France in the Nineteenth Century

• 1830-48: July Monarchy (Orleanists)

• 1848: Revolution

• 1848-52: Second Republic

• 1852-70: Second Empire (Napoleon III)

• 1870-1940: Third Republic

• 1871: Paris Commune

A Century of Political Conflict

•Three “revolutions” in 40 years: 1830, 1848, and 1870-71

•A multi-dimensional struggle between two parties of royalists

(Legitimists and Orleanists), moderate and radical republicans,

Bonapartists, and socialists

3

Economic and Social Change

• Industrialization, but less pronounced than in England• Urbanization: growth of cities and towns• Migration from villages to cities and towns• Declining birth rate, i.e., slower population growth

than in Britain and in German states• Despite these changes, most French people were poor,

barely literate peasants living in the countryside where the priest and the landlord were important figures. However, elementary education did expand significantly in this period.

France in International Affairs

• Small, scattered empire: Saint-Pierre and Miquelon; Martinique and Guadeloupe; French Guiana; Senegal

• 1830: Algeria; • 1854-55: Crimean War• 1859-60: Italian War• Mexican fiasco, 1864-67• 1870: Franco-Prussian War• 1870s and 1880s: Tahiti; Southeast Asia; North and

West Africa

July Monarchy, 1830-48

• The Orleanist king, Louis-Philippe, replaced the reactionary Bourbon king, Charles X.

• This regime was considered liberal but hostile to Legitimists, republicans, and workers.

• It favored the bourgeoisie, capitalism, and laissez-faire economics.

• It had a two-house legislature, but voting rights required ownership of substantial property.

• Republicans agitated for greater freedom of the press and for an extension of the right to vote.

Revolution of 1848 and Second Republic, 1848-1852

• February Days: Louis-Philippe abdicated; universal male suffrage and republic proclaimed

• June Days: brutal repression of workers protest against closing of national workshops in Paris

• Election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, December 1848

• Legislative elections of 1849: return of “spectre rouge”

• Coup d’etat of 1851

Second Empire, 1852-70

• Constitutional reform: Legislative Body and Senate replaced Legislative Assembly

• Voting rights restricted by residence requirements

• Censorship

• Plebiscites

• Adolphe Thiers: “essential liberties”

Second Empire, 1852-70, cont.d

• Napoleon III’s ambiguous record on labor– Author of On the Extinction of Pauperism– Sponsored French delegation to international

workers congress in London in 1864– Permitted workers to strike but prohibited labor

unions• Rebuilding of Paris: destruction of old

quartiers; construction of broad avenues connecting large public monuments

Second Empire, 1852-70, cont’d

• “Liberal Empire” 1860-1870– Gave more power to the legislature– Loosened censorship – Allowed freer elections– Signed Cobden-Chevalier commercial treaty

with Britain lowering duties on imports from each country, opening French industry to competition

– Did not satisfy royalists or republicans

Franco-Prussian War, 1870

• Hohenzollern (i.e., German) candidacy to the Spanish throne

• Ems telegram

• Rapid defeat of the French; siege of Paris

• Capture of Napoleon III at Sedan

• Proclamation of a Third Republic in France

• Bismarck imposes harsh terms

Franco-Prussian War, cont’d

• Terms of the armistice– Loss of Alsace-Lorraine– Large indemnity– Occupation of France by German troops– Entrance of Prussian troops into French capital– Election of a national assembly in France

Paris Commune, Spring 1871

• A civil war in France: Versailles against Paris

• Defense of Paris: “guns of Montmartre”• A democratic municipal government• With a reputation for socialism• Atrocities on both sides: execution of the

Archbishop of Paris; the “Wall of the Federalists” at Père Lachaise cemetery

The Third Republic, 1870-1940

• Adolphe Thiers, “Chief of the Executive Power”

• A national assembly with a monarchist majority; the issue of the war; Gambetta

• The Count de Chambord will not give in• Orleanists and moderate republicans reach a

compromise• A conservative republic

The Third Republic to the Dreyfus Affair, 1898

• 1877: The seize mai crisis: the threat of a return of the monarchy

• 1886: The Boulanger affair• 1893: The Panama scandal• 1898-1900: The Dreyfus Affair: Zola and

Clemenceau; the “cleansing” of the army of monarchists; the separation of church and state

• Socialists and government: Alexandre Millerand

France in the early 20th Century

• The III Republic had endured 30 years.• Paris was a center of artistic experimentation

(Picasso; cubism; art nouveau)• Socialism had become firmly rooted in both trade and

labor unions and in political parties.• The Catholic Church was on the defensive.• Rural-to-urban migration accelerated• Germany was a powerful military force.• Colonies in Africa and Asia had greatly increased the

size of the French Empire.