Evaluate the political responses to post-war economic challenges in France up to 1963.

The question requires that candidates make an appraisal of the political responses to post-war economic challenges in France up to 1963. Candidates may refer to the impact of wartime occupation and liberation on industry and infrastructure and the response to the immense challenge of economic recovery. Candidates may evaluate the impact of the Monnet Plan with its elements of a planned economy and expansion of public ownership. The political response to the Marshall Plan and the subsequent marginalization of the French Communist Party may be evaluated. Candidates may argue that the political response to French dependence on German coal was the Schuman Plan that laid the basis for further European integration. An evaluation may be made of “Les Trente Glorieuses”, a period of rapid economic growth in post-war France that resulted in increased wages and a higher standard of living but also of inflation, a challenge to successive coalition governments that held power during this period. Also of relevance would be the economic challenges posed by the funding of colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria with links made to the re-emergence of De Gaulle and the establishment of the Fifth Republic. Candidates’ opinions or conclusions will be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.

The question required that candidates make an appraisal of the political responses to post-war challenges in France up to 1963.