The Kingdom of France is then shortly restored but in 1815 Napoleon regains power and the Empire is restored. Later that year Napoleon is finally defeated and the kingdom is restored again.

France becomes a constitutional monarchy after a revolution in 1830. After a third revolution France becomes a democratic republic as the French Republic in 1848. Louis Napol\ufffdon becomes president, but he stages in 1851 a military coup. His dictatorship develops in 1852 into the (second) French Empire. During the empire efforts were made to establish a parliamentary government. When France loses the French-German war, this leads in 1871 to the third French Republic, a republican parliamentary democracy. In the republic governments collaps with regularity, rarely lasting more than a couple of months, as radicals, socialists, liberals, conservatives, republicans and monarchists all fight for control. Throughout its seventy-year history, the Third Republic stumbles from crisis to crisis, from collapsing governments. Dominant parties after 1900 are the conservative F\ufffdd\ufffdration R\ufffdpublicaine, later Union R\ufffdpublicaine D\ufffdmocratique (Republican Federation, FR/Republican Democratic Union, URD), the conservative liberal Parti D\ufffdmocratique R\ufffdpublicaine (et Social) ((Social and) Republican Democratic Party, PDR, later PDRS), the liberal democrat Parti Radical et Radical-Socialiste (Radical and Radical Socialist Party, Parti Radical), the social-democratic Parti R\ufffdpublicain Socialiste (Republican Socialist Party, PRS), the socialist Section Fran\ufffdais de l'Internationale Ouvri\ufffdre (French Section of the Workers International) and the communist Parti Communiste Fran\ufffdaise (French COmmunist Party, PCF). Some prime ministers are longer in office. So can be mentioned in the period after 1900: \ufffdmile Combes (Parti Radical, 1902-1905), Georges Clemenceau (Parti Radical, 1906-1909, 1917-1920), Aristide Briand (SFIO, 1909-1911, PRS, 1913, 1915-1917, 1921-1922, 1925-1926, 1929), Raymond Poincar\ufffd (PDR/PDRS, 1912-1913, 1922-1924, 1926-1929), Paul Painlev\ufffd (PRS, 1917), \ufffddouard Herriot (Parti Radical, 1924-1925, 1926, 1932), Camille Chautemps (Parti Radical, 1930, 1933-1934, 1937-1938) Pierre Laval (1931-1932, 1935-1936), \ufffddouard Daladier (Parti Radical, 1933, 1934, 1938-1940) and L\ufffdon Blum (SFIO, 1936-1937, 1938).

After an interim period of Paul Reynaud (PDRS), Philippe P\ufffdtain becomes prime minister. During his government France is largely occupied by Germany. In the south of France a collaborationist state, the French State or Vichy France, under P\ufffdtain is established. He is succeeded in 1942 by Pierre Laval. On the other hand, those who refuse defeat and collaboration with Germany, the Free French, organise resistance movements in occupied and Vichy France and the Free French Forces. The Free French Forces are led by Charles de Gaulle.

After four years of occupation and the allied forces, including the Free French, liberate France in 1944. The fourth French Republic becomes a fact: again a parliamentary republic with unstable governments. Dominant parties are the Parti Radical, the conservative Centre National des Ind\ufffdpendants et Paysans (National Centre of Independents and Farmers, CNIP) the christian-democratic Mouvement R\ufffdpublicain Populaire (Republican Popular Movement, MRP), the SFIO and the communist Parti Communiste Fran\ufffdais (French Communist Party, PCF) After some interim governments the following prime ministers have been in officie for longer periods: Paul Ramadier (SFIO, 1947), Robert Schuman (MRP, 1947-1948, 1948) Henri Queuille (Parti Radical, 1948-1949, 1949, 1951) Ren\ufffd Pleven (Union D\ufffdmocratique et Socialiste de la R\ufffdsistance (Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance, UDSR) 1950-1951, 1951-1952), Edgard Faure (Parti Radical, 1952, 1955-1956), Joseph Laniel (CNIP, 1953-1954), Pierre Mend\ufffds-France (Parti Radical, 1954-1955) and Guy Mollet (SFIO, 1956-1957).

1958 is the year of a big politcial crisis: the Algerian War which pitts Algerian colonists, the army, and the far right, against the left and those who wanted peace. To deal with this problem France turns Charles de Gaulle who assumes power under the precondition that a new constitution would be introduced creating a powerful presidency. This fifth republic is a presidential democratic republic based on a strong president. His gaullist movement, originally named Union pour la Nouvelle R\ufffdpublique (Union for the New Republic, UNR), becomes under different names the dominant political force in France. France is a co-founder of the European Communities in 1957 (renamed European Union in 1993). When he resigns in 1969 De Gaulle is succeeded in 1969 by the gaullist Georges Pompidou, leader of the Union des D\ufffdmocrates pour la R\ufffdpublique (Union of Democrats for the Republic, UDR).

In 1974 the conservative Valery Giscard d'Estaing of the moderate conservative R\ufffdpublicains Ind\ufffdpendants (Independent Republicans, RI, later Parti R\ufffdpublicain, Republican Party, PR) is elected president. He is defeated in 1981 by the Fran\ufffdois Mitterand of the socialist Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party, PS), who remains president until 1995. The gaullist regain the presidency in 1995, when Jacques Chirac of the Rassemblement pour la R\ufffdpublique (Rally for the Republic, RPR) is elected president. During the legislative elections of 1997, the Parti Socialiste wins a majority in the Assembly, and Lionel Jospin becomes prime minister. This right-left "cohabitation" arrangement, which ended with Jospin's resignation following his defeat in the first round of the May 2002 presidential elections, is the longest lasting government in the history of the Fifth Republic. Chirac is re-elected in 2002 with the support of the left-wing parties in the second round against the nationalist leader Jean-Marie le Pen of the Front National (National Front, FN). Chirac reorganizes the right-wing and centrist parties that win the 2002 legislative elections into the Union pour la Mouvement Populaire (Union of the Popular Movement, UMP).