting together a viable government.
Charles de Gaulle had served as France’s undersecretary of war during
WWII, but fled to London in 1940 after the French capitulated.
Elections were held in October of 1945 that created a national assembly
composed largely of pro-resistant communists. De Gaulle was appointed
head of the government, but because he sensed that the French people
were not in favor of a strong presidency, he resigned soon after in
1946.
Rectifying the damage caused by World War II required a strong central
government, one with vast powers to rebuild the country’s industrial and
commercial base. Because of this, most banks, insurance companies,
automobile plants and energy firms were passed into the hands of the
government. Other businesses remained privately operated, the aim being
to combine the efficiency of government with the vitality of private
industry. Nevertheless, progress in France was slow. By 1947 rationing
remained in the country and France was forced to turn to the United
States for loans as part of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe.
One of the goals of the Marshall Plan was to stabilize Europe both
financially and politically to prevent the expansion of Soviet power and
ideals. As the Iron Curtain fell over Eastern Europe, the
Pro-Stalinist members of France’s Communist Party were put into an
unwinnable position, and found themselves on the losing end of disputes
involving American aid, the colonies and workers’ demands. As a result,
they were expelled from the government in 1947.
In the wake of this, Charles de Gaulle founded a new political party
called the Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF). The goal of this
party was the containment of Soviet Power. To reinforce this, in 1949
France signed the Atlantic Pact uniting North America and Western Europe
in a mutual defense alliance: NATO.
With the Fourth Republic in place, the economy of France began to
improve. Many new industries were formed and the French government
regularly invested in things such as hydroelectric and nuclear power,
oil and gas exploration, chemical refineries, steel production, naval
construction, car factories and building construction.
The Colonies
The 1950s saw the end of French colonialism. After the Japanese
surrendered to the Allies in 1945, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam pushed for
independence. War broke out, but because the French troops were unable
to fend off the brilliant tactics of guerilla warfare in Vietnam, they
withdrew from the region in 1954.
Algeria’s push for independence was a bit more costly. At the time,
Algeria was ruled by approximately a million French settlers, who
resisted all Algerian demands for political and economic equality. This
led to the brutal Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). The
indigenous rebel attacks led to executions, torture and untold
massacres, which only strengthened the resolve of the Algerian people.
Pressure was applied on France by the United Nations, which urged the
French to pull out of Algeria. However, the pieds noirs
(literally ‘black feet,’ as Algerian-born French people are known in
France) became enraged at the way France was dealing with the problem. A
plot to overthrow the French government and replace it with a military
regime was narrowly avoided when de Gaulle agrees to assume the
presidency in 1958.
The Fifth Republic
The Fourth Republic, created after the communists were forced out of
office, was hamstringed by an ineffective executive branch and the
unbearable situation in Algeria. De Gaulle remedied the first of these
problems by drafting a new constitution (the Fifth Republic), which
authorized considerable powers be given to the president at the expense
of the National Assembly.
Fixing the Algeria situation proved much more difficult. After a failed coup attempt by military officers in 1961, the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète
(OAS; a group of French settlers and sympathizers opposed to Algerian
independence) resorted to terrorism. The OAS tried to assassinate de
Gaulle on several occasions, and in 1961 violence broke out on the
streets of Paris. Algerian demonstrators were violently attacked by
police, with more than 100 of them being killed in the protests. In
1962, Charles de Gaulle finally negotiated an end to the war, giving the
Algerian people their independence.
The 1960s in France saw a rise in unemployment, and the government led
by de Gaulle began to feel pressure from the anti-authoritarian baby
boomers clamoring for social change. University students seemed to
protest against anything the government supported, including the
American’s involvement in the Vietnam War. This dissatisfaction finally
boiled over in 1968, causing a general worker’s strike by 10 million
people that paralyzed the country.
De Gaulle took advantage of these events from a political perspective,
and began to appeal to people’s fear of anarchy. Just as the country
seemed it was on the brink of revolution, stability came to the Fifth
Republic, and many reforms were instituted to appease both workers and
students. De Gaulle resigned from office in 1969. He suffered a fatal
heart attack the following year.
History of France: France Today
After a long and storied history, one filled with seemingly one major
conflict after another, today France is considered one of the world’s
most highly developed and well-run nations. It is also the most
most-visited country in the world, with nearly 79.5 foreign visitors
annually. France possesses the world’s ninth-largest economy by Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) and Europe’s second-largest economy by nominal
GDP. In terms of aggregate household wealth, France is the wealthiest
nation in Europe and the fourth-largest in the world. The citizens of
France enjoy a very high standard of living, a superior educational
system and one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Moreover,
the World Health Organization (WHO) recently listed France as having
the world’s “best overall system of health care.”
