Vichy Regime Analysis

When we talk about a regime, such the Vichy’s one, it is important to give a general idea of the historical context of it. Considering the historical context of the Vichy Regime, it began on May 10th1940, when the German troops invade France territory. Only one month later, on June 10th, the French government declared Paris an open city. And after six days, Marshall Philippe Pétain became President of France and, on June 22nd1940, France -which was now an occupied state- signed an armistice with Hitler's Germany. During these last events, General Charles de Gaulle was in London. De Gaulle was a general of the First World War taken prisoner during the Verdun battle. During the German invasion he refused to accept his government's armistice with

It was established in 1899 and its ideology was dominated by Charles Maurras. When, after the defeat of the Battle of France, Pétain was proclaimed head of the state of the Vichy Regime and of the Révolution Nationale, Maurras said it was a "divine surprise", and he started immediately supporting the regime born from the Pétain-Hitler armistice. It is also important to remember that anti-republicanism had never died, according to circumstances. The Great War had channeled conservatism into exaggerated hopes for the Bloc; the return of the leagues in 1924–1936 was followed by absorption into the centre-led mainstream (Passmore). It is possible, indeed, to observe during this period, a reaction to the extreme right, such as the birth of the Coalition within Front

When someone talks about the appeasement policy, the first idea in our mind is the English politician Arthur Neville Chamberlain and its policy towards the national-socialist Italy and Germany, however it is, generally speaking, a diplomatic policy of making concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid the conflict with it. Talking about Vichy it is impossible not to talk about the appeasement policy which was essentially leaded by three important causes: the fear of Communism, the right-wing parliament rise and the control on Hitler without intervention. The fear of Communism was because of the new power that was representing at that time the USSR was quickly conquering the ideology in the Parliaments of all the old continent and there was a common fear around Europe. The right-wing parliament rise it was a social phenomenon that was developing according to the fear of Communism. But the real problem was the policy without intervention on