Brazzaville, Capital City

From a Gaullist perspective, Brazzaville became the capital of legitimate France on August 28, 1940. According to Jacques Soustelle's memoirs:

It was therefore in Brazzaville that Vichy's authority was defied, in Brazzaville that the empire was defended, and from Brazzaville that the struggle was coordinated. In this vision, the capital of FEA became a guarantor of Free France's independence, at once from the Axis and from Free France's own allies. The city on the Congo served as a legitimate capital for the movement in a way that the city on the Thames never fully could. Soustelle reminds us that London evoked the legacies of Huguenot, counterrevolutionary and Second Empire emigration from France. Furthermore, de Gaulle was something of a guest at his Carlton Gardens headquarters, while at Brazzaville his government operated on sovereign French territory.

In Brazzaville, Free France endeavored to establish its legitimacy both legally and practically. Organic Act #1 literally invented the concept of Free French Africa. In fact, its hastily concocted governmental structure involved considerable haziness. Thus, Edgard de Larminat first held the title of delegate, before becoming high commissioner for Free French Africa. His mandate and its limits remained ill-defined vis-à-vis those of the governor-general of FEA, Félix Eboué. The movement rapidly set about instituting a Bulletin officiel de l'Afrique française libre, a record of decrees that began in Brazzaville long before being copied in London.