De Gaulle presented himself as a candidate for prime minister in 1958, and the National Assembly authorized him to change the French constitution in December 1958 de Gaulle was elected president of France. His political activity ended temporarily in 1955, when he began to work on his memoirs, but in 1958 he returned to public life.īy the end of the 1950s, France was embroiled in a military and political conflict in one of its colonies, Algeria. He organized a loose party, the Rally of the French People, which became powerful enough to win a sizable number of seats in the French National Assembly, but he left the group in 1953. For twelve years de Gaulle argued against the republic because he saw it as too similar to the Third French Republic, which he thought had been unable to govern effectively. In August 1944 de Gaulle returned to Paris with the victorious Allied armed forces he refused to meet with the envoy P étain sent to establish peace, and de Gaulle became head of the new French government.ĭe Gaulle resigned, however, in 1946 because of his dissatisfaction with the power of the various political parties that formed a new Fourth French Republic. He served as co-president of the committee with Henri Giraud (1879-1949), but successfully moved Giraud out of the role, signaling his political abilities. In 1943 he moved to Algiers, Algeria, where he formed the French Committee of National Liberation. De Gaulle maintained contact with French resistance groups, and he broadcast radio appeals to his fellow citizens, creating increased national recognition of his leadership.
#DE GAULLE FREE#
He also had problems with the Allies, often because of his strong commitment to a free France. He formed a shadow government, eventually known as the Free French Forces, although his military background was not attractive to French liberals and his condemnation of the P étain government meant that French conservatives held little regard for him. Although de Gaulle had no political base, he was deeply committed to a free France. In August 1940 he was sentenced to death by a French military court for treason. De Gaulle went to England, where he began to encourage the French to continue fighting the Germans. In the same year, he became the French undersecretary of state for defense and war, but he left the government almost immediately when P étain became head of the government and indicated that he wanted an armistice with the Germans. In 1940 he was promoted to brigadier general, a position he held until his death. When World War II (1939-1945) began, de Gaulle was commander of a tank brigade.
Although the French prided themselves on what they saw as the impenetrable Maginot Line, in 1933 de Gaulle wrote an article arguing for a professionalized and armored French army. Two years later de Gaulle began serving as a major in the occupation army for the Rhineland, an experience that illustrated the German potential for military action. In 1925 Marshal Philippe P étain (1856-1951) promoted him to the staff of the Supreme Defense Council. After the war, he taught at his alma mater and also attended the École Sup érieure de Guerre (a war college). He fought in World War I (1914-1918), including at the famous 1916 battle at Verdun, and he spent almost three years as a prisoner of war. He entered the Military Academy of Saint-Cyr at the age of nineteen and then joined the military in 1913, commissioned as a lieutenant. As a military commander, he advocated an aggressive, tactical approach to warfare as a politician, he was often careful in internal matters but more outspoken in international affairs.ĭe Gaulle was raised in a Roman Catholic family, and at an early age he showed an interest in military affairs. His military career spanned both world wars and his political career, interrupted by a temporary retreat from public affairs in the 1950s, occurred during the hardships of the 1940s and then a number of serious challenges to political stability in the 1960s. Charles de Gaulle was the leading French statesman of the twentieth century.
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