French Third Republic: 1870-1914

• France progressively adopted a new political system, the Third Republic, between 1870 and 1914
• This political evolution was accompanied by changes in the lives of French people
• France was an international power with a colonial empire

Implementation of the Republican Project

• 1870-1879
• Establishment of the Republic

Franco-Prussian War and its Consequences

• In 1870, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia
• The French Emperor was forced to lay down arms after the Battle of Sedan on September 2, 1870
• Republican opponents, including Jules Ferry and Léon Gambetta, then proclaimed a government of National Defense, marking the beginning of the Third Republic
• The National Assembly was initially majority monarchist and favored peace, bringing Adolphe Thiers to power
• The peace treaty was signed in Frankfurt on May 10, 1871, where France lost Alsace-Lorraine and had to pay a large indemnity

Focus: 1871, Louise Michel, and the Paris Commune

• On March 26, the Commune of Paris proclaimed itself the head of state, but it was not recognized by the Assembly and A. Thiers, Paris was isolated
• With a secular policy, the Commune enabled the emancipation of women, like Louise Michel, who played a significant role and helped the poor
• A. Thiers entrusted Marshal Mac Mahon with the task of eradicating the Parisian insurrection, causing street fighting during the «Bloody Week» from May 21 to 28, 1871
• Louise Michel fought alongside the Communards
• The Commune troops eventually fell on May 28, 1871, at the Père-Lachaise cemetery; the repression that followed was severe, with 20,000 deaths, 38,000 arrests, and over 7,000 deportations
• Louise Michel was sent to a penal colony in New Caledonia in 1873
• Amnesty laws in 1879 and 1880 allowed surviving deportees and exiles to return to France, and Louise Michel resumed her political involvement until her death in 1905

Triumph of the Republic

• Adolphe Thiers, opposed to a monarchical restoration, resigned on May 24, 1873, and was replaced by the royalist Marshal Mac-Mahon
• The royalist group was divided over the choice of sovereign and the type of monarchy, absolute or parliamentary
• This allowed the Third Republic to be finally adopted on January 30, 1875
• The 1876 elections brought the Republicans to power, but Mac Mahon attempted a coup in 1877, which failed
• He eventually resigned in January 1879
• The election of Jules Grévy in 1879 consecrated the triumph of the Republicans

A Third Republic as a Source of Freedoms

• From 1879 to 1887 the Third Republic stood for fundamental freedoms
• Jules Ferry's school laws of 1880-1882 made education secular, compulsory, and free
• Public school staff became secular in 1886, and their training improved
• These school laws promoted equality and republicans were considered the black hussars

New Rights

• The Third Republic also contributed to the establishment of freedom of the press (1881), the right to assembly (1881), trade union freedom (1884), and the divorce law (1884), which allowed for a freer society to emerge
• The 1901 law introduced freedom of non-professional secular association, leading to the creation of the first political parties, such as the Radical Republican Party in 1901
• A socialist and workers' movement united to form the SFIO (French Section of the Workers' International) in 1905

Republicanizing the Décor

• Republican symbols became prominent in public places, often originating from the French Revolution of 1789
• The tricolor flag was officially established in France in 1830
• «La Marseillaise» was composed in 1792 but officially adopted by the Third Republic as the national anthem in 1879
• The motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" was inscribed on the front of public buildings from 1880
• Marianne became the representation of the Republic
• In celebration of the Storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the Festival of the Federation in 1790, the Third Republic adopted July 14 as the national holiday in 1880

Focus - 1885, National Funeral of Victor Hugo

• On June 1, 1885, Victor Hugo's body was transferred to the Panthéon
• This entrance was the first for a poet and writer, followed by a million people
• Victor Hugo went through all French State regimes, was a monarchist, an opponent of Napoleon III, and then an anticlerical republican
• He remains an intelectual figure

Debates and Stalemate in the Third Republic

Anti-Parliamentary Sentiment and the Dreyfus Affair

• Simultaneously with the desire for revenge against Germany, anti-parliamentary movements started to surface
• The Boulanger crisis (1886-1889) highlighted these movements
• General Boulanger, then Minister of War in 1887, wanted to confront Germany
• After being dismissed by the government, he created a political movement that combined all those dissatisfied with the Third Republic with a nationalist and anti-parliamentary ideology
• The Dreyfus Affair exposed these movements' anti-Semitic and xenophobic nature with Charles Maurras being a leading figure

Focus - The Dreyfus Affair

• The Dreyfus Affair was an espionage scandal within the Ministry of War
• Captain Dreyfus was wrongly accused of stealing documents to hand over to the Germans
• Being from Alsace and of Jewish faith, he was the scapegoat and was deported to a penal colony in Guiana in 1894
• However, in 1897, Colonel Picquart proved Dreyfus was innocent by finding the real culprit, Lieutenant Esterhazy
• In January 1898, Émile Zola published an open letter to the president in the newspaper L'Aurore titled «J'accuse» causing division: the «dreyfusards» defending the captain's innocence, and the anti-dreyfusards convinced of his guilt

Failure of Women's Right to Vote

• Feminism began in 1870 due to international momentum
• In 1880, Hubertine Auclert refused to pay taxes because she did not have the right to vote
• She defended this right for women in her newspaper La citoyenne (created in 1881), using British Suffragette methods
• there was little progress before World War I in 1901 with the creation of the CNFF
• The SFIO supported the idea of women's suffrage, but it was not prioritized

From the Law on Separation of Church and State to the March Towards World War I

• The Dreyfus affair helped the left-wing parties to structure themselves into a "Bloc des Gauches"
• Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau governed from 1899 to 1902, and Émile Combes from 1902 to 1905
• Deeply anticlerical, these governments opposed Catholics who did not forgive Jules Ferry's secular laws and found themselves in anti-parliamentarism
• the tensions grew until the 1905 law on the separation of church and state

Focus - 1905, Law on the Separation of Churches and the State

• In 1904, President E. Combes broke off relations with the papacy and contributed to the Law on the Separation of Churches and the State of December 9, 1905
• This law introduced the principle of secularism, that being the state's neutrality towards religions
• Pope Pius X condemned this law
• The Republic does not recognize any religion and guarantees free exercise for all
• Church property was to be assigned to religious associations, but this caused many clashes in the regions
• This measure was not fully implemented until 1924
• Similarly, secularizing schools sometimes led to strong opposition from a portion of the population
• From 1906 to 1909, the radicals took power with the government of Georges Clemenceau
• The social and worker question was then at the heart of the debates in view of the precariousness of this social group demonstrated by large strikes from 1906 to 1910
• Similarly, relations with Germany became increasingly strained, particularly on the issue of colonies
• Despite warnings, particularly from Jean Jaurès, Europe prepared for war
• Public opinion remained mixed, but President Poincaré's actions pushed France towards World War I