France promulgated the Constitution of 27 October 1946, creating the institutional framework of the French Fourth Republic and establishing a parliamentary system with a President of the Republic and a President of the Council (prime minister).
Parliament elected Vincent Auriol as the first President of the Fourth Republic, inaugurating the regime’s head of state under the new constitution.
Paul Ramadier became the first President of the Council (premier/prime minister) of the Fourth Republic, forming the inaugural government under the 1946 constitutional order.
The European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan) began in April 1948, providing large-scale U.S. aid to help restore Western European economies; France was a leading participant in coordinating Europe’s response and receiving assistance.
France became a founding member of NATO by signing the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, formalizing a collective defense alliance in the early Cold War.
French Prime Minister René Pleven proposed a plan for a supranational European army (the Pleven Plan), aiming to integrate West German rearmament within a European framework.
France and five other states signed the Treaty of Paris creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), a major step in postwar European integration and a pillar of Fourth Republic diplomacy.
The Treaty establishing the ECSC entered into force, operationalizing shared governance of coal and steel markets among the six members and deepening France’s integration with Western Europe.
The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu marked a decisive turning point in the First Indochina War, accelerating negotiations that ended major French colonial involvement in Indochina.
Agreements concluded at the Geneva Conference provided for cease-fires in Indochina and a temporary military demarcation in Vietnam, formalizing France’s withdrawal from the conflict.
France’s National Assembly declined to ratify the EDC treaty, collapsing the project and reshaping Western European defense integration (which instead proceeded largely through NATO and later Western European Union arrangements).
A wave of FLN attacks on All Saints’ Day (Toussaint Rouge) is widely treated as the start of the Algerian War, a conflict that destabilized Fourth Republic politics and helped trigger the 1958 regime crisis.
France and Morocco signed an agreement recognizing Moroccan sovereignty and ending the French protectorate framework, another significant Fourth Republic decolonization milestone.
France recognized Tunisia’s full independence, ending the French protectorate and marking a major stage of decolonization during the Fourth Republic.
The French National Assembly adopted the loi-cadre (Defferre Reform Act), transferring substantial powers to elected territorial governments in much of French Africa and expanding political participation via universal suffrage.
Israel’s attack on Egypt launched the Suez Crisis; Britain and France soon intervened militarily, but intense international pressure forced their withdrawal, damaging Fourth Republic prestige and influence in the Middle East.
France and five partners signed the Treaties of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom, deepening economic integration beyond the ECSC.
The 13 May 1958 uprising in Algiers intensified the Fourth Republic’s institutional crisis amid the Algerian War and prompted President René Coty to call on Charles de Gaulle to form a government.
De Gaulle was invested by the National Assembly as President of the Council (prime minister) with authority to address the crisis and prepare constitutional change, marking the Fourth Republic’s final government.
A constitutional law enabled the government to draft a new constitution, laying the legal groundwork for replacing the Fourth Republic with a new institutional order.
Voters approved a new constitution by referendum, ending the Fourth Republic’s constitutional framework and establishing the Fifth Republic (formally promulgated days later).
France promulgated the Constitution of 4 October 1958, formally replacing the Fourth Republic with the Fifth Republic’s stronger executive-centered institutions.
French Fourth Republic (1946–1958)
