In 1970, a special funeral was held in France. The deceased's tombstone only says the date of birth and death of the deceased, and the coffin was purchased for $63. The funeral was held in a small local church, attended only by some of the deceased's relatives and friends, and there were only a dozen people in total. Several local youths carried the coffin for the deceased. Seeing this, many people feel that this deceased person is just an ordinary person. In fact, the deceased had a resounding name, a name that many people around the world are well known, and his name was Charles Andre Joseph Mari De Gaulle. His greatest achievement was to save France twice, but he was also abandoned twice by the French people.
According to the normal situation, saving the country once becomes a hero, and saving twice, the significance is even greater. Such a person will always be remembered by everyone, why was de Gaulle abandoned? Let's look at the general situation.
De Gaulle was born in France in 1890 to an intellectual family. In 1909, de Gaulle was admitted to the prestigious French Military Academy saint-Cyr. In 1912, de Gaulle graduated from the Military Academy of Saint-Cyr. Under normal circumstances, he would slowly develop in the army, from an ordinary officer to a general, and even become a marshal. But if that were the case, he might not have a chance to save France, let alone save France twice.
On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland and World War II broke out, and it was because of this war that de Gaulle's fate was changed. After the German occupation of Poland, it did not continue to march eastward and attack the Soviet Union as expected by Britain and France. Instead, the Germans immediately made a detailed U-turn and prepared to attack Britain and France. On May 10, 1940, German troops turned around and attacked France westward, and the Battle of France officially began. The Maginot Line, which france had spent heavily on, did not work, and the Germans bypassed it and attacked France from the north. In a little over a month, the Germans were about to hit Paris. At this time, the French, led by Pétain, decided to surrender.
In the situation in France at that time, the surrender was also expected by everyone. Because France was no longer in danger, Paris was exposed to Germany's eyes. However, as a brigadier general, de Gaulle was not ready to surrender, and before the surrender of France, de Gaulle went to London alone, where he called on the French people to rise up against German fascism. This act of de Gaulle began the first process of saving France.
De Gaulle not only called on the French people to oppose German fascism, but also formed the National Council of Free France, which was later renamed Battle France. In any case, under de Gaulle's leadership, more and more people joined the Free French organization, and the Free France became more and more powerful. Of course, the Free France was not just shouting slogans, but also its own army. Because there were a lot of soldiers who later joined the organization. By 1944, the Free France had an army of nearly half a million. During World War II, many Allied military operations were carried out by Free France. The Normandy landings we are familiar with include the free French army.
On 25 August 1944, de Gaulle returned to Paris. The first thing de Gaulle did when he returned to Paris was not to take over all of France, but to start the elections. As soon as Charles de Gaulle entered Paris, he formed the French Provisional Government and incorporated various parties into the cabinet. Elections followed, which were the most important tasks of the Interim Administration. The elections lasted for several months, and by October 1945, France had elected a Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly decided what kind of France to build and held all the power. At this point, de Gaulle's mission to save France was completely completed. This was the first time charles de Gaulle had saved France, but not the only one.
This was the situation in which charles de Gaulle saved France for the first time. If it were not for Charles de Gaulle, The image of France in World War II would have been completely different, and the image of France would have been to surrender and become a puppet of Germany. The Allies had reached Germany properly, and the Vichy government formed by Marshal Pétain still existed. Of course, even without de Gaulle leading the French people to resist, France would still be liberated by the Allies, after all, France did not play a big role in World War II, and did not have much impact on the war situation. But while France will still be liberated, its international status will be completely different. In this way, France would have completely lost its status as a great power, let alone become one of the permanent members of the United Nations when the United Nations was later established. The reason why the Allies were willing to make France a permanent member was because France still contributed to World War II. Otherwise, how could a defeated country have such a good ending.
Overall, charles de Gaulle's first rescue of France was really alone. If it weren't for Charles de Gaulle, no one knows what would have happened to France after World War II, but what is certain is that it is definitely not as good as it is now.
After the emergence of the Constituent Assembly, it was discussed that the third republic, which had been destroyed by Germany, would not be restored and a new republic would be re-established. However, there were some conflicts between de Gaulle and the Constituent Assembly in the formation of the polity, and many of de Gaulle's proposals were not adopted. Seriously, that's a bit beyond everyone's expectations. Having just liberated France, speech was useless, and the Constituent Assembly held all the power. Of course, the new republic and de Gaulle's ideas were completely different. During the Fourth Republic, de Gaulle was always an opposition, propagating his ideas everywhere. For a time, the French government banned de Gaulle from speaking everywhere, a situation that lasted until 1958.
For 13 years, from 1945 to 1958, de Gaulle was in the stage of being abandoned by the French people, and even for a long time, there was no sign of him everywhere, and de Gaulle could only write his memoirs at home alone, feeling like a retired man. The reason why he was abandoned by the French people was mainly because he was different from the French people. Of course, this is not the first time he has been abandoned by the French people.
In 1958, the 13-year-old French Fourth Republic experienced a major crisis. At this time, there was the independence of Algeria externally, the internal factions competing for power and profit, and the internal rebellion, and the French Fourth Republic was in jeopardy. In this situation, the French people thought of de Gaulle again, and they called on de Gaulle to make a comeback and save the situation in France. Faced with the voice of the French people, de Gaulle once again went out of the mountains and decided to save France once again. The French Parliament granted de Gaulle special rights for a period of six months and allowed him to carry out constitutional reforms. The meaning of this sentence is that de Gaulle can build France as he wishes. The proposals made by charles de Gaulle in 1945 can now be put into practice.
Thus de Gaulle established a new form of government in France, the French Fifth Republic. On 21 December 1958, de Gaulle was elected to the French Republic and took office the following year. This was the general process of de Gaulle's second rescue of France, and this time de Gaulle was also in danger. Only this time he accepted France, which was troubled at home and abroad, rather than France, which had surrendered before. What he also gave to the French people was a stable and forward France.
Many people can't figure out why France abandoned the Fourth Republic and established the Fifth Republic. In fact, although they are all republics, there are still great differences. The Fourth Republic is very similar to the Third Republic, in which the parliament holds a lot of power, and although the president holds executive power, there is also the prime minister below, and the prime minister and the parliament have great restrictions on the president. Of course, the biggest of these is the parliament, which can limit not only the president, but also the prime minister. Once parliament does not trust the prime minister, the prime minister's cabinet may collapse. It was also in this way that the cabinets of the French Fourth Republic were short-lived, rarely lasting more than a year. Imagine that a country that always changes its government is beneficial to the development of the country.
Compared with the Fourth Republic, the biggest feature of the Fifth Republic is that the presidential power is very large, and although the parliament can limit the president, the power is also greatly limited, and it is completely incomparable with the parliament of the fourth republic. That is to say, during the Fifth Republic, the president was free to play freely, largely without restriction. Therefore, it is also said that the president of France is the same as the emperor.
De Gaulle established the Fifth Republic and gave the French people a stable France, but this situation did not last forever. In 1968, because the National Assembly did not support its own reforms, de Gaulle dissolved the parliament and later established a new parliament through elections. De Gaulle thought that the new parliament would agree to his reform plan, but the new parliament still did not pass de Gaulle's reform plan. This meant that charles de Gaulle could not continue to transform France as he wished. In this situation, de Gaulle voluntarily resigned. In fact, it is normal that the reform plan is not passed, and he can continue to be his president. Before the plan, however, he had promised the French people that he would leave his post if he did not pass. It was in this way that de Gaulle voluntarily resigned.
In this way, de Gaulle was once again abandoned by the French people. From president to ordinary French citizen. The man who had been tasked with saving France for the second time left French politics. This time it was still different from the French people's political differences, and the reason for being abandoned was the same as the first time.
This is the situation in which de Gaulle saved France twice, but was abandoned by France twice. After de Gaulle left his post for the second time, he never asked about political affairs or made any political positions. Not only that, de Gaulle made a will before his death, and the general content of the will was: first, the tombstone after his death only wrote the date of birth and death, and he should be buried next to his daughter; second, the funeral was only attended by his family and relatives and friends, and other dignitaries or groups could not participate, let alone hold a state funeral; third, he refused to accept all honors, and foreign countries in his own country did not want to. The French people did abide by de Gaulle's will, and it was in this way that de Gaulle's funeral looked like a normal person.'
Of course, although the French people abandoned de Gaulle twice, they did not forget de Gaulle. Every time France elected its most popular president, de Gaulle was elected by a large margin. It can be said that France can have someone like Charles de Gaulle, which is also the luck of the country.
Resources:
A General History of the World, The French Resistance