The history of France for nearly a quarter century after
the war was dominated by one man, Charles de Gaulle
(1890 –1970), who possessed an unshakable faith in his
own historic mission to reestablish the greatness of the
French nation. During the war, de Gaulle had assumed
leadership of resistance groups known as the “Free
French,” and he played an important role in ensuring the
establishment of a French provisional government after
the war. But the creation immediately following the war
of the Fourth Republic, with a return to a multiparty parliamentary
system that de Gaulle considered inefficient,
led him to withdraw temporarily from politics. Eventually,
he formed the French Popular Movement, a political
organization based on conservative principles that
blamed the party system for France’s political mess and
called for a stronger presidency, a goal—and role—that
de Gaulle finally achieved in 1958.
At the time of his election as president, the fragile political
stability of the Fourth Republic was shaken by a
crisis in Algeria, France’s large North African colony.
The French army, having suffered a humiliating defeat
in Indochina in 1954, was determined to resist demands
for independence by Algeria’s Muslim majority. Independence
was also opposed by the large French community
living in Algeria. But a strong antiwar movement among
French intellectuals and church leaders led to bitter divisions
in France that opened the door to the possibility of
civil war. The panic-stricken leaders of the Fourth Republic
offered to let de Gaulle take over the government
and revise the constitution.
In 1958, de Gaulle drafted a new constitution for a
Fifth Republic that greatly enhanced the power of the
French president, who now had the right to choose the
prime minister, dissolve parliament, and supervise both
defense and foreign policy. As the new president, de
Gaulle sought to return France to a position of power and
influence. In the belief that an independent role in the
Cold War might enhance France’s stature, he pulled
France out of the NATO high command. He sought to
increase French prestige in the Third World by consenting
to Algerian independence despite strenuous opposition
from the army and offered French colonies in Africa
membership in a new French community of nations under
French tutelage. France invested heavily in the nuclear
arms race and exploded its first nuclear bomb in
1960. Despite his successes, however, de Gaulle did not
really achieve his ambitious goals of world power.
Although the cost of the nuclear program increased
the defense budget, de Gaulle did not neglect the French
economy. Economic decision making was centralized,
a reflection of the overall centralization undertaken by
the Gaullist government. Between 1958 and 1968, the
French gross national product (GNP) experienced an
annual increase of 5.5 percent, faster than that of the
United States. By the end of the Gaullist era, France was
a major industrial producer and exporter, particularly in
such areas as automobiles and armaments. Nevertheless,
problems remained. The expansion of traditional industries,
such as coal, steel, and railroads, which had all been
nationalized, led to large government deficits. The cost of
living increased faster than in the rest of Europe.
Public dissatisfaction with the government’s inability
to deal with these problems soon led to more violent ac-
tion. In May 1968, a series of student protests, provoked
by conditions in the country’s anachronistic educational
system as well as the ongoing war in Vietnam, was followed
by a general strike by the labor unions. Although
de Gaulle managed to restore order, the events of May
1968 seriously undermined popular respect for the aloof
and imperious president. Tired and discouraged, de
Gaulle resigned from office in April 1969 and died within
a year.
During the 1970s, the French economic situation
worsened, bringing about a political shift to the left. By
1981, the Socialists had become the dominant party in
the National Assembly, and the veteran Socialist leader,
François Mitterrand (1916 –1996), was elected president.
Mitterrand’s first concern was to resolve France’s economic
difficulties. In 1982, he froze prices and wages in
the hope of reducing the huge budget deficit and high
inflation. Mitterrand also passed a number of measures
to aid workers: an increased minimum wage, expanded
social benefits, a mandatory fifth week of paid vacation
for salaried workers, a thirty-nine-hour workweek, and
higher taxes for the rich. Mitterrand’s administrative reforms
included both centralization (nationalization of
banks and industry) and decentralization (granting local
governments greater powers). Their victory also convinced
the Socialists that they could enact some of their
more radical reforms. Consequently, the government nationalized
the steel industry, major banks, the space and
electronics industries, and important insurance firms.
World History
