Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) was a French conservative politician and general.
He organized the Free French troops fighting the Nazis 1940-1944, was head of the provisional French government 1944-46, and leader of his own Gaullist party.
In 1958 the national assembly asked him to form a government during France's economic recovery, and to solve the crisis in Algeria. He was president 1959-1969, having changed the constitution.
Born in Lille, he graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1911 and was severely wounded and captured by the Germans 1916.
In June 1940 he refused to accept the new prime minister Petain's truce with the Germans, and became leader of the Free French in England. In 1944 he entered Paris in triumph and was briefly head of the provisional g
overnment before resigning over the new constitution of the Fourth Republic in 1946.
In 1947 he founded the Rassemblement du Peuple Francais, a non-party constitutional reform movement, and when national bankruptcy and civil war loomed in 1958, de Gaulle was called to form a government.
As premier he promulgated a constitution subordinating the legislature to the presidency, and took office as president in 1959. Economic recovery and Algerian independence after a bloody war followed.
A nationalist, he opposed 'Anglo-Saxon' influence in Europe. Reelected president in 1965, he violently quelled student demonstrations in May 1968 when they were joined by workers. The Gaullist party, reorganized as Union des Democrats pour la Cinquieme Republique, won an overwhelming majority in the elections of the same year.
In 1969 he resigned after the defeat of the government in a referendum on constitutional reform.
Why is Charles de Gaulle famous?
Charles de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II.