Vichy France is complex because its autonomy was limited, but always at the disgrecion of its huge German neighbour, who usually retained the right, be it by order or force, to do as they please to Vichy France. After all, the Germans divided France in two with psychological cunning, and reserved the right to ship Frenchmen in the hundreds of thousands to concentration camps. Vichy itself though, retained some level of autonomy in the first years of its existance, all the way up until November of 1942, when Germany abruptly occupied all of Vichy France when the Allies landed in French North Africa. On paper, between 1940-1942, Vichy France was nominally independent and sovereign, though very collaborative in nature. It was allowed to keep its colonial possessions, its navy, and a portion of its army. However, Germany kept as many as 2 million French soldiers as prisoners as hostages, doing forced labour, as a measure to keep Vichy France weak and its army small.

After the Fall of France, Vichy France was formed with Petain as premier, along with other military officials who held high ranking positions, such as Admiral Darlan. While it may sound surprising, Petain was actually admired by the people of France, and people cheered for him during his time as leader of Vichy. The main change that Petain (and Vichy officials in general) strode to implement is a very authoritarian form of government and lifestyle. The French motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" was replaced with "Work, Family, Fatherland". The regime's ideology was basically encapsulated in the phrase as the "National Revolution", which claimed to replace the meterialistic liberal individualism of the Republic with the traditional values of a hierarchical society structured around organic 'natural' communities such as the region, family, and workplace. They condemned the class strugle, and celebrated the peasant and artisan. Perhaps taken as 'notes' from their ever imposing German neighbours, Vichy France adopted the need to punish and persecute certain groups deemed as enemies of France, chiefly Jews, Communists, and Freemasons.

In fact, the French, who were in a very sunken defeatist mood after the Fall of France, strongly believed that German hegemony over Europe was secured by German success in France, Poland, Norway, etc. They thought the armistice with Germany was going to be a prelude to a Peace Treaty between Germany and Britain. So, in October, 1940, Petain met with Hitler, and ever since decided to go on a collaborative route, believing Germany to have won the war. In this sense, Vichy France's autonomy was overshadowed by its collaboration, as its influence internationally was composed largely of neutrality and the acceptance of German power. Vichy France, nonetheless, internationally, was recognized by most Neutral and Axis powers, including America, Canada, and Australia, and maintained a policy of armed neutrality. It responded to both Axis and Allied insurgencies onto its colonial possessions, though, due to its army being so limited by the Germans, some of the more severe instances, chiefly French Indochina, were lost. A lot of its struggles came from its attempt to hold onto its colonies as Free French forces quickly seized most of its African colonies.

Vichy France was impressively autonomous given its circumstances. It was recognized internationally, mostly admired from within due to sympathetic support for Petain, and was allowed to administer itself and maintain its own navy. While its foreign policy was a mix of neutrality and collaborative support for Germany, Vichy France did what it could in hindsight to do what it could.

Sources: To Lose a Battle, France 1940 by Alistair Horne

The Fall of France, The Nazi Invasion of 1940 by Julian Jackson