French Econmoy After the 2nd World War

If we take an overview of France's experience of the war itself we can see that French defences against German military attack failed ,Germany defeated France in six week campaign in 1940.The occupying army entered Paris on the 14th of June. Germany had a stronghold on France by occupying the north and the west of France including Paris .The economic renaissance for France meant painful reconstruction especially if we consider factors after 1940 such as the German army overexploiting the mines of the N

There was more then just internal problems for France. The Pre 1939 French colonial empire was on the verge of crumbling. Syria and Lebanon had already achieved independence, France's west African possessions were demanding a method of self government and some nationalists demanded outright independence. In Indochina which consisted of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos the communists and other nationalists launched a war of independence against France. C. Fohlen claims these colonial problems drained Frances economy severely in the post war years and had considerable repercussions on internal French politics.

France was one of the first countries to adopt this kind of policy. The economic ministries in France desired growth, they saw economic growth as a way of healing society .The principal way of achieving this was through a different economic policy. France was seen as the first capitalist country to adopt this planning. The indicative planning approach involved close co-operation among governments and businesses, targets were set then groups had to achieve their objectives. The approach may have lacked authoritarian features of a command economy however this made it stand out as planning in a new free democratic society.

However Schulze underlines the fact that the early post war period was marked by clear political and economic instability. Reconstruction from the effects of war and pre war depression were part of an environment where inflation rates were high , permanent budgetary problems existed and the foreign exchange was in crisis. Politically the unity between the resistance movement had weakened due

Some topics in this essay:
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