French Republic
From Autonomicon Mk. II
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Contents |
History
During the First Scinfaxi War, the French were under German occupation after their defeat early on in World War II. They could offer little open resistance to the alien invaders, although the activities of the French Partisans as well as the few Free French and Vichy units are remembered close to heart by the French citizens. The French relied to a large extent on remaining unseen and supporting (however much against their nature it seemed) the German Wehrmacht which took upon itself the duty of defending France as well. The combination of British, German and French militia forces were not enough to keep the Scinfaxi at bay, and large swathes of the country were conquered by the advancing off-worlders.
As the British evacuated their islands, French citizens also left to start new lives, either in the Anglo-Canadian Kingdom or to the USA and the Federation of Oceania. In a show of support, the British government allowed Quebec to secede and form the basis of a new French nation, the Republic's Free French government moved there. With the Vichy regime crushed prior to the start of the First Scinfaxi War, Quebec became the last stronghold of French Culture
With the government located in Quebec and divided from its main territories by the atlantic ocean, the French worked closly with the Anglo-Canadian Kingdom and the United States, to develop a FTL drive in order to colonize and start anew in space. After the completion of initial FTL testing the French, desperate to rebuild their shattered nation, were the first to conduct major scouting and colonization efforts.
Military
The French Armée de Terre, Marine Nationale, Armée de l'Airare, Légion étrangère,and the Gendarmerie Nationale are collectively known as the Free French Armed Forces. The Commander in Chief is the First Consul, currently Jacque De Suffon although the military is managed by the Ministry of Defence on a day to day basis. In times of war, control is reassigned to the Supreme Commander of the Democratic Federation.
The French Republic fields one of the most efficient and well equipped armed forces in the Democratic Federation. Its interstellar power projection is however it's major and only weak point, especially compared with the mighty interstellar fleets fielded by the Soviet Union or the Greater German Reich. Notwithstanding their limited foreign resources the French Military is a force to be reckoned with, especially since they have learned a great deal from the mistakes of World War Two. Far from the stolid defenders who waited on the Maginot Line for an enemy that never came the French now favor the kind of lightning fast attacks and flexible, shifting defensive strategies that make them heir to the best traditions of mobile warfare.
Government
The permanent loss of the French homeland nearly broke the French as a people. In the early days of the First Scinfaxi War there seemed no hope of French Unification or even of French survival. Millions lay dead in the streets of Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse and hundreds of other cities throughout the French countryside. Those few Frenchmen who made it through the Battle of West Europe, the evacuation of West Africa or the Scinfaxi attack on North America huddled together in Quebec, which most assumed would be the dying ground of French culture.
Then, on December 16th 1948 in what amounted to the greatest act of national magnanimity in human history, the Anglo-Canadian Kingdom ceded the entire province of Quebec to the surviving French Nationals. They quickly convened a constitutional convention and the delegates met on February 27th 1949. The Convention Unitaire, despite an uplifting beginning when French Politicians openly wept as Anglo-Canadian Ambassador Henry Aching presented them with the official copy of the Declaration of French Sovereignty and hoisted the tricolour over the statehouse, quickly devolved into one of the worst political mistakes in French History. The Convention declared the foundation of the Fourth Republic but laid down almost no actual basis for government, simply ratifying a brief four page document that expressed the belief that the "The French People will continue to exercise their ancient right to govern themselves in the best traditions of Fraternity, Liberty and Equality". The delegates had hoped to appease and reassure a public shaken by war and the loss of their cultural homeland but the brevity and lack of clarity in the Charter Unitaire was far from appeasing. Public opinion had been overtaken by a nationalistic fervor that hearkened back to the days of Napoleon. A second Convention Unitaire was quickly convened and this time the new delegates worked with quiet deliberation to draft a document truly capable of governing the new French Republic.
The Principes de L'Unification produced by the second convention reaffirmed the foundation of the Fourth Republic and established that the new French Nation would be governed primarily by an eighty seat Senate led by the First Consul, president of the Senate and Head of State. The Senate was given the vast majority of powers with the First Consul retaining only powers of Veto, Amnesty, Clemency and Command of the Military along with a personal vote in the Senate. The Senate would set the budget, form treaties, declare war, introduce and approve legislation and vote on Consular appointments. The new arrangement met with the total approbation of the French people and has held to this day.
Economy
The French Republic is heavily industrialized and the vast majority of its economic strength comes from the processing of raw materials shipped in from neighboring member states of the Democratic Federation. Most of the material from the Anglo-Canadian Labrador system is processed in French manufacturies.
A key French industry is shipbuilding since the naval yards at Beauville Orbital Station and Chantiers de Rennes turn out a fair proportion of Democratic Federation naval vessels in addition to producing the entirety of the Marine Nationale. The two stations also have significant production capacity for nonmillitary craft, supplying the trade craft of such famous corporations as Entreprise Nouveau Caen and Expédition Interstellaire along with the troop transports of the infamous Vipère Enroulée Entrepreneurs Militaire.
French GDP last year was in the vicinity of 16.7 trillion credits, third highest within the Democratic Federation behind the Anglo-Canadian Kingdom and the Andrean Republic.
Foreign Relations
The French Republic maintains good relations with the entirety of the Democratic Federation. There are however, occasional conflicts of interest between the Nations, this is partly due to France's status as the only non-English speaking DF Nation. Animosity over the Quebec system in particular has long since soured their once idyllic relations with the Anglo-Canadian Kingdom. Relations with the Neutral Nations of the Sol Sector are particularly friendly, especially with the Unified Centauri Protectorate and Brazilian Unitary with whom they carefully maintain very close diplomatic ties. The French Republic is widely regarded as a highly respectable keeper of the peace, and has acted as an impartial peacekeeper in a number of recent foreign conflicts,especially in the meighbouring New Canaan System. Relations between the French and the Federal Nordic Cooperative are also very warm, as France has long served as a military advisor to the FNC Defense Forces. Relations between the French and Germans have recently been at an all time low since the French, remembering their own history, are deeply alarmed by the rising tide of German expansionism.
