It’s not new in history when a country as a person, besides a name, an official name, has a different, unofficial one. Let the name of Canada - "Maple Leaf Country" - can be explained by the features of the composition of deciduous forests of the North American continent, but other examples are not so obvious. For example, why is France the Fifth Republic, or, say, China itself is called by its inhabitants the Middle Kingdom? The roots are in history.
History examples
Here is the closest example. At the beginning of the first millennium from the birth of Christ, ancient Rome became the haven and stronghold of the first Christians. Then, defeated by crowds of barbarians, it lost this status, and Constantinople became the unofficial capital of the Christian world. And in the 15th century this “city of cities”, or Second Rome, fell, becoming part of the Ottoman Empire and the support of a crescent, not a cross.
At this time, our father, John IV, nicknamed the descendants of Grozny, Vasily III, was in dire need of an additional factor in uniting the country and the people - Russia, after the fall of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, turned from a specific feudal state into a powerful monopolistic country. Taking advantage of the current situation (Unia was signed, uniting the eastern and western Christian churches), Vasily III entrusted the title of Third Rome to the capital.
We will try to answer the question why France is called the Fifth Republic. The history of this country is inextricably linked with this word "republic", and events in France largely determined the course of events on the European continent.
In fact, the answer to the question of why France is called the Fifth Republic is quite simple - the country had five versions of the constitution. And it so happened that according to the editorial number of the main document of the country, it was customary to “number” the republic as well.
First French Republic
The very beginning of the republican history of France can certainly be considered the great French revolution, marked by the capture by the furious inhabitants of the country of the stronghold and symbol of royal power, the famous Bastille in 1789. When asked why France, the Fifth Republic today, was then in a state of revolution and civil war, most historians answer almost according to K. Marx.
The catastrophic gap in living standards and civil rights of the ruling circles and the common people led to a collapse. Another factor was the presence in the country of a developed middle class, which had something to lose and who was ready to defend its rights and freedoms.
Further, as we know, the detention and shameful return to Paris of King Louis XVI, who tried to escape, followed , the execution of the entire royal family and the proclamation of the Republic, the first French republic, followed.
From Robespierre to the post-Napoleonic restoration
It should be noted that the First Republic did not last long - until 1804, until France became an empire led by Napoleon.
Then events rained down from a cornucopia :
- the seizure of power by Bonaparte;
- the formation of the French Empire ;
- the defeat of the so-called great army in the vastness of Russia;
- a succession of successive restorations of royal power and new revolutions.
Why has France, the Fifth Republic, as it is now called, survived so many revolutions and returns to the monarchy in its history? Probably because it was, by and large, the first country in the world that made the transition from the absolute power of one person to more progressive forms of government.
And from 1848 to 1852 there was a Second Republic with its own version of the constitution, another restoration put an end to it. A descendant of the Bourbons sat on the throne, and France again became an empire.
Germany is to blame for the creation and collapse of the Third Republic
The history of the Third Republic lasts from the overthrow of the last French monarch in 1870 to the occupation of France by Hitler troops in 1940. The prerequisites for changing the constitutional system were standard - the separation of power from the real situation in the country.
The days of the reign of the last emperor of France were numbered after the shameful end of the Franco-German war of 1870, when Napoleon III managed to surrender to the Prussian commanders along with his entire army. As soon as the news came to Paris, almost one night a decision was made to abolish royal power and establish the Third Republic.
So, the monarchy in France was over, but then why is France the 5th Republic, and not the Third?
Post-war world order
At the end of World War II in 1946, the country, like many others, was actively engaged in internal construction. Obviously, much in the world has changed. The canons, according to which the peoples lived earlier, did not meet the challenges and requirements of our time.
In 1946, a referendum was held in France, following which the state became parliamentary. That is why France the Fifth Republic still remains a state in which the post of prime minister has a weight comparable to that of the president.
"Sorted" with democracy
The Fourth Republic of France lasted safely until 1958, when an event occurred that showed that an excessively liberal power was good for the time being.
What happened? It must be said that France, which is democratic from the inside, nevertheless remained a colonial power right up to 1980. In 1958, in one of its colonies - Algeria - an uprising broke out. The event was generally ordinary, but the consequences were not ordinary - the troops sent to pacify the uprising refused to obey the government and, on the contrary, themselves tried to put forward conditions and requirements for power.
The founder of the new constitution was a man who managed to suppress a crisis looming in the country and restore order in the country - the political giant Charles De Gaulle, beloved by many Frenchmen. That is why France is the Fifth Republic. The features of the new constitution are the strengthening of the role of the president with the preservation of the decisive word of parliament and the priority of fundamental democratic freedoms.