Charles de Gaulle

Biography

Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) was a French general, statesman, and author who played a key role in modernizing France during World War II and through his presidency of the Fifth Republic. Born on November 22, 1890, in Lille to a devout Catholic family, de Gaulle was drawn to a military career early on. After graduating from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1912, he became a decorated officer in World War I. He was wounded several times and spent 32 months as a prisoner of war after being captured at the Battle of Verdun.

During the years between the wars, de Gaulle emerged as a leading military thinker, pushing for the modernization of the French military with mobile armored units and mechanized warfare. His ideas, presented in works like "The Army of the Future" (1934), were mostly ignored at the time but later proved accurate. When Germany invaded France in May 1940, de Gaulle led the 4th Armoured Division in one of the few successful French counterattacks and was named Undersecretary of State for National Defence and War under Paul Reynaud.

Unwilling to agree to Marshal Pétain's armistice with Nazi Germany, de Gaulle fled to London on June 17, 1940. The next day, he delivered his famous Appeal of 18 June on BBC Radio, urging the French to resist the occupation. This made him the face of the Free French movement, although initially few recognized him, and the Vichy government sentenced him to death in absentia. Through diplomacy and determination, de Gaulle gained support from the Allies and unified resistance groups, eventually leading the French Committee of National Liberation.

After Paris was liberated in August 1944, de Gaulle took charge of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, overseeing reconstruction and building new democratic institutions. He implemented economic policies that fueled three decades of unprecedented growth in France. Dissatisfied with the limited executive power under the Fourth Republic, he resigned in January 1946 and stepped back from politics. He started the Rally of the French People (RPF) in 1947, which he dissolved in 1953, and returned to his home in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises to write his war memoirs.

The Algerian crisis of 1958 brought de Gaulle back to power when President René Coty appointed him Prime Minister to avert civil war. De Gaulle drafted a new constitution for the Fifth Republic, creating a strong presidency, which was approved by referendum in September 1958. Elected as the first President of the Fifth Republic in December 1958, he served until his resignation in 1969 after a failed referendum on constitutional reform. As president, he granted Algeria independence despite strong opposition, took France out of NATO's integrated command, developed an independent nuclear program, and focused on a foreign policy centered on French autonomy from the superpowers. He passed away at his home in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises on November 9, 1970.