Under the appearance of equality, the constitution of the Community restricted the sovereignty of the twelve African states, and reaffirmed the preeminence of France, by placing in the domaine commun (exercised in common) critical functions such as foreign affairs, defence, the currency, economic policies and control of raw materials.

[2] On 31 January 1956, an enabling law changed the system, abandoning assimilation in favor of autonomy, to allow territories to develop their own local government and eventually gain their independence.

The one million French colonists in Algeria were determined to resist any possible Algerian independence, and they made massive demonstrations in Algiers on 13 May 1958.

The trouble, which threatened to become a civil war, provoked a political crisis in France and caused the end of the Fourth Republic.

Initially De Gaulle seemed to confirm the Algerian settlers' hopes that he would help them, ending a speech to them with the cry "Vive l'Algérie française !

President De Gaulle reacted by ordering French civil servants and technicians to leave Guinea immediately.

In April 1960, agreements were signed to allow the independence of Madagascar "established in republican form" on 14 October 1958, and of the federation of Mali (which then brought together the Senegal and the Sudanese Republic).

[12] The Executive Council of the Community met several times a year, in one or other of the capitals, on the summons of the President, who assumed direction of the meeting.

A Community Court of Arbitration, composed of seven judges nominated by the President, gave decisions in disputes between member states.

[15] A number of African presidents were present—symbolizing, for continental anti-colonialists, their complicity—at "Gerboise Bleue", France's first nuclear test, which occurred on 4 February 1960 near Reggane in the Sahara Desert of central Algeria.

Immediately after the sixth session, held in Dakar during December, President de Gaulle agreed to Mali's claim for national sovereignty, thus beginning the process of all of the states being granted independence during 1960.

It seemed that the only remaining differences between those states that were members of the community, and those that had left it, was the fact that the diplomatic representatives in Paris of the former had the title high commissioner, and those of the latter 'ambassador'.