The liberation of France from Nazi Germany was accomplished through diplomatic, political, and military efforts from the Allied powers, Free French forces based in London and Africa, and the French Resistance. After Germany invaded and occupied northern France in 1940, the French government dissolved and handed power to Philippe Pétain, who established the Vichy regime as a Nazi client state. Meanwhile, General Charles de Gaulle fled to London and called on the French people to resist Germany. Efforts to liberate France began in 1940 in French colonies in Africa still under Vichy control, and by 1943 most other French colonies had joined Free France under de Gaulle's leadership based in Brazzaville.
The liberation of France from Nazi Germany was accomplished through diplomatic, political, and military efforts from the Allied powers, Free French forces based in London and Africa, and the French Resistance. After Germany invaded and occupied northern France in 1940, the French government dissolved and handed power to Philippe Pétain, who established the Vichy regime as a Nazi client state. Meanwhile, General Charles de Gaulle fled to London and called on the French people to resist Germany. Efforts to liberate France began in 1940 in French colonies in Africa still under Vichy control, and by 1943 most other French colonies had joined Free France under de Gaulle's leadership based in Brazzaville.
The liberation of France from Nazi Germany was accomplished through diplomatic, political, and military efforts from the Allied powers, Free French forces based in London and Africa, and the French Resistance. After Germany invaded and occupied northern France in 1940, the French government dissolved and handed power to Philippe Pétain, who established the Vichy regime as a Nazi client state. Meanwhile, General Charles de Gaulle fled to London and called on the French people to resist Germany. Efforts to liberate France began in 1940 in French colonies in Africa still under Vichy control, and by 1943 most other French colonies had joined Free France under de Gaulle's leadership based in Brazzaville.
liberation of France (French: libération de la France) in the Second World War was
accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance. Nazi Germany invaded France in May 1940. Their rapid advance through the undefended Ardennes caused a crisis in the French government; the French Third Republic dissolved itself in July, and handed over absolute power to Marshal Philippe Pétain, an elderly hero of World War I. Pétain signed an armistice with Germany with the north and west of France under German military occupation. Pétain, charged with calling a Constitutional Authority, instead established an authoritarian government in the spa town of Vichy, in the southern zone libre ("free zone"). Though nominally independent, Vichy France became a collaborationist regime and was little more than a Nazi client state that actively participated in Jewish deportations. Even before France surrendered on 22 June 1940, General Charles de Gaulle fled to London, from where he called on his fellow citizens to resist the Germans. The British recognized and funded de Gaulle's Free French government in exile based in London. Efforts to liberate France began in the autumn of 1940 in France's colonial empire in Africa, still in the hands of the Vichy regime. General de Gaulle persuaded French Chad to support Free France, and by 1943 most other French colonies in Equatorial and North Africa had followed suit. De Gaulle announced formation of the Empire Defense Council in Brazzaville, which became the capital of Free France.