7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7undersecretary of state for defense and war, and he under-
took several missions to England to explore the
possibilities of continuing the war. When the Reynaud
government was replaced 10 days later by that of Marshal
Pétain, who intended to seek an armistice with the
Germans, de Gaulle left for England. On June 18 he
broadcast from London his first appeal to his compatri-
ots to continue the war under his leadership. He
established a shadow government and had only a handful
of haphazardly recruited political supporters and volun-
teers for what were to become the Free French Forces.
On August 2, 1940, a French military court tried and sen-
tenced him in absentia to death, deprivation of military
rank, and confiscation of property. In 1943 he moved his
headquarters to Algiers.
Early Political Career
On Sept. 9, 1944, de Gaulle and his shadow government
returned from Algiers to Paris on the heels of the retreat-
ing Germans. There he headed two successive provisional
governments, but on Jan. 20, 1946, he abruptly resigned,
apparently because of his irritation with the political par-
ties forming the coalition government.
In 1947, still working for a strong central government,
de Gaulle organized a new political party—the Rally of
the French People (Rassemblement du Peuple Français;
RPF). His influence declined, however, and in 1953, he sev-
ered his connection with it. In the years that followed, de
Gaulle’s warnings against unstable government were justi-
fied. No French government was able to stay in power for
more than a few months. A major cause of the political
uproar was the civil war fought in Algeria over French
attempts to preserve colonialism in North Africa.