On November 22, 1890, Charles de Gaulle, French army General, and statesman is born in Lille, France.
De Gaulle was a decorated French officer who led the Free French resistance forces against the German occupation of the Second World War from 1940 to 1944.
Following the liberation of France in 1944, De Gaulle became the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic through 1946. He introduced an economic policy known as Dirigisme or dirigism, an economic doctrine in which the state plays a strong role and influence over capital markets, that saw unprecedented growth in the French economy.
In early 1946, De Gaulle resigned from his state leadership role to become the founder of the French political party, Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF; "Rally of the French People").
He left French politics in the early 1950s and wrote his "War Memoirs", De Gaulle's personal writings beginning the fall of France in 1940 to the aftermath of the Second World War in 1946.
Twelve years later, on June 1, 1958, he became Prime Minister and Minister of Defence during the French-Algerian War resulting in the granting of Independence to local Algerian forces. Despite political upheavals, De Gaulle stayed on to become President of France on January 8, 1959. His presidency was described as "politics of grandeur" and a policy of "national independence", a concept that asserted France as a major power that does not rely on other countries like the United States, for its national security and economic prosperity.
De Gaulle died on November 9, 1970, at the age of 79 and his "Gaullist" legacy remains emblematic of his influence in French politics, economics, and culture to this present day.
