Charles de Gaulle facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Charles de Gaulle


18th President of the French Republic
In office January 8, 1959 – April 28, 1969
Preceded by	René Coty
Succeeded by	Georges Pompidou
149th Prime Minister of France
In office June 1, 1958 – January 8, 1959
Preceded by	Pierre Pflimlin
Succeeded by	Michel Debré

Personal details
Born	November 22, 1890 Lille, France
Died	November 9, 1970 (aged 79) Colombey-les-deux-Églises, France
Political party	UDR
Spouse	Yvonne de Gaulle
Children	Philippe Élisabeth Anne

General Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, better known as Charles de Gaulle (November 22, 1890 - November 9, 1970), was a French military and political leader. He was president of France from 1959 to 1969 and was a founding member and leader of the French Resistance during World War II.

His reputation as the strongest and greatest French leader since Napoleon continues into the 21st century.

Military Career
Political Career
Later Life
Charles de Gaulle quotes
Interesting Facts about Charles de Gaulle
Images for kids
See also

Military Career

Charles fought in both World War I and World War II. He began his military career after he graduated from Ecole Militaire de Saint-Cyr (a famous French military college). In 1912, he joined the army's infantry. He was captured during the Battle of Verdun during World War I and was sent home after the armistice. Charles remained in the military after the war ended and supported new battle ideas. These ideas included mechanized troops (troops that travel in armored machines like tanks) and specialized armored divisions of the army.

General de Gaulle speaking on BBC Radio during World War II

After World War II began, de Gaulle formed and led the Free French Forces movement. He did this because he did not think that France should surrender to Germany, part of the Axis forces. Charles de Gaulle thought that France should keep fighting. As the French government surrendered to Germany, de Gaulle fled to Britain. He set up his own French government there and called it Free France. He gained support and gathered French troops that would eventually help liberate, or free, France from Germany's power.

Political Career

After the war, de Gaulle retired as President of the temporary government in 1946. In 1958, he came out of retirement and was elected President of France - a position to which he was reelected in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969.

While de Gaulle was president, France recovered from the war and had great economic success.

He also granted independence to Algeria and the African colonies that had been under French rule.

Charles wanted France to have its own nuclear weapons like the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union did. While he was President, France did become one of the four major countries that had nuclear weapons.

Later Life

De Gaulle resigned from his presidency in April of 1969 after some of his ideas and proposals were not supported by many people in France. He returned home to his estate in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, where he passed away just two weeks before his 80th birthday.

Charles de Gaulle quotes

"I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians."
"I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge."
"Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains, they drown in every drop."
"Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life."
"Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so."

Interesting Facts about Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle was a general in the French army and the President of France.
Charles served in both World Wars.
He was captured in World War I.
Charles did not agree with the leaders of France, who were surrendering to Germany, so he left France. He went to Great Britain where he formed the Free French Forces.
Charles de Gaulle helped free France from Germany's power.
De Gaulle served as temporary President after the war until 1946.
He was elected President in 1958.
De Gaulle resigned from the presidency in April of 1969 and died in his home when he was almost 80.

Images for kids

De Gaulle's parents: Jeanne Maillot and Henri de Gaulle
De Gaulle's birth house in Lille, now a national museum
De Gaulle in 1897, aged 7
De Gaulle (back row, third from left) while studying at the Collège Stanislas de Paris, 1908
De Gaulle in 1908
De Gaulle as a cadet in Saint-Cyr, 1910
A plaque in Dinant commemorating the place where Charles de Gaulle, then an infantry lieutenant, was wounded in 1914
Captain De Gaulle with another French POW in Poland, 1916
De Gaulle during the mission to Poland, c. 1920
De Gaulle at the École supérieure de guerre, between 1922 and 1924
"To all Frenchmen": de Gaulle exhorting the French to resist the German occupation
De Gaulle speech plaquette on the Arc de Triomphe
General De Gaulle inspecting sailors on Léopard in June 1942
De Gaulle at the inauguration of the Brazzaville Conference, French Equatorial Africa, 1944
Charles de Gaulle (far right) with Andrew McNaughton, Władysław Sikorski, and Winston Churchill
At the Casablanca Conference (14 January 1943), rival French leaders Henri Giraud (leftmost) and Charles de Gaulle (middle right) sit down after shaking hands in the presence of Franklin D. Roosevelt (middle left) and Winston Churchill (rightmost) — a public display of unity, but the handshake was only for show
Generals de Gaulle and Catroux, North Africa
Winston Churchill and General de Gaulle at Marrakesh, January 1944
General de Gaulle delivering a speech in liberated Cherbourg from the hôtel de ville (town hall)
General de Gaulle and his entourage stroll down the Champs-Élysées following the liberation of Paris in August 1944
The 2nd Armored Division passes through the Arc de Triomphe. Signs read "Long live de Gaulle" and "De Gaulle to power".
General de Gaulle with General Leclerc and other French officers at Montparnasse railway station in Paris, 25 August 1944
De Gaulle presenting the Legion of Honour to American Army and Navy officers William D. Leahy, George C. Marshall, Ernest J. King, Henry H. Arnold and Brehon B. Somervell
The statement of Charles de Gaulle in reference to World War II
1958 Time Man of the Year
The first meeting between David Ben-Gurion and de Gaulle at Élysée Palace, 1960
Charles de Gaulle's motorcade passes through Isles-sur-Suippe (Marne), the president salutes the crowd from his famous Citroën DS
President John F. Kennedy and de Gaulle at the conclusion of their talks at Elysee Palace, 1961
The Redoutable, the first French nuclear missile submarine.
De Gaulle with President Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington, D.C., 1963
De Gaulle in 1963
De Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer in 1961
Charles de Gaulle and Argentine president Arturo Frondizi
Iranian Empress Farah Pahlavi meeting with Charles de Gaulle in France, 1961
De Gaulle and Argentine president Arturo Illia in 1964
De Gaulle and Lyndon B. Johnson meeting at Konrad Adenauer's funeral in 1967, with President of West Germany Heinrich Lübke (center)
Newly inaugurated U.S. president Richard Nixon visiting President De Gaulle one month before De Gaulle's retirement
Grave of Charles de Gaulle at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises
De Gaulle's home, La Boisserie, in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises
Portrait by Donald Sheridan
Monument to Charles de Gaulle in front of Cosmos Hotel, Moscow
Blue plaque commemorating the headquarters of General de Gaulle at 4 Carlton Gardens in London during World War II