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| 1945–1950 |
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| Increasing prominence of existentialist philosophers and novelists, headed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. | 1 |
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| Jan. 1 |
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| France joined the United Nations in full partnership three years after the Free French government in exile had offered adherence. | 2 |
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| May 21 |
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| The governments of Syria and Lebanon broke relations with the French. The French denied (June 2) that they were using lend-lease equipment against the Syrians and Lebanese. | 3 |
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| May 29 |
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| The government nationalized the Gnome et Rhône aircraft engine works and, on June 26, reorganized air transport into what would become, by 1948, Air France. | 4 |
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| June 30 |
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| The French Communist Party voted for union with the Socialist Party. | 5 |
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| Aug. 15 |
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| Henri-Phillipe Pétain, head of the Vichy regime, was sentenced to death for treason, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Pétain's political prestige had been on the wane since February 1942, when the Vichy regime's trials of Third Republic leaders at Riom had turned into a condemnation of military rule. | 6 |
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| Oct. 4 |
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| The French government reorganized the various existing social security schemes into a general system and, in an Oct. 19 ordinance, formulated the principle that social security benefits should be extended to the entire population. | 7 |
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| Oct. 9 |
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| Pierre Laval was sentenced to death for collaborating with the Germans. He was executed on Oct. 15. | 8 |
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| Oct. 21 |
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| Elections for the constituent assembly showed a swing to the Left, the Communists receiving 152 seats, the Socialists 151, and Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP), a new Catholic party, 138. | 9 |
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| Nov. 16 |
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| Gen. Charles de Gaulle was unanimously elected president of the provisional government by the Assembly and on Nov. 21 formed a cabinet of National Union. | 10 |
| During the fall of 1945, the French government created the Commissariat Général du Plan (CGP) to coordinate economic recovery and expansion. In the decades that followed, the CGP engaged in extensive central planning of the French economy. The first plan was announced in January 1946 and covered the period from 1947–52, laying emphasis on increasing output in the coal, electricity, steel, cement, tractor, and transport sectors. | 11 |
| The second phase of the French nationalization process began in mid-1945 and extended through the first half of 1946, with the aim of forcing industrial output to increase as quickly as possible. On Dec. 2, 1945, the banking and credit industries were nationalized, and the state became the sole shareholder of the Banque de France and of the four principal deposit banks. In April 1946, the state partially nationalized the insurance industry and completely nationalized gas and electric industries. | 12 |
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