At the end of our suffering, the greatest glory of the world is the glory of those who do not yield!
- De Gaulle
When we make fun of the speed with which the French surrendered to Germany, we must not forget that it was the work of the officials of the French government, and in fact a large number of French people were "represented" to surrender. France also had many unyielding people like de Gaulle, who rallied in a foreign country to resist Germany and eventually became triumphant national heroes, who were the backbone of France.
De Gaulle was born into a Catholic family in Lille, northern France. De Gaulle's father was a teacher of history and literature, and under the influence of his father, de Gaulle also had a considerable interest in history from an early age.
At the age of 19, de Gaulle graduated from military school and participated in World War I. During the war, de Gaulle was captured by the Germans for 2 years and 8 months, during which de Gaulle escaped from prison several times and failed. In the German prisoner-of-war camps, de Gaulle also learned German and thought more about modern military, arguing that modern warfare was not a traditional infantry trench warfare, but a well-trained, powerful mechanized force.
De Gaulle returned to France after the end of World War I, and he wrote a book on some ideas of modern military affairs and presented them to the military hierarchy, which was taken seriously. Later, the German army's fearsome tank blitzkrieg confirmed de Gaulle's ideas.
In 1940, de Gaulle was promoted to the youngest general in the history of the French army and was responsible for communicating with the British military.
As the German tank army advanced, France soon surrendered, the Nazi flag was planted all over France's territory from south to north, and a Vichy government was established at the behest of Germany.
Hitler admired de Gaulle and gave him an important position, the number one ruler in France. How willing de Gaulle was to submit to the Germans, he went to London, England, and called on all French people at home and abroad to resist the Nazis through radio channels. De Gaulle founded the "Free France", and many Frenchmen who could not accept the humiliation of national subjugation joined in.
After four years of conquest, de Gaulle traveled all over Europe and North Africa, and finally under the bloody and sweaty efforts of allied generals, the second battlefield in Europe was opened after the Normandy landings, and Nazi Germany was gradually repelled. At the end of August 1944, amid the enthusiastic cheers of all the citizens, Paris was restored and Charles de Gaulle returned triumphantly.
After World War II, de Gaulle organized a provisional government, and his policy of comprehensive rejuvenation was opposed by many people, and de Gaulle resigned in anger and announced his withdrawal from politics.
In the 1950s, the national independence movement was in full swing, and the French overseas colony of Algeria s intention to become independent sparked an armed rebellion. France is also unstable internally, with cabinet members often reshuffling once every six months, and the country is in a state of chaos and stagnation.
At this moment, under the pleading of the people, de Gaulle agreed to re-emerge and, with the unanimous authorization of the National Assembly, took over the entire state apparatus, including the government and parliament, and the full power of the president.
When charles de Gaulle returned to power, he changed his tradition and decided to draw up a new and appropriate new version of france's constitution. In 1958, the new Constitution was adopted and the French Fifth Republic was proclaimed. Soon after, de Gaulle won the presidential election by an overwhelming vote, becoming the first president of the French Fifth Republic, beginning an 11-year reign.
At that time, the world situation was in a tense era of confrontation between the two major powers of the United States and the Soviet Union, and de Gaulle's unique diplomatic thinking and insight chose to regard himself as the "third pole" and pursue the principle of independent foreign policy, the so-called "gaullist doctrine".
During de Gaulle's rule, France successfully tested the atomic bomb and became a nuclear power. De Gaulle even announced his withdrawal from nato's military organization for the first time in the first place, expressing his independent position. It was also during de Gaulle's rule that France established diplomatic relations with China in 1964.
In 1968, a "May storm" of mass strikes and demonstrations broke out in France. De Gaulle took control of the situation and survived the crisis by winning an absolute victory in the parliamentary elections.
In 1969, de Gaulle's proposal to weaken the Senate's constitutional amendment was rejected, and he was forced to resign. De Gaulle came down from the presidency and returned to his hometown to live. The following year, at the age of 80, De Gaulle had a ruptured aneurysm and died at home.