France is bordered by the English Channel (N), the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay (W), Spain and Andorra (SW), the Mediterranean Sea (S; the location of the The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was the period where they were under France’s fourth republican constitution. Fourth Republic: see France France, officially French Republic, republic (2015 est. The lower house of parliament (now renamed the National Assembly) was once more the locus of power; shaky coalition cabinets again succeeded one another at brief intervals, and the lack of a clear-cut majority in the country or in parliament hampered vigorous or coherent action. In the end, the financial and psychological strain proved too great for France to bear, and, after the capture of the French stronghold of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 by the Vietnamese, the French sought a face-saving solution. The rate of growth for a time rivaled that of Germany and exceeded that of most other European countries. Other political leaders included Georges Bidault, Pierre Mendès-France, René Pleven, and Robert Schuman. Shortly after his return to Paris, de Gaulle announced that the citizens of France would determine their future governmental system as soon as the absent prisoners and deportees could be repatriated. The Provisional Government of the French Republic (gouvernement provisoire de la République française or GPRF) was an interim government of Free France between 1944 and 1946 following the liberation of continental France after Operations Overlord and Dragoon, and lasted until the establishment of the French Fourth Republic. The assembly promptly chose the Socialist Félix Gouin to replace him, and the embittered de Gaulle retired to his country estate. General Charles de Gaulle returned to power in the 1958 military coup d'etat that overthrew the French Fourth Republic, but resigned 11 years later after a series of assassination attempts, mass strikes and protests. On 13 May 1958, the mob seized the building of the General-Government in Algiers, and a "Committee of Civil and Army Public Security" was set up, led by General Massu. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems. Instead, the constituent assembly chose the socialist Félix Gouin to replace him. French Fourth Republic | Wikipedia audio article - Duration: 14:05. wikipedia tts 76 views. As compared with the U.S. Constitution, it was quite a detailed constitution. A conference of interested powers at Geneva that year ended the war by establishing what was intended as a temporary division of Vietnam into independent northern and southern states. The assembly submitted two draft constitutions to a popular vote … The French Fourth Republic from 1946 to 1958 was doomed to fail from the start. The structure of the Fourth Republic seemed remarkably like that of the Third; in actual operation it seemed even more familiar. in the Fourth Republic of France With the liberation of France in 1944 came a new regime. The younger mountains and adjacent plains, Gaul and Germany at the end of the 5th century, The shrinking of the frontiers and peripheral areas, Austrasian hegemony and the rise of the Pippinids, The partitioning of the Carolingian empire, The development of institutions in the Carolingian age, The influence of the church on society and legislation, Economy, society, and culture in the Middle Ages (, Economy, society, and culture in the 14th and 15th centuries, The influence of Montesquieu and Rousseau, The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789–1815, The restoration and constitutional monarchy, The Great Depression and political crises, Society and culture under the Third Republic, The euro-zone crisis and the Socialist resurgence. De Gaulle remained aloof from this controversy, though it was obvious that he favoured a strong presidency. Shortly after his return to Paris, de Gaulle announced that the citizens of France would determine their future governmental system as soon as the absent prisoners and deportees could be repatriated. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. That process was largely completed by midsummer 1945, soon after Germany’s defeat, whereupon de Gaulle scheduled a combined referendum and election for October. Yet outside the realm of political structure and parliamentary gamesmanship there were real and fundamental changes. It was characterized by a weak and decentralized government. France adopted the constitution of the Fourth Republic on October 13, 1946. Page 15 of 24 - About 239 essays. Shaky coalition cabinets succeeded one another, and the lack of a clear-cut majority hampered coherent action. France’s colonies had provided de Gaulle with his first important base of support as leader of Free France, and, as the war continued, they had furnished valuable resources and manpower. pop. The assembly submitted two draft constitutions to a popular vote in 1946, and the revision was narrowly approved. De G… There was much less public complacency; both the routines and the values of the French people had been shaken up and subjected to challenge by a generation of upheaval. Instead, the public was stunned and confused, and it failed to react. With most of the political class discredited and containing many members who had more or less collaborated with the enemy, Gaullism and communismbecame the most popular political forces in France. The colonial peoples, therefore, now felt justified in demanding a new relationship with France, and French leaders recognized the need to grant concessions. Two other segments of Indochina, the former protectorates of Laos and Cambodia, had earlier been converted by the French into independent monarchies to preserve some French influence there. De Gaulle on May 15 announced that he was prepared to take power if called to do so by his fellow citizens. In a more general sense, the French Empire described France's colonies and dominions overseas. On August 1 both German… 1114 Words | 5 Pages. The situation was most serious in Southeast Asia, where the Japanese had displaced the French during World War II. On the morrow of the victory of the free peoples over the regimes that attempted to enslave and degrade the human person, the French people proclaim once more that every human being, without distinction as to race, religion or creed, possesses inalienable and sacred rights. Short-lived coalition cabinets were incapable of taking the painful measures needed to check this trend. Page 2 of 49 - About 489 essays. 14:05. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Instead, the constituent assembly chose the socialist Félix Gouin to replace him. On June 1, therefore, the National Assembly voted de Gaulle full powers for six months, thus putting a de facto end to the Fourth Republic. The Provisional Government of the French Republic (gouvernement provisoire de la République française or GPRF) was an interim government of Free … While the nature of the French polity continues to be Republican, Unitarian and Democratic, the Constitution of the Fifth Republic provides for a synthetic system of government. Introduction From French revolution in 1789, France has had five different republican systems. Many of the new men who had emerged from the Resistance movement into political life, business posts, or the state bureaucracy retained a strong urge toward renovation as well as to a reassertion of France’s lost greatness. For a nation seeking to rebuild its self-respect, the prospect of a loss of empire seemed unacceptable; most of the French, moreover, were convinced that the native peoples overseas lacked the necessary training for self-government and that a relaxation of the French grip would merely open the way to domination by another imperial power. Fourth Republic, government of the French Republic from 1946 to 1958. The assembly’s constitutional draft, submitted to a popular referendum in May 1946, was rejected by the voters. The postwar provisional president Charles de Gaulle resigned in 1946, expecting that public support would bring him back to power with a mandate to impose his constitutional ideas. In January 1946 de Gaulle suddenly resigned his post as provisional president, apparently expecting that a wave of public support would bring him back to power with a mandate to impose his constitutional ideas. These plans had not yet matured when a cabinet crisis in April–May 1958 gave the conspirators a chance to strike. The Fourth Republic collapsed due to rising complications from their colonies. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. The painful convalescence from the ravages of war was speeded by massive aid from the United States and by the gentle persuasion (and ample credits) of Jean Monnet’s Planning Commissariat (Commissariat Général du Plan), adopted in 1947. France adopted the constitution of the Fourth Republic on 13 October 1946. 64,457,000), 211,207 sq mi (547,026 sq km), W Europe. French Politics: Should The Presidencial Term Be Reduced? His ideas anticipated the system that later was to be embodied in the constitution of the Fifth Republic (1958). It gave equal citizenship to the people of France and French Colonies. This cautious reform came too late to win acceptance in many parts of the empire. But most of these leaders, including de Gaulle, were not prepared to permit any infringement on French sovereignty, either immediately or in the foreseeable future. The Fourth Republic was tainted by political instability the issue of decolonization. Women, for the first time in French history, were granted suffrage. The structure of the Fourth Republic was remarkably like that of the Third Republic. French efforts to negotiate a compromise with Ho’s regime broke down in December 1946, and a bloody eight-year war followed. A vocal minority in France openly favoured a negotiated settlement, though no political leader dared take so unpopular a position. By 1958 more than a half million French soldiers had been sent to Algeria—the largest overseas expeditionary force in French history. Corrections? A burst of industrial expansion in most branches of the economy began in the mid-1950s, unmatched in any decade of French history since the 1850s. French Fourth Republicball was a modern republican régime of the French nation, He was also a member of EECball. The Fourth Republic. French West Africa, French Indochina, and French Algeria still sent representatives to the French parliament under systems of limited suffrage in the French Union. The current French Republic was born in 1958 out of what were then referred to as the “events” in Algeria. Omissions? By an overwhelming majority (96 percent of the votes cast), the nation rejected a return to the prewar regime. The lower house of parliament, renamed the National Assembly, was the locus of power. French Fourth Republic; Free French Fourth Republic Essays and Papers. Most of the Fourth Republic’s political leaders reluctantly concluded that de Gaulle’s return was the only alternative to an army coup that might lead to civil war. The Fourth Republic Both world wars were over, the Great Depression was solidly in the past, and France was free from the puppet Vichy government. Charles de Gaulle led the GPRF from 1944 to 1946. The first problem the the huge numbers of communists in France and communists are not always friends to democracies. This event ultimately triggered a complex set of formal and secret military alliances between European states, causing most of the continent, including France, to be drawn into war within a few short weeks. The constitution of 1946 therefore introduced only mild reforms: the empire was renamed the French Union, within which the colonial peoples would enjoy a narrowly limited local autonomy plus some representation in the French parliament. On the night of October 31, 1954, barely six months after the fighting in Indochina ended, Algerian nationalists raised the standard of rebellion. Fears that the rebellion might spread to Tunisia and Morocco led the French to make drastic concessions there; in 1956 both of these protectorates became sovereign states. Alumni College 2017: Sarah Horowitz's "The Rise of the Third Republic" - … On May 13, when a new cabinet was scheduled to present its program to the National Assembly, activist groups in Algiers went into the streets in an effort to influence parliament’s vote. The Constitution of the Fourths Republic, like the American Constitution, was a written constitution. The French Fourth Republic (French: Quatrième république française) was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. Right-wing activists, outraged at what they saw as the spread of defeatism, turned to conspiracy; both in Paris and in Algiers, extremist groups began to plot the replacement of the Fourth Republic by a tougher regime, headed by army officers or perhaps by General de Gaulle. Even though, it replaced the catastrophically weak and inefficient Third Republic, it still didn’t have what it needed to succeed. Shortly after his return to Paris, de Gaulle announced that the citizens of France would determine their future governmental system as soon as the absent prisoners and deportees could be repatriated. It began with a Preamble and there were 106 Articles in it. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in late July, triggering Russian mobilization. Fourth french republic.png 2,000 × 2,000; 604 KB Houphouet-Boigny, Loi 46-645 tendant à la suppression du travail forcé, Paris, 11 avril 1946.png 333 × 630; 90 KB Organigramme de la IVème République.png 906 × 787; 101 KB The mood of the liberation era was marked by a thirst for renovation and for change. Meanwhile, negotiations took place over the proposed new constitution, which was to be put to a referendum. Some urged the need for greater stability through a strong executive; others, notably the Communists, favoured concentrating power in a one-house legislature subject to grassroots control by the voters. After a short period of provisional government initially led by Gen. Charles de Gaulle (₩), the Fourth Republic was set up by a new constitution and established as a parliamentary form of government controlled by a series of coalitions. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. So what could possibly go wrong in … New men of the Resistance movement dominated the constituent assembly, and the centre of gravity was heavily to the left: three-fourths of the deputies were Communists, Socialists, or Christian Democrats who had adhered to the new party of the Catholic left—the Popular Republican Movement (Mouvement Républicain Populaire). The long and brutal struggle in Algeria gravely affected the political life of the Fourth Republic and ended by destroying it. Two weeks of negotiations followed, interspersed with threats of violent action by the Algiers rebels. Many politicians from the prewar period turned up once again in cabinet posts. The Fourth Republic of France existed from 1946-1958 under the fourth republican constitution. A less fortunate aspect of the national urge to reassert France’s stature in the world was the Fourth Republic’s costly effort to hold the colonial empire. The Fourth Republic existed in France between 1946 and 1958. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. By nightfall they were in control of the city and set up an emergency government with local army support. On june 28 1914 a Bosnian member of the Mlada Bosna assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia. Updates? Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fourth-Republic-French-history, GlobalSecurity.org - Fourth Republic 1946-1958. They solemnly reaffirm the rights and freedoms of man and of the citizen ordained by the Declaration of Rights of 1789 and the fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic. On June 4 of that year, Charles de Gaulle used the opportunity of … This altered mood helps to explain the economic growth that marked the later years of the Fourth Republic. The Free French government of General Charles de Gaulle was recognized by the American, British and Soviet governments in November of 1944. The Constitution of the Fifth Republic of France constitutes a definite improvement over the Constitution of the Fourth Republic. The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic which had ruled before the Second World War. The word empire traditionally describes a state ruled by an emperor (with claims to succeed the Roman Empire); a title possessed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Napoleon III. French Fourth Republic on October 10, 1946: astrological chart and dominant planets, signs, elements, and houses. French Fourth Republic. It soon became clear that the apparent unity forged in the Resistance was superficial and that the new political elite was sharply divided over the form of the new republic. That process was largely completed by midsummer 1945, soon after Germany’s defeat, whereupon de Gaulle scheduled a combined referendum and election for October. Origins. After the liberation of France, the Vichy government was dissolved and the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) was instituted. This essay examines the reasons for the fall of the French Fourth Republic (1945-1958), with a focus on the impact of the French-Algerian war as well as examining the other causes that contributed to the demise of the government such as the French Indo-China War as well as what seemed like the inherent instability of the structure of government and the cabinet in the French Fourth Republic. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership. Exploring The Vietnam War 1970 Words | 8 Pages. France was still a colonial power, although conflict and revolt had begun the process of decolonization. French military involvement in both Indochina (₳|₩) and Algeriacombined with the mixed nature of the coalitions and a consequent lack of agreement caused successive cabinet crises and changes of gover… The long sequence of crises that had shaken the nation since 1930 had left a deep imprint on French attitudes. France's colonial history can be divided into two periods. A new assembly was quickly elected to prepare a revised draft, which in October was narrowly approved by the voters. Blair was forced out in 2007 after squandering his popularity on following the US into the Afghan and Iraq wars. The combination of political uncertainty, external crisis and internal economic expansion that characterized the French Fourth Republic renders the period 1944-1958 one of unusual complexity, and in this masterly survey Jean-Pierre Rioux unravels its often torturous rise and fall. The postwar provisional president Charles de Gaulle resigned in 1946, expecting that public support would bring him back to power with a mandate to impose his constitutional ideas. France’s determination to hold Algeria stemmed from a number of factors: the presence of almost a million European settlers, the legal fiction that Algeria was an integral part of France, and the recent discovery of oil in the southern desert. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems. The first French colonial empire consisted mainly of possessions in the Americas, both on the North Am… the war and why it was considered one of the most traumatic experiences for the United States. Japan’s defeat in 1945 enabled the French to regain control of southern Indochina, but the northern half was promptly taken over by a Vietnamese nationalist movement headed by the communist Ho Chi Minh. The only serious flaw in the boom was a nagging inflationary trend that weakened the franc. With French refugees from the mainland and British commandos arriving across the Northern coast, mutiny turned to revolution and by popular demand the remnants of the French Third Republic-in-exile and Algerian provincial government convened to write the constitution of the Fourth Republic. Fourth Republic, government of the French Republic from 1946 to 1958. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). They further proclaim as most vital to our time the foll… The trigger for the collapse of the Fourth French Republic was the Algiers crisis of 1958. Presidents of the Fourth Republic were Vincent Auriol (1947–54) and René Coty (1954–59). The french president was originally elected on an electoral college system but in 1962 this system was switched to a system where presidents are elected directly by the people of France. De Gaulle actively intervened in the campaign for the second referendum, denouncing the proposed system as unworkable and urging the need for a stronger executive. The First Republic began with the fall of King Louis XVI in 1792 and ended with Napoleon Bonaparte declaring himself emperor of the First French Empire in 1804. 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