French Republic

France has a long history, with periods of pride and rise, and periods of decline.

With the surrender of France to Germany in 1940, the time of the Third Republic ended. The Germans thought they could concentrate on the UK and the USSR with France out of the fight, but the impossible was achieved during the years of German occupation: a deal between the "puppet" rule of Vichy, with the free French forces (those who refused to surrender). When the Allies landed in Normandy in 1944, all of France revolted as one, and returned to fight alongside the Allies. This  betrayal  of the Axis countries was an unexpected move, and gave France its inner sense of pride again. But the assassination of Petin, France's leader of the Vichy regime, threated to damage stability in France even further. Charles De gaulle rose to the position of unifying two sides of France into one, and succeeded in his symbolic role as President of France.

France was among those insisting on the total dismantling of Germany, and indeed received its request with the establishment of the three states which had been Germany before.

Since the end of World War II the French economy has prospered unprecedentedly to this day. In the years after the war, France established the EEC, intended to unite the economies of Western Europe and promote free trade and cooperation among fellow nations following the horrors of World War II. France, however, has tremendous power within the EEC, and in fact uses it to dictate economic policies to other member states.

The current French Prime Minister, Guy Mollet, has become deeply unpopular, and the instability in Indochina seem to be only growing. Many call for de Gaulle to save France once again.