Vichy France

Vichy France, officially the French State, was the regime that governed part of France after the country's defeat by Nazi Germany in 1940. It was headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain and named after the spa town of Vichy, where the government settled. Although Paris remained the nominal capital, the administration operated from Vichy in the unoccupied zone libre. Under the armistice of June 1940, Germany occupied the north and west, while the Vichy regime retained authority over the south and the colonies. The regime pursued a policy of collaboration with Germany and launched the Révolution nationale, an authoritarian programme that reversed many republican reforms. It also introduced antisemitic legislation and cooperated in the deportation of Jews and other persecuted groups. In November 1942, after the Allied landings in North Africa, German and Italian forces occupied the whole of metropolitan France, ending any real independence. Vichy collapsed in 1944 as the Allies liberated France, and its leaders were later tried. The period remains a central and contested chapter in modern French memory.