Fifth French Republic

France or officially the Fifth French Republic is a sovereign country located in western Europe. It is bordered by the German Confederation and the Enotrian States to the East, Hispania and Catalonia to the south and United Provinces to the northeast. The nation's form of government is a unitary semi-presidential republic with Paris serving as its capital, the Fifth Republic is the longest surviving republican regime in the history of the nation.

1945 - The End of WWII
Following the end of the Second World War, and the stale, but amicable relations between NADC and the Communists, France faced both internal and external pressures. Especially with the SFIO (Socialist Party) being more Soviet-aligned than American aligned during the 1950s as an influential minority party in Parliament. However, the French nation became prosperous after the war, thanks to German reparations following the war. In 1958, De Gaulle formed a government and formed the 5th Republic of France to allow for more executive action due to the 4th Republic’s inefficient governance.

Up until 1980, France continued to be the Continental power for the West. Then came the Ultimatum. On July 14th, 1980, a communique came from Washington, Moscow, and Beijing. The Ultimatum threatened war, and abandonment by the United States if the empires of Britain and France do not release their last few remaining dependencies within a year. They complied. They had no choice, with their economies under Washington’s tight leash. Resentment began to simmer in Europe. American soldiers would find their heads bashed in with bricks by Nationalists and Imperial gangs if they walked the streets alone at night.

By 1990, things for France were grim. The economy was spiralling out of control, and inflation was the new norm. The economies of Western Europe were similarly wrecked by this intervention by foreign powers in their own affairs. In 1993, the Western European Free Exchange Treaty was signed, as the nations of France, West Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, the Benelux nations, and Ireland joined hands to promote economic cooperation. Eventually, as the Western Europeans tried to revitalize their economies in this first act of coordination, things got better. German coal heated homes, with French electricity lighting the night sky wearing Welsh wool and sipping Italian wine.

21st Century
In 2010, France was once again economically prosperous again, but the coming Cold War changed that, as more funding was sent to government projects for the military to prepare for a war against the Soviet Union.

Cold War (2020-2050)
In 2020, all hell broke loose in some Boston embassy. It had been 40 years since the Ultimatum, and France did not want to join in America’s endeavours, being dragged kicking and screaming as the Americans screwed things up with the Soviets.

The Neo-Socialists became more belligerent than usual, some even starting amateur partisan units which were quickly crushed before they could do much damage. But it was showing the cracks in France.

CGN Central Stock Exchange
In 2030, the CGN was founded, linking all Western Stock Exchanges together in a bid for more economic cooperation between the NADC nations.

The Syriac War (2021-2036)
In 2021, France was forced by their American masters to get involved in the Middle Eastern quagmire, especially in their former colonies of Syria and Lebanon. The two ex-colonies largely fell under French purview as the Americans retreated from the Middle East to focus on Africa in 2022, leaving the French to get even further involved. Eventually, under the leadership of President Boulanger, over 300,000 Frenchmen were in the Middle East, fighting a war they did not care for against Neo-Socialist rebels who melted away into the sand in night raids. Either in a car or on horseback like their ancestors.

Protests ran rampant in French streets for years, an entire decade of student protests demanding an end to the war in the Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, and that they withdraw. Eventually, with a President who was focused on getting France out of the war, began a process of “Arabization” by training new Arab forces to replace them thoroughly. For once, foreign training seemed to work, as the French advisors that stayed following French withdrawal in 2033 reported that the Arabs were doing well for themselves. However, the only problem seemed to the government, as by 2036, the caretaker government still had not done its elections, and remained largely under French control as a dominion.

With all the aid being funnelled to the Syriac Federation (Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan), and the threat of it being cut, the Syriacs finally acquiesced and gave free and fair elections, at last bringing true democracy to an Arab country for the first time since the colonial period. The insurgency continued, however, and in 2040, the Treaty of Lyon was signed. The Communist insurgency was allowed to participate in elections if they laid down their arms and would be granted their own autonomous states in Eastern Jordan and Kurdistan in the Syriac Federation. France had seemingly triumphed, this time in the form the Syriac Federation, which was condemned by critics on the far-left, but was largely ignored, their numbers not enough to continue the decade of protests that came before.

Sometime later the Syriac Federation joined the Arab Assembly, with the state of Tawhid remaining independent.

Space Race: (2029-2037)
France during this time began a policy of cooperation with the US, as by themselves they could not effectively fund their own space program, the Americans began to view Europe with increasing scepticism following the economic devastation of the attacks in America.

France established a moonbase and terraformed their own small corner of the moon, establishing a small moon colony. Some satellites were launched in this period, and when America cut aid to the French space program in 2032, the European Space Commission was created, led by France with participants such as Germany, Poland, and the UK. The ESC was officially an organization under the European Union but was largely under French purview. During this time, France built and launched several satellites and its small lunar research colony was beginning to create artificial farms within it and became self-sustaining in 2036.

European Commonwealth:
In 2041, the European Economic Union decided to step in to partition Czechoslovakia, a civil war gripped the country, in what was the Soviets’ final attempt to retake a former satellite state, However, this was not enough. The Treaty of Verdun was signed, and the European Commonwealth’s foundations were set as the needs for a more centralized economic union for Europe became clearer as the Soviets continued its futile attempts to destroy European democracy with its constant subversion, especially in Eastern Europe.

In 2051, the European Commonwealth reformed into a political, economic, and military alliance with the onset of the 2nd Great Depression with the Treaty of Frankfurt. Elections were held throughout Europe as the new European Parliament began its first session, nominating a French President in 2051, who served a two-year term and was outed in 2053. Later in the year, a German President took control and began to centralize power to himself, and indirectly set the precedent for the German authoritarians who would succeed him in the name of “the extraordinary time that is this economic crisis.”

Collapse of the United States, and the End of the Cold War:
In 2050, after 30 years of reckless spending, the economies of all three major powers, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the People’s Republic of China collapsed. In the US, they were forced to decentralize greatly with the Confederatists taking power and the Communists only hanging on by a thread thanks to their authoritarian regimes.

With the Neutrality Pact signed later in the year, WW3 was assured to be avoided for the foreseeable future.

The Crash was created by the crash of CGN servers, making the stocks tied to the market to depreciate in value greatly.

The Second Great Depression (2051-2069)
In an emergency session of the European Parliament, a trust fund was created to alleviate the crisis. The Keynesian Economics which had saved the economies of Europe back during the First Great Depression was revived, and deficit spending became even greater. The first nation to receive funding was the French, thankfully. The idea was that if they the Germans and French economies were revived first, they may be able to contribute to the European Commonwealth’s overall crisis with investment into the trust fund.

The banks a month across the European Commonwealth to stop people from taking out their money so the banks could begin to stimulate the economies across the Commonwealth, which helped greatly. During this time, the European Commonwealth instituted the “Stock Act of 2053” which made it mandatory for the CGN to institute back-ups of data for the stocks every day, and to keep the back-ups of each day for a year on closed servers. There also was the European Mark, and across the European Commonwealth, the European Mark was introduced, centralizing Europe under the Mark. Within 5 years, the French economy was recovered enough to begin to fund its own economic revitalization programs, and allowed for the next nation to receive an increase in funding as England, which was followed by Italy and the Slavic Commonwealth.

In 8 years of the collapse, France was devoting many monetary resources to the E(uropean)C(ommonwealth)E(conomic)T(rust)F(und), and by 2065, was at 105% of the GDP growth it had prior to the collapse, exceeding its pre-collapse GDP and was fully able to aid its fellow Commonwealth members. Full recovery across the entire Commonwealth was achieved by 2069, as the Second Great Depression concluded across the world.

The Partition of Switzerland (2054):
With the Swiss having resisted joining the European Commonwealth at this point, and an anomaly to many due to being multiple ethnic peoples, the Germans, French, and Enotrians wondered what to do with Switzerland after getting hit by the Second Great Depression. With the crash of the CGN stock exchange, and with the destruction of the Swiss economy, as the famed Swiss banks collapsed under the weight of the economic collapse. Without Switzerland’s economy, they were no match against anyone: many nations were also angry as in a wild act of desperation, the various Swiss banks had seized all foreign assets to help with the crisis in a vain attempt to help their failing economy.

The three nations of Europe which contained the ethnicities which the Swiss had, decided on a course of action: Partitioning them between the ethnic areas of France, Enotria (Italy) and Germany would be the best course of action. Despite Switzerland having prepared for anyone to violate their neutrality for the past 300 years; however, not even their conscription laws and defenses would not work against the triple threats surrounding them. Times had changed, and the supposedly impenetrable Alps could easily be broken through with modern tactics and technology, and airborne forces. The Swiss received an ultimatum: fold to the demands of Entoria, Germany, and France by giving them each ethnic lands, or face certain death for all of your citizens. The UN no longer existed anymore, having collapsed under the weight of the destruction of both the Second Great Depression, and the three great superpowers. No mercy will the Swiss face if they declined.

Terrified by this offer, the Swiss government accepted their offer of losing all of their territory, nd went into exile, deep in the Alps in now Enotrian territory, as they began to orchestrate a partisan movement from their mountain and bunker bastions. Despite many countries protesting this blatant power grab, the three nations held on to their territory. A military parade was held in Paris, and many celebrations, forced, were held in the now French territory in Romandie, especially as the seized nuclear assets were back under French control.

Partisan movements still rove the countryside, but the problem is not as bad as it once was. The destruction they wreak is lessening and the “liberation” of French culture in Romandie seems to be taking hold.

Undermining of French Democracy (2053)
With the centralization of the European Commonwealth, and the European Parliament essentially powerless, the Germans in power began to assert themselves in European nations’ politics. They were no better than the Americans had been during the Cold War. They made political demands on nations and tied other nation’s economies to themselves in the form of economic aid. For the moment, there were only three ‘hyper-industrialized’ economies in Europe. Germany, England, and France.

With time, even this would not matter, as, by 2074, France had become a German dominion in effect. What the Germans said went, and were opening fiddling with the French elections to ensure their lackeys became the Presidents of the Republic and controlled the French and European Parliaments. With French democracy so thoroughly undermined, it was a running joke with the people that the Germans had won ww2. The French economy still grew and was 2nd in the EC, but it simply was much too reliant on the Germans. Especially when the European Mark was introduced across the European Commonwealth back in 2058.

The Oil Crisis (2060-67)
In 2060, after almost 150 years of exploitation, the oil wells in the Middle East began to run dry, and European imports of oil began to be stopped. Economic turmoil ensued in much of the world, but Europe was damaged severely to be sure, but North Sea oil and the introduction of biofuels has lessened the blow. France, if anything, has come out of the crisis the least damaged, and prior to the crisis, France was a net exporter of electricity. While this is no longer the case, France’s nuclear power plants and biofuel technologies have lessened the blow significantly. However, even this has its drawbacks. 20% of France’s nuclear energy was sent to the rest of the European Commonwealth to help in the current crisis and supply other nations as energy. With the majority of this going to Germany.

To resolve the crisis, the French began to fund even further into nuclear reactors, developing fusion reactors in 2065, and working towards biofuels to recycle old waste. These measures were successful in the end, and by 2067, France was creating enough energy for itself, and was a net-exporter of electricity once more, but the tithe of 20% of nuclear energy is still in place.

Anti-German Sentiment
175 Years have passed since the end of the Second World War, and yet Germany has against all the odds, conquered Europe. If not by force, but by forcing all nations in Europe to suckle at their economic teat.

The forcing of the first, and last, non-German President of the European Commonwealth, a Frenchman no less, the forcing of energy to be sent to Germany in the name of helping out the Commonwealth's ailing leader, and the inept German lackeys who form the current political class, is a point of resentment for many French. If change does not occur in the European Commonwealth when they convene in the European Commonwealth Council soon, the leaders of the opposition will storm the capital, and the people will join them if action is not taken soon.