Editing History of France (section)

=== World War II ===
{{Main|Vichy France|Diplomacy of World War II|Military history of France during World War II|German occupation of France during World War II}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-126-0347-09A, Paris, Deutsche Truppen am Arc de Triomphe.jpg|thumb|German soldiers on parade marching past the [[Arc de Triomphe]]]]

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-027-1477-30, Marseille, Hafenviertel. Deportation von Juden.jpg|thumb|Vichy police escorting French Jewish citizens for deportation during the [[Marseille roundup]], January 1943]]
Germany's [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939 finally caused France and Britain to declare war against Germany. But the Allies did not launch massive assaults and instead kept a defensive stance: this was called the [[Phoney War]] in Britain or ''Drôle de guerre'' — the funny sort of war — in France. It did not prevent the German army from conquering Poland in a matter of weeks with its innovative [[Blitzkrieg]] tactics, also helped by the Soviet Union's attack on Poland.

When Germany had its hands free for an attack in the west, the [[Battle of France]] began in May 1940, and the same [[Blitzkrieg]] tactics proved just as devastating there. The [[Wehrmacht]] bypassed the [[Maginot Line]] by marching through the Ardennes forest. A second German force was sent into Belgium and the Netherlands to act as a diversion to this main thrust. In six weeks of savage fighting the French lost 90,000 men.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The French Defeat of 1940 |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford |editor-last=Blatt |editor-first=Joel}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Doughty |first=Robert A. |title=The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940 |date=2014 |author-link=Robert A. Doughty}}</ref>

Many civilians sought refuge by taking to the roads of France: some 2 million refugees from Belgium and the Netherlands were joined by between 8 and 10 million French civilians, representing a quarter of the French population, all heading south and west. This movement may well have been the largest single movement of civilians in history prior to the [[Partition of India]] in 1947.

Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June 1940, but not before the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]] was evacuated from [[Dunkirk]], along with many French soldiers.

[[Vichy France]] was established on 10 July 1940 to govern the unoccupied part of France and its colonies. It was led by [[Philippe Pétain]], the aging war hero of the First World War. Petain's representatives signed a harsh [[Armistice of 22 June 1940|Armistice]] on 22 June, whereby Germany kept most of the French army in camps in Germany, and France had to pay out large sums in gold and food supplies. Germany occupied three-fifths of France's territory, leaving the rest in the southeast to the new [[Vichy France|Vichy]] government. However, in practice, most local government was handled by the traditional French officialdom. In November 1942 all of Vichy France was finally occupied by German forces. Vichy continued in existence but it was closely supervised by the Germans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paxton |first=Robert O. |title=Vichy France, Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 |date=1972 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=978-0-3944-7360-4 |author-link=Robert Paxton}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Julian |title=France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944 |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1992-5457-6}}</ref>

The Vichy regime sought to collaborate with Germany, keeping peace in France to avoid further occupation although at the expense of personal freedom and individual safety. Some 76,000 Jews were deported during the German occupation, often with the help of the Vichy authorities, and murdered in the Nazis' [[extermination camp]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marrus |first=Michael |title=Vichy France and the Jews |date=1995 |publisher=Stanford University Press}}</ref>

==== Women in Vichy France ====
{{See also|Women in the French Resistance}}
The French soldiers held as POWs and forced laborers in Germany throughout the war were not at risk of death in combat, but the anxieties of separation for their wives were high. The government provided them a modest allowance, but one in ten became prostitutes to support their families. It gave women a key symbolic role to carry out the national regeneration. It used propaganda, women's organizations, and legislation to promote maternity, patriotic duty, and female submission to marriage, home, and children's education.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Diamond |first=Hanna |title=Women and the Second World War in France 1939–1948: Choices and Constraints |date=1999 |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-5822-9910-8}}</ref> Conditions were very difficult for housewives, as food and other necessities were in short supply. Divorce laws were made much more stringent, and restrictions were placed on the employment of married women. Family allowances that had begun in the 1930s were continued, and became a vital lifeline for many families; it was a monthly cash bonus for having more children. In 1942, the birth rate started to rise, and [[Demographics of France#After World War II|by 1945 it was higher than it had been for a century]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Muel-Dreyfus |first1=Francine |title=Vichy and the Eternal Feminine: A Contribution to a Political-Sociology of Gender |last2=Johnson |first2=Kathleen A. |date=2001 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-2777-6}}</ref>

==== Resistance ====
General [[Charles de Gaulle]] in London declared himself on BBC radio to be the head of a rival government in exile, and gathered the [[Free French Forces]] around him, finding support in some French colonies and recognition from Britain but not the United States. After the [[Attack on Mers-el-Kébir]] in 1940, where the British fleet destroyed a large part of the French navy, still under command of [[Vichy France]], that killed about 1,100 sailors, there was nationwide indignation and a feeling of distrust in the French forces, leading to the events of the [[Battle of Dakar]]. Eventually, several important French ships joined the Free French Forces.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Martin |first=Thomas |date=1997 |title=After Mers-el-Kébir: The Armed Neutrality of the Vichy French Navy, 1940–1943 |journal=[[English Historical Review]] |volume=112 |issue=447 |pages=643–670 |jstor=576348}}</ref> The United States maintained diplomatic relations with Vichy and avoided recognition of de Gaulle's claim to be the one and only government of France. Churchill, caught between the U.S. and de Gaulle, tried to find a compromise.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Viorst |first=Milton |title=Hostile allies: FDR and Charles de Gaulle |date=1967 |author-link=Milton Viorst}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haglund |first=David G. |date=2007 |title=Roosevelt as 'Friend of France'—But Which One? |journal=[[Diplomatic History (journal)|Diplomatic history]] |volume=31 |issue=5 |pages=883–908|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00658.x}}</ref>

Within France proper, the organized underground grew as the Vichy regime resorted to more strident policies in order to fulfill the enormous demands of the Nazis and the eventual decline of Nazi Germany became more obvious. They formed [[French Resistance|the Resistance]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kedward |first=H. R. |title=In Search of the Maquis |date=1993 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-1915-9178-5 |author-link=Rod Kedward}}</ref> The most famous figure of the French resistance was [[Jean Moulin]], sent in France by de Gaulle in order to link all resistance movements; he was captured and tortured by [[Klaus Barbie]] (the "butcher of Lyon"). Increasing repression culminated in the complete destruction and extermination of the village of [[Oradour-sur-Glane]] at the height of the [[Invasion of Normandy|Battle of Normandy]]. On 10 June 1944, a company of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, entered Oradour-sur-Glane, and massacred 642 men, women and children, all of whom were civilians. In 1953, 21 men went on trial for the Oradour killings; all but one were pardoned by the French government.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

[[File:American officer and French partisan crouch behind an auto during a street fight in a French city. - NARA - 531322 - restored by Buidhe.jpg|thumb|A Resistance fighter during street fighting in 1944]]On 6 June 1944, the Allies [[D-Day|landed in Normandy]], without a French component. On 15 August Allied forces [[Operation Dragoon|landing in Provence]], this time including 260,000 men of the [[First Army (France)|French First Army]]. The German lines finally broke, and they fled back to Germany while keeping control of the major ports. Allied forces liberated France and the Free French were given the honor of [[Liberation of Paris|liberating Paris]] in late August. The French army recruited [[French Forces of the Interior]] (de Gaulle's formal name for resistance fighters) to continue the war until the final defeat of Germany; this army numbered 300,000 men by September, and 370,000 by spring 1945.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Funk |first=Arthur Layton |title=Charles de Gaulle: The Crucial Years, 1943–1944 |date=1959}}</ref>

The Vichy regime disintegrated. An interim [[Provisional Government of the French Republic]] was quickly put into place by de Gaulle. The ''gouvernement provisoire de la République française'', or GPRF, operated under a ''tripartisme'' alliance of communists, socialists, and democratic republicans. The GPRF governed France from 1944 to 1946, when it was replaced by the [[French Fourth Republic]]. Tens of thousands of collaborators were executed without trial. The new government declared the Vichy laws unconstitutional and illegal, and elected new local governments. Women gained the right to vote.