France performed very bravely in World War I, but its performance in World War II was very embarrassing. This country, known as "Europe's most powerful military power", surrendered to Germany after just over 40 days of fighting. A series of treaties were made that were humiliatin

France performed very bravely in and , but its performance in and in World War II was very embarrassing. This country, known as "the most powerful military power in Europe", collapsed after just over 40 days of fighting. Germany surrendered and signed a series of treaties that were humiliating and humiliating to the country.

France's rapid defeat shocked the "comrades" of the Allied Powers. Although the Allies knew that it would be difficult for France to defeat Germany, such a rapid defeat was indeed a bit annoying. What's more, after France surrendered, its army, navy and air force were immediately disarmed and became "spectators" from then on.

Roosevelt was extremely disappointed with France's actions. He once said angrily: "France is a defeated country that has been partitioned. It has no leader and cannot pay its debts. It can only wait for the end of the long-lost war."

After World War II, the United States Having achieved a very high status in the international community, Roosevelt naturally began to seek interests for the United States from a global perspective. The first issue he considered was world security, and and the United Nations came into being. We know that the United Nations currently has five permanent members, namely the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France. The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China all fought bloody battles in World War II and paid a heavy price to resist fascism. But how could France, which surrendered after more than 40 days of fighting, become one of the "Five Permanent Members"?

In fact, on this issue, the person France should be most grateful to should be De Gaulle . It was precisely because of De Gaulle's persistence that France won the opportunity to regain its status as a great power. Secondly, the French should thank Churchill . It is precisely because of his help that France can achieve the status of the Five Permanent Members.

After World War II, de Gaulle expressed his thoughts and determination to restore France's great power status, and elaborated his Free France idea to Roosevelt, hoping to obtain its due great power status among the allies. But De Gaulle failed to impress the Americans. Roosevelt turned a deaf ear to De Gaulle's appeal because France's performance in World War II was extremely disappointing to Roosevelt, and he was simply unwilling to entrust France with any important tasks.

In fact, Roosevelt insisted on rejecting France. In addition to France's poor performance in World War II, there were other considerations.

Roosevelt met with Allied Commander-in-Chief General Eisenhower in January 1943. The two discussed in detail the issue of helping France return to the ranks of great powers, but the results were not ideal, and Roosevelt expressed pessimism about this.

When he met with Churchill and Eden, he also expressed his feelings. He believed that after Germany's defeat, there was no need for France to maintain its military structure.

It can be seen that Roosevelt not only disagreed with de Gaulle's idea of ​​restoring France's position as a great power, but he also hoped to further dispose of France and make France a "controllable" regime. In this way, future four-nation meetings will mainly become consultations between the United States and the Soviet Union. With one less country involved, things will become simpler and more beneficial.

However, Roosevelt’s idea had long been seen through by Churchill. Obviously, Churchill did not want to stand by while Roosevelt dealt with France. For this reason, Churchill was very active in helping France restore its status as a great power. Of course, this was not Churchill's "good intention". He also had political considerations.

In the Tehran Conference , the United States and the Soviet Union proposed an important resolution, that is, to fully liberate the colonies after the war, or to send people to help some colonial people in construction.

Although Churchill was among the "Big Three", the colonial liberation movement led by the United States and the Soviet Union obviously pointed its finger at France and at the same time at the United Kingdom. Britain and France are both European colonial powers. Their colonies all over the world have a very wide scope and great influence. If they really implement a strategy of liberating their colonies, Britain and France will be greatly weakened.

Although Britain was an empire on which the sun never set, it has long since lost its glory. Under the constraints of the United States and the Soviet Union, Churchill also felt great pressure. In this case, Churchill urgently needed an "ally" to stand with him, and France, which was also a colonial power, was a good choice.

Churchill took "the lip is dead and the tooth is cold" as the bottom line of his strategy and firmly supported France's return to the "Great Power Club". During this period, Roosevelt died suddenly and Truman became the president.

However, Truman's taking office did not change France's situation. Truman still adhered to the policy set by Roosevelt in the general direction, and did not relax his suppression of France for a moment.

But de Gaulle was not discouraged, but actively worked to restore France to its status as a great power. He first reached friendly relations with the Soviet Union, and then, when the relationship between the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union was tense, he actively "sneaked in" and obtained various benefits through Churchill's support.

Under the leadership of de Gaulle, France actually stepped out of the abyss step by step, returned to the ranks of great powers, and won the position of one of the "Five Permanent Members".

It is worth mentioning that although France’s membership of the P5 was mainly due to circumstances, France’s own strength is actually not weak. Perhaps in the eyes of many people, the United States, Britain, Russia, and China are the real world powers, and France often gives people a "mediocre" feeling. But in fact this is an illusion. France was the sixth largest economy in the world in 2018. Although its performance in 2020 is unsatisfactory and it is likely to be overtaken by the United Kingdom, its economic strength still cannot be underestimated.

In addition, France's economic control over West African countries is far beyond that of other countries. This is one of the reasons why France occupies an important position in the EU .