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Vichy France (French: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State (État français), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established after the French capitulation after the defeat against Germany. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy.
The Government of Vichy France was the collaborationist ruling regime or government in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War.Of contested legitimacy, it was headquartered in the town of Vichy in occupied France, but it initially took shape in Paris under Marshal Philippe Pétain as the successor to the French Third Republic in June 1940.
Vichy is the French form of the Occitan name of the town, Vichèi, of uncertain etymology. Dauzat & al. have proposed that it derived from an unattested Latin name (Vippiacus) referencing the most important regional landowner (presumably a "Vippius") during the time of the Roman emperor Diocletian's administrative reorganizations and land surveys at the end of the 3rd century AD.
Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Philippe Pétain (French: [filip petɛ̃]) and Marshal Pétain (French: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944 ...
Officially called the French State, Vichy France was established after the German victory over France with the armistice of 22 June 1940 in the non-occupied zone libre. Hitler had a number of reasons for capturing France, the most prevalent among them its future use as a stepping stone to Great Britain, and France's rich natural resources.
Vichy France was nominally in control of all of France apart from Alsace-Lorraine, but in practice the Germans controlled over half of the country; including the northern and western coasts, the industrial northeast, and the Paris region. Further, Italy, Germany's fascist ally, controlled a portion of southeastern France.
The terms Zone libre (Free Zone), Vichy France, Vichy regime, southern zone, French State, and État français are all synonyms and refer to the state in the south of France governed from Vichy during World War II and headed by French World War I hero Marshal Philippe Pétain.
A 1942 Vichy regime propaganda image, with the motto and Philippe Pétain above a scene of rural and industrial France. The reverse of the two franc coin of 1943, on which the motto appears. The new motto was also used in the colonies, such as this Vietnamese-language image from French Indochina.