french is the third republic, is the term used to denote the system of government adopted in France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed, until 1940, when France's defeat by Nazi Germany in World War II led to the formation of the so-called Vichy government in France. It came to an end on 10 July 1940, when the National Assembly of the Third Republic under its last President Albert Lebrun delegated all constitutional powers to Marshal Philippe Petain of the rump French State in the Zone libre ("Free Zone") in the south of France.