No trains. No post. Rubbish piling up. Petrol running dry. In May 1968, a student protest grew into a strike that brought much of France to a standstill.
Follow the story from overcrowded universities at Nanterre and the Sorbonne to occupied factories, the Grenelle negotiations and a president suddenly out of contact. This short animated history explains how the crisis spread—and how France eventually went back to work.
The video gives both estimates of the strike’s scale: about seven million workers, or ten million by the unions’ count. It also follows the proposed 35% minimum-wage increase, the strikes that continued afterwards, de Gaulle’s visit to Baden-Baden and the June elections.
CHAPTERS
0:00 France comes to a stop
0:11 Nanterre: where it began
0:45 The Sorbonne and the barricades
1:22 A march becomes a general strike
1:45 Factories, shortages and Cannes
2:41 Grenelle: why the strike continued
3:09 De Gaulle goes out of contact
3:32 Radio, elections and the return to work
4:14 What May ’68 changed
4:25 Why May ’68 is still invoked
SELECTED SOURCES
May 1968 chronology — Fondation Charles de Gaulle
The general strike and shortages — Larousse, Journal de l’année 1968
https://www.larousse.fr/archives/journaux_annee/1968/9/dossier_mai_1968
Cannes closes early — Larousse, Journal de l’année 1968
https://www.larousse.fr/archives/journaux_annee/1968/8/dossier_mai_1968
The Grenelle negotiations — INA
https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/25-27-mai-1968-les-accords-de-grenelle
Le Constat de Grenelle — CFDT Retraités
https://www.cfdt-retraités.fr/Le-Constat-de-Grenelle
De Gaulle’s six-hour absence, 29 May 1968 — INA
https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/disparition-general-de-gaulle-mai-1968-crise-sociale-baden-baden-general-massu
De Gaulle’s radio address, 30 May 1968 — Fondation Charles de Gaulle
Fifth Republic legislatures and the 1968 election — Assemblée nationale
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/leg5repnew.asp
ABOUT THIS VIDEO
An animated history explainer by Dembly Explains, narrated in English with Vietnamese subtitles. AI-generated cartoon illustrations, animated scenes and AI narration accompany maps and archival images. Character scenes and thumbnails are illustrative reconstructions; quotations are identified in the video.
Archival photographs: Anefo / Nationaal Archief (CC0) and U.S. National Archives (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons. Paris street-map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Satellite imagery: NASA Blue Marble. The brief contemporary comparison at the end was prepared in October 2026.
#May1968 #FrenchHistory #DemblyExplains
Powered by WPeMatico
