State · 1944 – 1946
Provisional Government of the French Republic
A state of 1944 – 1946 — 2 years in Europe. It replaced Vichy France and followed Gau Westmark. It was replaced by French Fourth Republic. The atlas records 52 things within it — wars and battles 45 · unrest and atrocity 4 · people 3. Its line of rulers holds 4 people.
For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.
- Stood
- 2 years
- 1944 – 1946
- Rulers
- 4
- the Chairman
- Most ground
- 12.42 million km²
- in 1945
- Within it
- 52
- 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
- Gau Westmark · follows · 1925 – 1945
- Vichy France · replaces · 1940 – 1944
After it
- French Fourth Republic · replaced by · 1946 – 1958
Rulers
Read from the state’s own English article and its rulers’ articles, where Wikidata names no ruler.
| Ruler | Reign | Length | How it ended · source | To the ruler before |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles de Gaulle | 1944 – 1946 | 2 years | resigned or stood down, the article saysread from the ruler's own article | |
| Georges Bidault | 1946 – 1946 | under a year | ending not on record | |
| Félix Gouin | 1946 – 1946 | under a year | ending not on record | |
| Léon Blum | 1946 – 1947 | 1 year | ending not on record |
4 rulers, 4 with terms dated as terms, covering 1944 – 1947. Only 3 years of the line are dated - too short for a median. 0 of 3 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 1944, 697,300 km² in 1946. 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, undatedFlag of France · Public domain 
coat of arms, undatedEmblem of the Provisional Government of the French Republic · CC0
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 – 199952 rows · 45 wars and battles · 4 risings, regime changes and massacres
- Patrick Modiano · writer · 1945 – present
- Normandy landings · battle · 1944
- Battle of Berlin · battle · 1945
- Alain Juppé · politician · 1945 – present
- Liberation of Paris · battle · 1944
- Operation Dragoon · war · 1944
- Falaise pocket · battle · 1944
- Oradour-sur-Glane massacre · atrocity · 1944
and 44 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 stood2 years
stood longer than 8% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.
- The most ground it held12,415,100 km²
held more ground at its peak than 99% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.
- Wars recorded per century1.0
had more wars on record per century than 94% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.
- Rulers on record4
has more rulers on record than 58% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.
What led to it, and what came of it
The investigation's own picture: 2 causes 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.
Theories that apply to its ending
Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.
Demographic-structural breakdown
Goldstone 1991 · Turchin & Nefedov 2009
Applies by its own logic: 2 of its 3 conditions held here (it needs 2), and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — unrest, adverse regime change or the state's ending.
- overlapping reigns — rival claimants — within 20 y, or 3 or more changes of ruler within 20 y, or 2 or more reigns of two years or less within 20 y, or a monarch deposed or killed within 20 y — handovers 3; shortReigns 2
- a war the state is fighting, still under way, or a war the state fought, ended within 10 y — warEnded
Open in the atlas
- On the timeline, 1934 – 1956, with everything that stood beside it.
- On the map in 1945, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
- Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.
Wikidata Q783684 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.