Empire Defense Council
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Empire Defense Council | |
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Cabinet of French colonial empire loyal to Free France | |
Date formed | 27 October 1940 |
Date dissolved | 24 September 1941 |
People and organisations | |
Head of government | Charles de Gaulle |
History | |
Successor | French National Committee |
The Empire Defense Council (French: Conseil de défense de l'Empire) 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
The agreement of 7 August between de Gaulle and the UK, known as the "
The formal recognition of the Empire Defense Council as a de facto 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.[3]
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.
At the time, Free France had the bulk of its territorial base in its
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.[5] 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.[8]
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
Leadership
The members of the council were chosen by Charles de Gaulle[9] because they "already exercise authority on French lands or symbolize the highest intellectual and moral values of the nation."[citation needed] (Brazzaville Manifesto)[5]
- General Georges Catroux
- Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier
- General Edgard de Larminat
- Governor Félix Éboué
- Governor Henri Sautot
- Colonel Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
- Médecin-Général Adolphe Sicé [fr]
- Permanent secretary René Cassin
- Naval captain Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu[10]
See also
- Allies of World War II
- Brazzaville Conference
- Collaboration with the Axis Powers
- Foreign relations of Vichy France
- France–Germany border
- Free France
- Free French Forces
- French Colonial Empire
- French Forces of the Interior
- French Indochina in World War II
- French Fourth Republic
- French prisoners of war in World War II
- French Resistance
- French Third Republic
- Military Administration in France
- German occupation of France during World War II
- Italian occupation of France during World War II
- Liberation of France
- Liberation of Paris
- List of French divisions in World War II
- List of French possessions and colonies
- List of governors-general of French Equatorial Africa
- Military history of France during World War II
- Pacific Islands home front during World War II
- Provisional Government of the French Republic
- The Vichy 80
- Vichy France
- Vichy Holocaust collaboration timeline
- Zone libre
References
- Notes
- ^ White 1964, p. 161.
- ^ Venner 2017, p. 195.
- ^ Danan 1972.
- ^ a b c d Shillington 2013, p. 448.
- ^ a b c France libre 1940.
- ^ persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/jso_0300-953x_1945_num_1_1487 Le ralliement à la France Libre des colonies du Pacifique, Journal de la société des océanistes, year 1945
- ^ Jennings 2015, p. 46.
- ^ Munholland 2007, p. 19-23.
- ^ Wieviorka 2019, p. 67.
- ^ "Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu". L'Ordre de la Lberation. 14 December 2001. Archived from the original on 1 June 2002. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
- Sources
- Danan, Yves-Maxime (1972). "La nature juridique du Conseil de défense de l'empire (Brazzaville, October 1940) Contribution à la Théorie des Gouvernements Insurrectionnels" [The legal nature of the Empire Defense (October 1940) Contribution to the Theory of Insurrectionnal Governments] (PDF). Publications de la faculté de droit et des sciences politiques et sociales d'Amiens (4): 145–149.
- de Gaulle, Charles (16 November 1940). Déclaration organique complétant le manifeste du 27 octobre 1940 [Organic Declaration supplementing the Manifesto of 27 October 1940]. Brazzaville. )
- France libre (1940). Documents officiels. [Manifeste du 27 octobre 1940, à Brazzaville. Ordonnances n ° 1 et 2, du 27 octobre 1940, instituant un Conseil de défense de l'Empire. Déclaration organique complétant le manifeste du 27 octobre 1940, du 16 novembre 1940, à Brazzaville. Signé: De Gaulle.] [Official documents. Manifesto of 27 October 1940, in Brazzaville. Orders No. 1 and 2, of 27 October 1940, establishing an Empire Defense Council. Organic Declaration supplementing the Manifesto of 27 October 1940, of 16 November 1940, in Brazzaville. Signed: De Gaulle.]. Brazzaville: Impr. officielle. OCLC 460992617.
- Jennings, Eric T. (8 July 2015). Free French Africa in World War II: The African Resistance. Cambridge University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-316-44519-8. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
In the fall of 1940, Gaullist legitimacy rested squarely and almost entirely on Free French Africa, a freshly invented designator that linked Cameroon to FEA more than ever. In the wake of his two telegrams on October 27, 1940, de Gaulle recycled his earlier formula, instituting the Empire Defense Council in Brazzaville 'on French land'.
- Munholland, Kim (February 2007). "chap 1. The Free French and the Americans before Pearl Harbor - The Empire Defense Council and the Allies in the Tropics". Rock of Contention: Free French and Americans at War in New Caledonia, 1940-1945. New York: Berghahn Books. pp. 19–. ISBN 978-1-84545-300-8. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
While he was in Africa and on French colonial territory, de Gaulle decided to give his movement a more clearly distinct, political character when he created an Empire Defense Council on 27 October. This important initiative had far-reaching implications for his movement since it was the first step toward the formation of a provisional government and General de Gaulle's claim to legitimacy as the political as well as military leader of the French resistance.
- Shillington, Kevin (4 July 2013). Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set. Vol. 1 A–G. Routledge. OCLC 254075497. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
There was much support for the Vichy regime among French colonial personnel, with the exception of Guianese-born governor of Chad, Félix Éboué, who in September 1940 announced his switch of allegiance from Vichy to the Gaullist Free French movement based in London. Encouraged by this support for his fledgling movement, Charles de Gaulle traveled to Brazzaville in October 1940 to announce the formation of an Empire Defense Council and to invite all French possessions loyal to Vichy to join it and continue the war against Germany; within two years, most did.
- Venner, Dominique (15 April 2017). De Gaulle la Grandeur et le Neant. Editions du Rocher. ISBN 978-2-268-09133-4.
- White, Dorothy Shipley (1964). "XI The French Empire Rises". Seeds of Discord: De Gaulle, Free France and the Allies. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. OCLC 876345256. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- Wieviorka, Olivier (3 September 2019). The Resistance in Western Europe, 1940–1945. Translated by Todd, Jane Marie. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-54864-9. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
At the same time, de Gaulle was only one man, and had no eminent political supporters. He therefore had to broaden his base. An order of October 27, 1940, created the Conseil de défense de l'Empire (Empire Defense Council), which included, in addition to de Gaulle, the governors of the territories who had rallied to the cause (Edgard de Larminat, Félix Éboué, Leclerc, Henri Sautot) military leaders (Georges Catroux and Émile Muselier), and three personalities from varied backgrounds: Father Georges Thierry Argenlieu, a friar and alumnus of the E'cole Navale; Rene' Cassin, a distinguished jurist and prominent representative of the veterans movement; and the military doctor Adolph Sice'.
Further reading
- Epstein, Sam; Epstein, Beryl Williams (1973). Charles de Gaulle, Defender of France. Century book (Champaign, Ill.). Champaign, Ill.: Garrard. OCLC 730526.
...set up an Empire Defense council. He appointed men to represent him in various world capitals. He also sent representatives secretly into France.
External links