The Popular Front government of Léon Blum, a left-wing coalition of radicals, socialists and communists.
June 1940
The fall of France, which is followed by the Nazi occupation of northern France and the establishment of the Vichy administration in the southern ‘free’ zone.
November 1942
The Nazis invade and occupy the southern ‘free’ zone.
August 1944
Liberation of Paris.
1946–1958: Fourth Republic
October 1946
The adoption of the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
March 1947–February 1949
Unsuccessful anti-colonial uprising in Madagascar.
April 1951
The Treaty of Paris establishes the European Coal and Steel Community.
May 1954
The French army is defeated at Dien Bien Phu; the French formally withdraw from Indochina in August 1954.
November 1954
The Algerian War begins.
March 1956
Tunisia and Morocco become independent.
March 1957
The Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community.
May 1958
Charles de Gaulle is invited to form a new government; he becomes president in January 1959.
1958–present: Fifth Republic
October 1958
The adoption of the constitution of the Fifth Republic.
1958–1960
Independence of all the territories formerly part of French West Africa (AOF) and French Equatorial Africa (AEF).
February 1960
France tests its first nuclear bomb in the Algerian Sahara.
March 1962
De Gaulle signs the Évian Accords that end the Algerian War.
May–June 1968
Widespread student and worker protests across France.
June 1969
De Gaulle resigns as president; he is replaced by Georges Pompidou.
October 1973
The first global oil crisis.
1974–1981
Presidency of the liberal Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (one term).
January 1975
The ‘Loi Veil’ legalizes abortion.
1981–1995
Presidency of the socialist François Mitterrand (two terms).
March 1983
After two years of left-wing social and economic reforms, Mitterrand announces policy of austerity.
1984
Unemployment rate exceeds 10% for the first time since the Second World War.
September 1992
In a referendum, the French narrowly support the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty.
1995–2007
Presidency of the centre-right Jacques Chirac (two terms).
December 1999
Introduction of the euro.
April 2002
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the extreme right Front National party, reaches the second round of the presidential election.
March 2004
Promulgation of a law banning conspicuous religious symbols in state schools.
May 2005
In a referendum, the French reject a proposed European Constitution; as a result the entire project is abandoned.
October–November 2005
Major riots in French cities in response to police violence.
2007–2012
Presidency of the centre-right Nicolas Sarkozy (one term).
March 2011
France leads the NATO intervention in Libya.
March 2011
After a referendum in 2009, the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean becomes France’s 101st département.
2012–2017
Presidency of the socialist François Hollande (one term).
January 2013–July 2014
French intervention in Mali.
May 2013
Legalization of same-sex marriage (le mariage pour tous).
2015–2016
A series of Islamist terrorist attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015, a number of locations in Paris in November 2015, and in Nice in July 2016.
2017–present November 2018
Presidency of the liberal Emmanuel Macron. Start of the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests.
Introduction: A Paradoxical Nation
France is a country bristling with paradoxes. It harbours global ambitions, but it invests huge amounts of money in supporting minor arts festivals in small villages. It is the undisputed home of revolutionary politics, but it has been overwhelmingly governed by conservatives in the last two centuries. It is a land synonymous with strikes and labour unrest, but it has one of the lowest rates of unionization in Europe. It is one of the world’s most advanced capitalist economies, but almost half of French people say they are opposed to the capitalist system. It is a place where citizens are deeply attached to their state, but do not hesitate to go into the street to protest the state’s irresponsibility. And it is a country in which millions of immigrants live, but which has one of the longest-standing extreme right movements in the Western world.
To outsiders, these paradoxes can be infuriating. Every society has contradictions, but those of the French provoke an unusually intense reaction. Eventually, all but the most passionate Francophiles end up complaining about French ‘hypocrisy’. The problem is usually one of dashed expectations. Starry-eyed left-wing students, taken in by the legacy of the French Revolution, the Paris Commune or the protests of 1968, come up short when they realize just how conservative the French are. Grand liberal reformers dream about the potential for France to become a truly great economy, only to despair at the apparent rigidity of the country’s administrative structures. Young scholars inspired by the great French tradition of feminist
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