The Empire Defense Council (also called Council of Defense of the Empire, from french: Conseil de défense de l'Empire) was the embodiment of Free France which constituted the government from 1940 to 1941. Subsequently, this role was assumed by the French National Committee.

Creation and legitimacy

On 26 June 1940, four days after the

Pétain government The Government of Vichy France was the collaborationist ruling regime or government in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. Of contested legitimacy, it was headquartered in the town of Vichy in occupied France, but it initially ...

requested the armistice, General de Gaulle submitted a memorandum to the British government notifying Churchill of his decision to set up a Council of Defense of the Empire and formalizing the agreement reached with Churchill on 28 June, which allowed the Free French forces to be This memorandum led to an agreement on 7 August, but provided for the creation of a French Committee or Council as of 26 June. The agreement of 7 August between de Gaulle and the UK, known as the "

Chequers Chequers ( ), or Chequers Court, is the country house of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A 16th-century manor house in origin, it is located near the village of Ellesborough, halfway between Princes Risborough and Wendover in Bucking ...

agreement", gave General de Gaulle all the financial independence and resources of a government in exile. The British government considered it to have taken effect 11 July 1940, the day Marshal Pétain took full powers and signed into law the end of the Third Republic. By this act, the British government wished to indicate that it recognized that Free France, still being formed at the time, was the legitimate successor to the Republic that had just died, and was an ally of the United Kingdom in the war. It also undertook to reconstitute the entire French territory and "the greatness of France" after the war was over. The formal recognition of the Empire Defense Council as a government in exile by the United Kingdom took place on 6 January 1941; recognition by the Soviet Union was published in December 1941, by exchange of letters.

Geographical base

In his view, General de Gaulle was ensuring the continuity of the rule of law and national defense against the Axis powers. This was made possible by the legitimacy he obtained from his appeal of 18 June, as well as by the rapid rallying of military units and French territories that wished to continue the fight (from 22 June, in the case of the Franco-British territory of New Hebrides). De Gaulle's support grew out of a base in colonial Africa. In the fall of 1940, the colonial empire largely supported the Vichy regime.

Félix Éboué Adolphe Sylvestre Félix Éboué (; 26 December 1884 – 17 May 1944) was a French Guiana, French French colonial empires, colonial administrator and Free French Forces, Free French leader. He was the first black French man appointed to a hig ...

, governor of

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

, switched his support to General de Gaulle in September. Encouraged, de Gaulle traveled to

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in October, where he announced the formation of the Empire Defense Council in the

Brazzaville Manifesto The Empire Defense Council (also called Council of Defense of the Empire, from french: Conseil de défense de l'Empire) was the embodiment of Free France which constituted the government from 1940 to 1941. Subsequently, this role was assumed b ...

, and invited all colonies still supporting Vichy to join him and the Free French forces in the fight against Germany, which most of them did by 1943. At the time, Free France had the bulk of its territorial base in its

colonial empire A colonial empire is a collective of territories (often called colonies), either contiguous with the imperial center or located overseas, settled by the population of a certain state and governed by that state. Before the expansion of early mode ...

, thanks to the rallying of various colonies :

French India French India, formally the ( en, French Settlements in India), was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian Subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were ''de ...

was the first to rally, followed by most of the territories of French Equatorial Africa, followed by the New Hebrides Condominium,

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and

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, governor of

, announced his support on August 26. He quickly received the support of Edgard de Larminat,

Pierre Koenig Pierre Francis Koenig (October 17, 1925 – April 4, 2004) was an American architect and a Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. He taught at the USC School of Architecture from 1964 until his death in 2004. H ...

and Philippe Leclerc. At the end of the summer, most of French Equatorial Africa, newly designated " Free French Africa", was in support of Free France.

Government of Free France

On 27 October 1940, General de Gaulle announced the creation of the Empire Defense Council as the decision-making body of Free France in the "Brazzaville Manifesto", from the capital of French Equatorial Africa. This was part of his strategy to give the movement a political as well as a military character, both to attract supporters, and to provide support for his claim as a political as well as military leader of the French resistance. In the ordinances of 27 October 1940, De Gaulle defined the powers of the council, including: external and internal security, economic activity, negotiating with foreign powers (in article 2), as well as the "establishment of organs that would exercise the powers of jurisdiction normally devolved to the Council of State and the Court of Cassation" (article 4). However, the decision-making power rested with the head of the Free French (article 3), the Council exercising only an advisory role. Ministerial powers were exercised "by agency directors appointed by the Head of the Free French". This gave the Defense Council the nature of a consultative and representative body in the territories that joined with it. The Administrative Conference of the Free French (), created by decree of 29 January 1941, served as the government, bringing together all the agency directors and the members of the Empire Defence Council.

Leadership

The members of the council were chosen by Charles de Gaulle because they "already exercise authority on French lands or symbolize the highest intellectual and moral values of the nation." (Brazzaville Manifesto) * General

Georges Catroux Georges Albert Julien Catroux (29 January 1877 – 21 December 1969) was a French Army general and diplomat who served in both World War I and World War II, and served as Grand Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur from 1954 to 1969. Life Cat ...

* Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier * General Edgard de Larminat * Governor

* Governor Henri Sautot * Colonel Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque * General practitioner * Permanent secretary René Cassin * naval captain Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu

References

;Notes ;Sources * * * * * * * * *

External links

{{Authority control 1940 in France 1940 establishments in the French colonial empire 1941 disestablishments in the French colonial empire 1941 in France 1942 in France 1943 in France 1944 in France French governments French Ministers of Overseas France French people of World War II German occupation of France during World War II Government ministers of France Governments in exile Governments in exile during World War II June 1940 events Military history of France during World War II States and territories established in 1940 States and territories disestablished in 1941