The Price of Freedom: Financing French Resistance in World War II

Description

This is a significant book that investigates how the French internal resistance and external Free French movement were financed during the Second World War. It brings together the secretive financial aspects of resistance inside France with those under the control of the Free French movement in London. To date, there have been a number of studies that have followed the Gaullist movement, but none have studied how they were funded. This exploration also demonstrates the global scale of the war. It shows how the Free French were not simply a European, Atlantic-based movement, but were, in fact, colonial and operated on a global scale, shedding light on French relations with their colonies in Africa and the Pacific. It underlines the role played by expatriates, those belonging to the French diaspora and third-country nationals, in Allied nations and neutral countries, including Central and South America. Through the combination of digital humanities methods, including social network analysis and GIS (Geographic Information Systems), the Allied funding for de Gaulle’s movement and the internal resistance will be unveiled, for the first time, in its entirety. The painstaking reconstruction of the financial records of the Free French and their lines of subsidy is a novel approach that sheds new light onto the financial networks between French, British and American officials who made this financing possible. This illuminates the complexity of international relations in a time of war. Using a combination of economic and accounting analysis, as well as primary-sourced historical research, this book distinctively applies sociological methodologies to this long-held question.  This book will be of interest to those in economics, economic history, finance, accounting, digital humanities, modern history, international relations, political science and war studies. Acknowledgements About This Book Contents About the Author Abbreviations Abbreviations: Archives List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction 2 Coordinating Chaos Monnet’s Meetings Pierre Denis: The Rebels’ Chancellor The Peripatetic Plevens 3 Administrative Alliances Une Histoire D’argent General Funds—De Gaulle’s Private Accounts Opening the Caisse 4 A Few Dollars More? Disorganisation Disfunction Disintegration 5 Viva La Resistencia! Francs from the Foreign-Based French, 1940–1942 The Donations and the Balances Mexico Argentina Uruguay Chile 6 Colonial Contributions to French Freedom The Levantine Crossroad Gaullist Gold and African Airports Production in the South Pacific Subscriptions to Help the French Resistance 7 Of Pay and Parachutes: Mission Rex and the Financial Activity of Jean Moulin’s Network Régis and the Financial Support of General de Gaulle The Secretariat Pay & Penury Pecuniary Politics Life After REX 8 Converting the Caisse: Competition and Collaboration Liquidity for the Libération Continued Convergence “Voler de ses propres ailes” D-Day, Pay Day? 9 Planes, Loans and Bank Robbery Black-Market Borrowing Wartime Withdrawals The Liberation of the Banque De France Conclusion Chronology 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Appendix Social Network Analysis References Index