other · France and the Low Countries
Free France
Origins
On 18 June 1940 General Charles de Gaulle, refusing the armistice, broadcast from London on the BBC calling on the French to continue fighting. Britain recognised him as leader of the Free French, and in August 1940 Chad, under its governor Félix Éboué, joined his cause, followed by most of French Equatorial Africa.
Rule and society
Free France built an army and navy, fought at Bir Hakeim in 1942 and gathered colonies in Africa and the Pacific. A French National Committee was set up in London in 1941. De Gaulle's envoy Jean Moulin united the internal Resistance in 1943. That year the movement moved to Algiers and merged with Henri Giraud's forces in the French Committee of National Liberation.
Decline and legacy
In June 1944 the committee became the Provisional Government of the French Republic, which returned to Paris after its liberation in August 1944 and restored the Republic.
Lineage
On the connections map
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- French Equatorial Africa was part of Free France1940 CE – 1944 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Free France. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/free-france
- MLA
- “Free France.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/free-france. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Free France.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/free-france.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Free France’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/free-france (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻