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Charles de Gaulle

Introduction

Through this research paper i intend to undertake a research on a contemporary topic, Charles de Gaulle. Even thought this events happened a long time ago the consequences affects the everyday life of the inhabitants of today’s France. Charles de Gaulle had a key role in the history of France and transforming it into what it is today. In the length of this paper i will try to cover the topics about his identity, his ideas, the origin of his ideas, his vision for France, how successful he was and lastly what is his legacy for the french society.

The first part of the report covers information about the life of the subject and how the context influenced him. The second part covers and get into detail into his ideas and his vision, and then an analysis of whether he was able to accomplish it. The last part covers his legacy and how even though he is death, still has a great impact and influence. It will also cover the opinión that the french people has about him, his measures and legacy.

Who was Charles de Gaulle?

Childhood and teenage years.

Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France the 22 of november in 1890. He grew up in a catholic family which was part of the french nobility before the french revolution and most of its members were intelectual specialized in a field. This really influenced him since he was an avid reader and writer. Despite that, he wasn’t a good student until he decided to go into the military academy.

He spent his childhood and teenage years in a france that was under the third republic, the socialist movement was growing as well as the syndicalist, Joan of Arc was admired, the church and the state split and the military service was reduced.

Military career.

He entered into the military academy in 1909, where out of 221 he was ranked 119, but after the first year he improved enough to get to the 45 place. He started in the 33rd Infantry Regiment, and within the first year he was promoted to corporal and then sergeant. He graduated in 1912 with great compliment in his report obtaining the 13th place.

He decided to come back into the 33rd Infantry regiment because his duties would be in France and not overseas, and here he met Petain who at the time was his Colonel. In 1913 he was promoted to lieutenant.

The first World War broke out in 1914 and his regiment was sent to fight with tactics of the 19th century, but this battle didn’t last long for him since he was one of the first injured by receiving a shot in the knee in his role as a platoon commander. He rejoined as a commander and got recognition for going into the enemy’s camp and bring information. Then he got promoted to captain but also got another shot, this time in his hand. When he returned he was wounded by a bayonet and the german army took him as a prisoner.

In the war camp, where he spent two years and eight months, he was allowed to read newspapers and this impulsed him to talk to the fellow prisoners about combat techniques and his patriotism. During this period he wrote his first book called “The enemy’s house divided” where he analyzed the german forces. He tried to escape several times but he failed in each attempt and was allowed to go away only when the war ended.

After the war he studied at the Ecole de Guerre, graduated with a mediocre grade and worked for Petain until the disputes between them stopped them from working together. He also worked as a captain and was promoted to major and later to lieutenant . During the whole time he kept on writing and publishing books and essays and became a known figure.

During the World War Two he was put in commander, and applied his ideas of military tactics with the use of tanks. Since the results were good he was promoted to brigadier general. He also got a job as a minister and met Winston Churchill, and during the meetings with another representatives of the other countries he left a good impression on him. When the prime minister resign, Petain took the place and Charles de Gaulle was fired. He was in danger of being imprisoned so he flew to London.

Free France Movement.

While he was in London he gave speeches and fund the Free France movement without much success at first. At this point the french government wanted to sign an armistice with germany but this was considered treason by Charles de Gaulle and the british government. As a result the Franco-Anglo agreement was broken and this debilitated the recognition of the french government and the british government recognized Charles de Gaulle as the leader of the Free France Movement

Both men, Petain and Charles de Gaulle kept on airing charismatic speeches evoking feelings in the french society, and the rivalry between these two figures kept escalating because both of them claimed the legitimacy of their government. Charles de Gaulle had became really popular and founded the Free French National council with him as the president.

In the meantime the relationship between Charles de gaulle and Churchill worsen to the point the latter said that the british would always choose first the United States.

Charles de Gaulle came back to France and proclaimed his provisional government, he made diplomatic visits to get the recognition of other countries, one of those being the United States. During this period the infrastructure of the country had broke down and the communist party started to get more followers. Despite the food shortage de Gaulle was very popular. When the war was about to end there was a purge for the people who had commited treason and many were sentenced to death.

During this time France was liberated of the German occupancy and the war ended.

Political Career.

In 1945 elections were held to select an assembly that would write the new constitution and the head of government. Charles de Gaulle was voted as the head of government but he constantly threaten to resign everytime the communist party gained representation.After six years he dropped out of politics but also tried to create his own party the Rally of the French People. but he resign from it in 1953.

France started losing power over its colonies and this lead to the crisis of may 1958 and then the collapse of the fourth republic. He expresses his availability to the french people and the former president Coty agreed with the demands of Charles de Gaulle . If he was going to be the head of state he wanted to change the constitution for a new one with a stronger executive power and also have extraordinary power for six months. By june of 1958 he was the prime minister of France and wrote the constitution according to his political ideas.

On november of 1958 the first elections of the new constitution we held and Charles de Gaulle won the presidency with an astonishing majority. The urgent situation en Algeria was solved by the recognition of the Algerian independence this caused a exodus of the french people living and a massacre against them. As a result Charles de Gaulle became the objective of many assassinations attempts

In 1962 by a referendum he changed the election process to allow the french people elect the president. At first it did not passed, so he dissolved the National Assembly and the project passed.

During the rest of his first term in government he implemented what is called as politics or grandeur, the development of nuclear arms and power. He also vetoed the uk from the European Economic Community and recognized the People’s Republic of China and tried to dissuade the countries from the influence of the United States.

In his second term he won but also lost approval. He was also the protagonist of the Empty chair crisis, he took advantage of the fact that in order to pass a proposal in the European Economic Community everyone had to agree, and when things didn’t go the way he wanted, he did not go to the meetings.

The fact that de Gaulle was excessive and intense with his ideas started to backfire him in diplomacy with other countries and also with the french people. His popularity had been diminished and people no longer saw him as an adequate president, mostly because he was too authoritarian and the french felt treated as childs. This situation escalated until the societal crisis of 1968 when students and workers started to complain and ask for reforms. Charles de Gaulle responded with a referendum accepting some of these but it wasn’t enough. He made an ultimatum saying that if the referendum did not pass he would resign, and so he did. He died a year later at the age of 79.

What was his vision for France?

His vision for France was to regain the power and world influence they had in the world before the Wold War. He did not only wanted France to be independent from the influence of other countries, specially the United States, but also he wanted France to take the lead, make it the leader and the role model of the rest of the countries. After their defeat in the World War Two he saw a clean slate and an opportunity to rebuild France and in order to get the strong autonomous France that he wanted it had to develop the industrial industries and reform itself.

To transform this vision into reality he took some measures, implemented reforms not only in the system of institutions of France but also in business and foreign policy, he did what is called Politics of Grandeur.

Hi-Tech Colvertism.

One of the systems use by Charles de Gaulle is the Hi-Tech Colvertism, which consisted of really big investments that are not based on the returns of the investment or the commercial possibilities but on industrial patriotism. It starts by selecting key sectors for the country to build them and create big projects that receives lots of advertisement. The objective is to become leader in the selected sector. It is important to take into account that they nationalized these key sectors and that in consequence this investments came from the french government.

One of the key industries was the aeronautic by creating airplanes and the Airport Charles de Gaulle that is actually the largest airport in France and the second in the continent. The second sector is the nuclear, they developed the nuclear energy system to be able to provide the energy for themselves. The third sector is the rail sector with improvement in the technology of the trains to make them faster.

Dirigisme.

The dirigisme is another system that involves the french state in businesses but without the focus on the key sectors. It is a coordination between both of them. The french business may be private but they rely on the protection of the state, the regulations that comes from it and they are comfortable with that. On the other hand the french state wants its business to be big and successful so it keeps an eye on them to make sure they stay that way and when they don’t, the functionaires intervene. The state does not only fund the business being a stakeholder but also it doesn’t let any company to go bankrupt before that happens they merge this company with another that is more successful. The other objective is that the companies remain french this means that the french government intervenes when a foreign company wants to buy a local one. One of the methods is the Noyaux Durs this means hard core, and it consist in french companies owning each other so when a foreign company owns shares of a company is not able to control it.

Pantouflage.

The pantouflage is another mechanism the french state keeps an eye on the business in its territory. The ones in charge of this job are the civil servants, they are the elite of the french society by a meritocracy system and they are graduated from the ENA and the Ecole Polytechnique. This civil servants are place at a public job, after a few years they are place into a job in the private sector and after a few year they are placed again into the public sector. When a civil servant is placed into a job in the private sector, it still works for the public sector by reporting the activities of the company. The pantouflage can be describe then as the way the french state keeps an eye on the private business by the back and forth of their civil servants.

Foreign Policy.

The foreign policy during this period consisted in puting the domestic policies ahead of the foreign policies. This can be appreciated through the history of the European Union.

The first situation that reflects this is the Empty Chair Crisis, Charles de Gaulle wanted the application of the Common Agricultural Policy, that consisted on subsidies to farmers. At that time a huge portion of the french population were farmers, so in others words this policy would give France more money that the amount it apports to it. So he withdraw from the meetings incapacitating the institution to make decisions .

The second situation is the two times that France vetoed United Kingdom from the Economic European Community. To understand why, it’s important to take into account that this institution was under the sphere of influence of France and therefore the countries that were part of the institution. The other important factor is the close relationship between UK and USA, to the point that Churchill once said that UK would chose always the USA instead of France. This make Charles de Gaulle believe that UK would be a representative of the interest of the USA, and this would mean a superposition of the spheres of influence.

Also there were cases outside of the European Union when Charles de Gaulle through diplomacy tried to get into the sphere of influence of the United States and tries to dissuade the citizens from it. One example is his visit to Mexico where he during his speech he tries to talk people out of the influence of america in Latin America. The second example is when Charles de Gaulle visited Quebec and also during one of his speeches he said “Long live free Quebec, Long live French Canada, and long live France” . This situation ended up being really controversial because it offended the english speaking canadians, and implied that the city belonged to France. As a result this is another situation in which the sphere of influence of France tried to expand over the the one from the United States.

What were the source of his ideas?

His ideas did not come from a specific source, they were a result of a mix of thing such as his family background, the people he met, the context he lived in and his personality. What can be said for sure is that the military path he chose since a young age played a big role in his personality, and this can be seen in the way he used to govern, often considered autocratics to the point that some considered the fifth republic made by himself and for himself.

Another source of his ideas is his family used to be part of the nobility before the French revolution, therefore it was conservative and neo-royalist explaining why he was in favour of a centralised head of state and his nationalism.

The other factor that influenced him related to his family is his dad occupation, he was a teacher of history and literature, therefore he encourage the debates about it in the dinner table. As a consequence of his parents he had a great knowledge of French history and especially about the reign of Louis XIV.

The most important source of his ideas comes from this point in history by the hand of Jean-Baptiste-Colbert , the minister of finances of the king Louis XIV. During this period France was a major power in Europe mostly because of the policies of Colbert. His policies had the objectives of a centralized state, and achieve economic sovereignty that’s why he applied measures su as move the whole court and nobility to Versaille, made investments in big economic projects and provide states subsidies by public contracts .Colbert wanted to build France through its companies and make it great. and this include being better and more competitive than other countries thats why he also set standard for the quality of the production made. So Charles de Gaulle was highly influence by Colbert, not only they share their nationalism but also they policies that tied businesses with the french state.

Was he successful implementing his vision?

Yes, he was successful in most of the aspects he wanted except in the one of making France the strongest soft power and economy, because countries like USA, Germany and Japan had better results.

Since there are no data about unemployment and economic growth during Charles de Gaulle presidency, the date used will be the one of the thirty Glorious Years that starts in the year 1946 and ends in 1975. The justification is that up until 1968 when Charles de Gaulle resign he had lots of power and influence in France

The first reason is that the average unemployment rate during this thirty years was below 4% and as it shows the graphic below the minimum unemployment rate during this period was a little bit more than 1%, and the maximum was a little bit less that 4%.

The second reason is that the gdp per capita grew exponentially after the World War Two as a it show the graphic below.

The third reason is that the annual growth rate was positive and stable during this period.

The fourth reason is that the French culture flourish,lots of books and movies were published, the art gained recognition around the world, and the french haute couture established itself. This means that all the policies and speeches de Charles de Gaulle put France in the radar of lots of people allowing France to gain more influence in the world and therefore soft-power.

Lastly the fifth reason is that he was able to modernize France and industrialise it through the support investment in the french businesses and making them gain recognition around the world.

What is his legacy?

The changes he made and the impacts he generated in France are so deeply rooted in the french society to the point that people may not question them. The modern France that we live in today is the result of those policies and changes. This affects people in their everyday life from the constitution they live under, the political parties, to their everyday working routine in a business company and the subsidies received from the CAP. But the legacy of Charles de Gaulle can be explained and divided in this four groups.

Politics of Grandeur.

The policies of the politics of grandeur were implemented in such a way that nowadays it is installed as a part of the french society and most of them are still applied. The hi-tech Colbertism is still applied especially in the nuclear power, for example with the company Electricite de France, the biggest producer of electricity of Europe and the second biggest in the world. Most of its energy is nuclear energy and this allows France to be almost autonomous when in comes to energy. Also the dirigisme and plantouflage is still applied in French companies, since the state still gives funds to them and keep keeping an eye on the through the civil servants. The only part of the politics of grandeur that has changed is the approach of foreign policy, it stop being so strong and demanding and became more diplomatic .

Anti Americanism

The anti americanism can be explained by what were the objectives of the politics of grandeur and how the United States affected them. In the cold war period the two big powers were USA, and the Soviet Union, each a leader representing different ideas and most of the countries were following and taking measures responding to one of those countries, and in the case of France, it responded to the USA. All this situation was far from desirable for Charles de Gaulle, not only France had lost its influence and power but also it responded to the americans, so they didn’t get the independence they were looking for.

The Plan Marshall gave France a lot of money to rebuild itself but this also meant that they had chosen a side. The dichotomy of the situación is that in order to modernize France and became more powerful it was necessary to industrialize the country and for that reason they had to accept the money from the plan marchal, creating a discomforting feeling of dependence of the americans.

Nowadays even though is not necessarily seen against the americans it can be seen against english language. There is an institution whose purpose is to protect the french language from the foreign influences, so they create french words for english words that don’t have already an equivalent in french. This institution is called General Delegation for the French language and the languages of France.

Anti americanism can also be seen by how the influence of the United States is seen by other countries. In the BBC country rating poll, the opinions about the influence of the United States for France are only a 32% positive and a 51% negative.

The fifth republic.

The political system that the french live under, the constitution and the laws that they have to obey are also a result of the presidency of Charles de gaulle when he wrote the new constitution and it is still used nowadays.

There are two main reasons that can be attributed to the creation of the fifth republic and both are connected. The first one is related to the problems that had roots in the fourth republic system where the legislature of the national assembly was really powerful and the politicians that were part of it were selected by a proportional representation system. The disadvantage of this system was that it allowed a lot of parties to have seats in the government which means diversified thoughts about governance that made really difficult to create alliances and get to a political consensus to solved different concerns. This stagnation and inability to decide a solution was reflected in the rapid rotation of governments, on average of 6 months, of the prime minister. This incapacity to reach a consensus to solve problems got to its worst escenario with the burst of the Algier crisis.

The most important difference between these two republics, is that the fourth had a parliamentary system where the legislature was really powerful and the president had a ceremonial role, while the fifth republic has a semi presidential system instead, with a prime minister and a president and this allows a more centralized power.

European Union

The effect of Charles de Gaulle in the creation of the European Union is rather an accident or an indirect result than a specific policy with setted intentions. It started as way of simplify the trade of coal and steel with Germany with the European Coal and Steel Community that initially contained six member but it developed to be much more than that. In other words the European Union is a result of these both countries interests and still affects not only France and the rest of the members but also the rest of the world.

Within the European Union the policy that affects french people the most is the Common Agricultural Policy. Charles de Gaulle had a key role in the implementation of this policy taking advantage of the voting rules in order to get the rest of the members in. This policy consist in giving subsidies to farmers with the objective of making the European Union as autonomous as possible and not depend on imports of food. Nowadays the policy is applied and french farmers still receive the subsidies and actually is a big part of the budget of the European Union’s budget.

Gaullism

Gaullism is easier described from what it is not than from what it is, it is necessary to take out of the equations the political inclinations, it is neither right or left. It is not either a doctrine or ideology. It can be identified as a certain idea of France, a vision with a certain goal about the future of france that includes a powerful state, autonomy and influence impulsed by patriotism and nationalism. Is not so much about the methods but about the end goal so the methods can vary but not the objective.

During Charles de Gaulle existence gaullism mutated to the point in can be divided in three stages. The first stage is during the World War Two when it was identified as the opposition to Petain and the armistice with Germany. The second stage is after the World War Two when it meant to be opposed to the fourth republic.The third one is during Charles de Gaulle presidency when the vision was the most important characteristics and the methods varied. A fourth stage can be identify after his death where there was a continuity of the policies from the following presidents and political parties identified as such.

Nowadays there is a political party identity as gaullist called Les Republicans. It is characterized for being in favour of dirigisme, the opposition to communism and improving the role of france in worlds policies. This party was founded the 30 of may 2015 but its not new at all, it comes from the Union Pour un Mouvement Populaire since is the same party but renamed.

Nowadays opinion about Charles de Gaulle

The opinions about Charles de Gaulle varies, with around a 56.9% of positives opinión, a 13.7% of negative opinion and 29.4% of neutral opinión. The ones who have a positive opinión identifies him as someone who is a great leader, that despite his methods the result of them was good, that he gave freedoms to the french people and had a big role in the prosperity of the country. On the other hand the ones with a negative opinión identifies him as an authoritative figure with unpopular policies that hurted France and led them to the may 1968 crisis and as someone who censors the opposition.

Conclusion

To give an end to this report Charles de Gaulle can be identifies a someone who had a key role in the transformation and modernization of France into what is today. In order to achieve and make reality his vision for the country he applied different policies and methods with divided public opinions of whether they were good or bad. He had such influence that his legacy can be identified in almost every aspect of the everyday life of the french and his vision is still very much alive.

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