State · 1946 – 1958
French Fourth Republic
A state of 1946 – 1958 — 12 years in Europe. It replaced Provisional Government of the French Republic. It was replaced by French Fifth Republic. The atlas records 49 things within it — wars and battles 2 · unrest and atrocity 1 · treaties 6 · people 37 · works and ideas 3. Its line of rulers holds 3 people. Its own article says it was dissolved.
For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.
- Stood
- 12 years
- 1946 – 1958
- Rulers
- 3
- the President
- Most ground
- 12.40 million km²
- in 1949
- Within it
- 49
- recorded rows
- Symbols
- 2
- on record, with years
Where it sits in time
Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold, what it replaced or followed and what replaced or followed it in grey.
Before and after
The states the record files it as replacing or following, and those that replaced or followed it - Wikidata's own statements, each read from this state's side.
Before it
- Provisional Government of the French Republic · replaces · 1944 – 1946
After it
- French Fifth Republic · replaced by · 1958 – present
How it ended, as its article says
Dissolved, 1958. Read from the article's section “lead” by its grammar; the claim is only that the article says so.
After a series of crises culminating in the Algerian crisis of 1958, the French Fourth Republic collapsed.
One sentence of the English Wikipedia article, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Rulers
Read from the state’s own English article and its rulers’ articles, where Wikidata names no ruler.
3 terms are shared from [object Object].
| Ruler | Reign | Length | How it ended · source | To the ruler before |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georges Bidault · from the line of French Fifth Republic | 1946 – 1946 | under a year | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Vincent Auriol | 1947 – 1954 | 7 years | ending not on record | |
| René Coty | 1954 – 1959 | 5 years | ending not on record |
3 rulers, 3 with terms dated as terms, covering 1946 – 1959. Only 13 years of the line are dated - too short for a median. 0 of 2 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. The violent-handover count is withheld: power changed hands so often that any rising falls beside one (exposure 1.00, limit 0.6). A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.
Ground held, by year
km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.
11.70 million km² in 1946, 11.26 million km² in 1956; at its largest 12.35 million km² in 1951. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.
Flags and arms, in order
Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.

flag, from 1853Flag of France · Public domain 
coat of arms, from 1953Coat of arms of the French Republic · Public domain
What happened within it, by century
Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.
1900 – 199949 rows · 2 wars and battles · 1 risings, regime changes and massacres
- François Hollande · ruler · 1954 – present
- Nicolas Sarkozy · ruler · 1955 – present
- Christine Lagarde · politician · 1956 – present
- Françoise Barré-Sinoussi · scientist · 1947 – present
- François Fillon · politician · 1954 – present
- Michel Houellebecq · writer · 1956 – present
- Ségolène Royal · politician · 1953 – present
- Emir Kusturica · artist · 1954 – present
and 41 more in the atlas.
Among all states
Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.
- How long it stood12 years
stood longer than 19% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.
- The most ground it held12,402,100 km²
held more ground at its peak than 99% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.
- Wars recorded per century2.0
had more wars on record per century than 97% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.
- Rulers on record3
has more rulers on record than 48% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.
What led to it, and what came of it
The investigation's own picture: 1 cause the record names and 1 result, the strongest six of each at their own years, joined to the state by the kind of claim - a recorded statement solid, the article's sentence dashed, a theory dash-dot.
Open the investigation: every row with its evidence, the conditions at the time, the theories condition by condition, and the succession analysed.
Open in the atlas
- On the timeline, 1936 – 1968, with everything that stood beside it.
- On the map in 1949, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
- Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.
Wikidata Q69829 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · one sentence of the English Wikipedia article, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.