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Empire Defence Council
The Empire Defense Council () was a deliberative body established within Free France in 1940. It was subsequently replaced by the French National Committee. Creation and legitimacy On 26 June 1940, four days after the Pétain government 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 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 R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Colonial Empire
The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas Colony, colonies, protectorates, and League of Nations mandate, mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French colonial empire", that existed until 1814, by which time most of it had been lost or sold, and the "Second French colonial empire", which began with the French conquest of Algeria, conquest of Algiers in 1830. On the eve of World War I, France's colonial empire was List of largest empires, the second-largest in the world after the British Empire. France began to establish colonies in the French colonization of the Americas, Americas, the Caribbean, and French India, India in the 16th century but lost most of its possessions after its defeat in the Seven Years' War. The North American possessions were lost to Britain and Spain, but Louisiana (New France), Spain later returned Louisiana to France in 1800. The territory was then Loui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazzaville
Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting the financial and administrative centre of the country, it is located on the north side of the Congo River, opposite Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). The population of the capital is estimated to exceed 2.1 million residents, comprising more than a third of the national populace. Some 40% are employed in non-agricultural professions. During World War II, Brazzaville served as the de facto capital of Free France between 1940 and 1942. In 2013, Brazzaville was designated a City of Music (UNESCO), City of Music by UNESCO; since then it has also been a member of the Creative Cities Network. Toponymy The prefix "Brazza" comes from the surname of the Italian count Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, who wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Court Of Cassation (France)
The Court of Cassation (, ) is the supreme court for civil and criminal cases in France. It is France's highest court. It is one of the country's four superior courts, along with the Conseil d'État (France), Council of State, the Constitutional Council (France), Constitutional Council and the Tribunal des conflits, Jurisdictional Disputes Tribunal. It primarily hears appeals against the decisions of Cour d'assises, courts of assizes and Court of appeal (France), courts of appeal (appeals-in-cassation). The Court only reviews questions of law (but not questions of fact) and bears ultimate responsibility for a uniform interpretation and application of statutory law throughout France. It also filters out appeals challenging the constitutionality of statutes before forwarding them to the Counstitutional Council, reviews lower court verdicts on request of the European Court of Human Rights and hears several other types of cases. The Court is organized into three civil chambers, a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conseil D'État (France)
In France, the (; Council of State) is a governmental body that acts both as legal adviser to the executive branch and as the supreme court for administrative justice, which is one of the two branches of the French judiciary system. Established in 1799 by Napoleon as a successor to the King's Council (), it is located in the Palais-Royal in Paris and is primarily made up of top-level legal officers. The Vice President of the Council of State ranks as the ninth most important civil servant in France. Members of the Council of State are part of a Grand Corps of the French State (''Grand corps de l'État''). The Council of State mainly recruits from among the top-ranking students graduating from the ''École nationale d'administration''. Composition A General Session of the Council of State is presided over by the Prime Minister or, in their absence, the Minister of Justice. However, since the real presidency of the Council is held by the Vice-President, the Vice Preside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free French Africa
Free French Africa (, sometimes abbreviated to AFL) was the political entity which collectively represented the colonial territories of French Equatorial Africa and Cameroon under the control of Free France in World War II. It provided a political and territorial base for Free France and strengthened General Charles de Gaulle's international position. It made a major contribution to the war effort by financing the French Resistance, by the contribution of its many soldiers to the Free French Forces, and by the military exploitation of its installations and territories. Because of its geographical location, Free French Africa offered a considerable asset to the Allies, favoring military operations from Chad in the Western Desert Campaign in Egypt and Libya, as well as facilitating communications across the continent, thus giving British colonies the ability to communicate with each other. History and territories During the Second World War, following the Appeal of 18 Jun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philippe Leclerc De Hauteclocque
Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque (22 November 1902 – 28 November 1947) was a Free France, Free-French general during World War II. He became Marshal of France posthumously in 1952, and is known in France simply as or just Leclerc. The son of an aristocratic family, Hauteclocque graduated from the , the French military academy, in 1924. After service with the French occupation of the Ruhr and in French protectorate in Morocco, Morocco, he returned to Saint-Cyr as an instructor. He was awarded the for leading goumiers in an attack on caves and ravines on Bou Amdoun on 11 August 1933. During the Second World War he fought in the Battle of France. He was one of the first who defied his government's Armistice to make his way to Britain to fight with the Free French under General Charles de Gaulle, adopting the ''nom de guerre'' of Leclerc so that his wife and children would not be put at risk if his name appeared in the papers. He was sent to French Equator ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie-Pierre Kœnig
Marie Joseph Pierre François Kœnig or Koenig (10 October 1898 – 2 September 1970) was a French general during World War II during which he commanded a Free French Brigade at the Battle of Bir Hakeim in North Africa in 1942. He started a political career after the war and was posthumously elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France in 1984. Early life Marie-Pierre Kœnig was born on 10 October 1898, in Caen, Calvados, France. His parents were from the Alsace region. Military career World War I Kœnig fought in the French Army during World War I and served with distinction. He obtained his baccalaureate and enlisted in 1917. He served in the 36th Infantry Regiment. He was designated as an aspirant in February 1918 and joined his unit at the front. Decorated with the Médaille militaire, he was promoted to ''sous-lieutenant'' on 3 September 1918. Interwar career After the war, he served with French forces in Morocco and Cameroon. He served in Silesia as an assistant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edgard De Larminat
Edgard de Larminat (29 November 1895 – 1 July 1962) was a French general, who fought in two World Wars. He was one of the most important military figures who joined the Free French forces under the British in 1940. He was awarded the Ordre de la Libération. Larminat joined the French Army at the outbreak of the First World War as a private and by 1915 had completed his officer training and later fought at the Battle of Verdun. During the course of the war, Larminat was wounded three times and gassed once. He achieved the rank of captain by the close of the war. Completing his military studies at Saint-Cyr in October 1919, Larminat volunteered to serve in the colonial infantry. In this capacity, he saw combat against rebels in Morocco, and later served in Mauritania and Indochina. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Larminat was a lieutenant-colonel stationed in the Levant. Larminat was still serving in the Middle East when France surrendered in June, 1940. He re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Caledonia
New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of the French Republic, a legal status unique in overseas France, and is enshrined in a dedicated chapter of the French Constitution. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre (New Caledonia), Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines (New Caledonia), Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. French people, especially locals, call Grande Terre , a nickname also used more generally for the entire New Caledonia. Kanak people#Agitation for independence, Pro-independence Kanak parties use the name (''pron.'' ) to refer to New Caledonia, a term coined in the 1980s from the ethnic name of the indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Polynesia
French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The total land area of French Polynesia is , with a population of 278,786 (Aug. 2022 census) of which at least 205,000 live in the Society Islands and the remaining population lives in the rest of the archipelago. French Polynesia is divided into five island groups: the Austral Islands; the Gambier Islands; the Marquesas Islands; the Society Islands (comprising the Leeward Islands (Society Islands), Leeward and Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward Islands); and the Tuamotus. Among its 121 islands and atolls, 75 were inhabited at the 2017 census. Tahiti, which is in the Society Islands group, is the most populous island, being home to nearly 69% of the population of French Polynesia . Papeete, located on Tahiti, is the capital of French ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Hebrides Condominium
New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium () and named after the Hebrides in Scotland, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu. Native people had inhabited the islands for three thousand years before the first Europeans arrived in 1606 from a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós. The islands were named by Captain James Cook in 1774 and subsequently colonised by both the British and the French. The two countries eventually signed an agreement making the islands an Anglo-French condominium that provided for joint sovereignty over the archipelago with two parallel administrations, one British, one French. In some respects, that divide continued even after independence, with schools teaching in either one language or the other. The condominium lasted from 1906 until 1980, when New Hebrides gained its independence as the Republic of Vanuatu. Politics and economy The New Hebrides ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Equatorial Africa
French Equatorial Africa (, or AEF) was a federation of French colonial territories in Equatorial Africa which consisted of Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad. It existed from 1910 to 1958 and its administration was based in Brazzaville. History Established in 1910, the Federation contained four colonial possessions: French Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari and French Chad. The Governor-General was based in Brazzaville with deputies in each territory. In 1911, France ceded parts of the territory to German Kamerun as a result of the Agadir Crisis. The territory was returned after Germany's defeat in World War I, while most of French Cameroon, Cameroon proper became a French League of Nations mandate not integrated into the AEF. French Equatorial Africa, especially the region of Ubangi-Shari, had a similar concession system as the Congo Free State and similar atrocities were also committed there. Writer André Gide traveled to Ubangi-Shari and was told by inhabita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
