Union française
After the Second World War , France created the Union française (French Union) in 1946 with the aim of reshaping its colonial empire along the lines of the British Commonwealth of Nations . The Dutch-Indonesian Union was again based on the example of the French Union and the Commonwealth .
development
The basis were the principles that were formulated in 1944 at the Brazzaville Conference to which the leader of Free France Charles de Gaulle had appointed the governors of the African colonies. He announced a more humane colonial policy, but also ruled out future self-government of the colonies in the sense of national sovereignty rights. At the same time as the Fourth Republic , the Union française was formed on October 27, 1946. In the new French constitution of 1946 , the relationship between the colonies and their inhabitants and metropolitan France was reorganized. The different administrative structures of the colonial areas were not changed. There was still
- the overseas departments , which were an integral part of the republic
- Overseas territories whose inhabitants were also considered citizens of the republic, but were administered by the French overseas ministry
- Associated territories that France administered on behalf of the League of Nations or the UN ( Cameroon and Togo ), which were administered like the overseas territories, but without French citizenship for the residents
- associated states: the protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco
- States that had already declared their independence and that were now to become members of the Union française ( Indochina )
The former League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon no longer became a member of the Union. France had tried to force France to remain permanently in these countries, but had to admit full independence in July 1945. In 1946 the French troops withdrew under pressure from Great Britain and Syrian nationalist groups.
With the establishment of the Fifth Republic , the Union française was transformed into the Communauté française (French Community) on October 4, 1958 .
The President of the Union was the President of the French Republic. France should only control the common foreign, defense, judicial and monetary policies of the member states. The Union should include " a hundred million French ".
The union shrank in 1953/54 around the independent associated states of Indochina ( Vietnam , Laos and Cambodia ), in 1956 Morocco and 1957 Tunisia became sovereign. French India fell to India in 1956. Even after that, the collapse of the colonial system continued. For example, Guinea never joined the Communauté Française that followed the Union .
literature
- Jost Dülffer: Europe in the East-West Conflict 1945–1991. Oldenbourg, 2004, p. 65 f. ISBN 978-3-486-49105-0