The Third Republic of France - Essay Example

?How did the French governments of the third Republic try to strengthen national identity and unity up to 1914? Introduction It was the French surrender to Germany in1870 at Sedan which led to the end of legendry French monarchy and the rise of third republic. The political situation after the fall of France at Sedan was disturbing and there were supporters of monarchy and republican rule which resulted in the formation of a temporary government. Most of the republican governments did not last long but the republican regime of seventy years has contributed a lot in building up national unity and highlighting national identity in France. The most undesirable conditions of military defeats, civil wars and revolution which were prevailing during the origin of the third republic had intense impact on every facet of the life of French men. There have been a lot of scandals during the third republican rule and the State’s relationship with the church was disturbing. In spite of all these issue the third republic succeeded in unifying the feelings of French men towards the state by breaking the regional, linguistic and racial barriers. Origin of the Third Republic of France The living conditions of the French men were disgusting and the rich were becoming richer and the poor were becoming poorer. They were facing food shortage and the terrible after effects of military defeat especially the disastrous defeat at Sedan in 1870 were tormenting the people. All these factors turned the preference of the working class and the upper middle class towards the formation of democratic republic. They demanded a self governing France and a government with fairer managing techniques (The Third Republic of France 2004). The republican government of France during the period starting from 1870 until the attack of Germany on France in 1940 is termed as the Third Republic which emerged immediately after the fall of Napoleon III (Bloy 2011). There were sixty governments in France during the seventy years period renowned as the Third republic and Paris Commune was one among them occupying the period from March 18 to May 28, 1871. Certain historians prefer to divide the period in to three sections as the monarchist republic (1870-1879), the opportunist republic (1879-1899) and the radical republic (after 1899). As an outcome of the defeat of Napoleon III at Sedan against Prussia, there was a situation of political confusion. This was a crucial stage and the French emotion was towards monarchy and they were expecting ‘The Comte de Chambord’ or ‘The Comte de Paris’, the former from the Bourbon family and the latter, the grandson of Louis Philippe to rule them. But the monarchists failed to agree on an appropriate candidate, which paved the way for the victory of republicans in several elections. The republican leaders gained public support and constituted a provisional government called as the ‘Government of National Defence’ consisting of 11 members and the government was led by Adolphe Theirs who became the president in 1871. Theirs made a lot of enemies around him by his famous statement “there is only one throne of France and two men can not sit on it” which resulted in the removal of the moderate republican president and Marshal McMahon representing the monarchist became the president (Anderson 1984, p. 5). The constitutional laws implemented in1875 gave definitions to the Executive power and the Legislative power. They were the laws on Senate, laws on the authorities, and laws on the election of Senators and representatives. The president was elected by the Congress and his tenure was seven years. The Executive power was supposed to be exercised by the president while the Legislative powers were on the Senate and the Chamber. The amendment in 1879 made the constitution more republican in nature. Official establishment and the first ever celebration of the national day in the history of France happened on 14th July 1880 during the period of the third republic (France History - French Third Republic 2011). Social and political foundation During the rule of third republic, France seemed to unite social constancy and prosperity and democratic values received a widespread acceptance. There had been enormous internal contradictions in the French society which arose with the beginning of French revolution in 1789 and the governments of the third republic succeeded in resolving these internal issues. As a result, France experienced a modernizing social revolution which helped her to overcome these social tensions (Anderson 1984, p. 30). However, the political situation during the first phase of the republican rule was quite distressing. The political instability was resulted by the conflict between the monarchist and the republicans. Even after the establishment of the republicans rule, there was the presence of monarchist in the governing body whose ideologies and influence always created stress in the French polity. The third republic ruled France for seventy years which constitute the longest regime after the French revolution. During this period France experienced scientific developments, artistic achievements and historians consider this as an era of imperial expansion. The economic growth of France was at snails pace during the early years of republican rule. But France experienced a rapid growth in the industrial sector and in the economy as a whole after recuperating from the depression in 1880s. As a result of the industrialisation some of the areas of France were changing but a major part of the country was remaining untouched and the majority population lived in villages. As Anderson points out “the urban population rose from 34.8 % in 1881 to 44.2 % in 1911” which shows a gradual development in urbanisation and a resulting flow of French men from villages to urban areas (Anderson 1984, p. 31). In the same way, there had been significant changes in the occupational pattern also. Even though the majority was employed with agriculture, a shift to other sectors is observable and 42.2 % of the working population came under the category of self-employed according to the 1911 census. The relevance of property ownership existed and the economic independence prove the success of the individualist democracy of the Third Republic (Anderson 1984, p. 31). French Nationalism and Unity During the regime of the Third Republic efforts have been made by different governments to create a unified French nation, but they had to overcome so many social cleavages in order to reach their goal and language turned to be a prominent obstacle among them. There have been many local languages used in different villages of France. An effort has been taken by the republicans to unify the state by popularising national language and by the introduction of several policies focussing on the psychological and geographical integration of the state. Education, transportation, military recruitment and church-state relations were the main areas focussed. A new system of uniform, free and obligatory education was formed by the fundamental laws for children between the age group of seven and thirteen and the use of French as the medium of instruction removed all other local language barriers to the national unification of France. Compulsory military service was another introduction by Ferry. His objective was the formation of a public system of primary education, where there is no control of the church over it and thereby achieving patriotism and national spirit (Beer & Jacob, 1985, p.116). The Republican governments have paid attention to the territorial integration of France by making efforts to extend the roads and railway lines to the rural and interior areas of France so as to overcome the physical hindrances. The compulsory military service introduced by the government succeeded in creating a feeling of unity and nationalism among the youth even though they were from different regions and belong to different races. The World War I had immense impact in unifying the survivors of the war and supporting monolingualism of the rural areas of France. As Eugen Weber puts in, “the situation in 1920 was just the reverse of what it had been in 1880; bilinguals were more awkward in Patois than in French; the majority and most important, the young were on the side of the national language” (Beer & Jacob, 1985, p.117). The material and intellectual decline during the early nineteenth century was a result of the collapse of French power in Europe. According to the historians a sharp nationalist reaction was generated among the French men as a result of the decline which could be classified in to three segments (Hazareesingh 1994, p.127). The demographical decline resulted from the negative after effects of war and a declining birth rate, the economic decline caused by the delayed industrialisation and insufficient infrastructure and the cultural decline caused by the weakening of the French language (Hazareesingh 1994, p.127). Conclusion During the 1870s the French society was facing too many issues and historians consider this as a period of political instability, which were the result of wars and especially the defeat of Napoleon III at Sedan. This unsteadiness is observable even in the early years of Third Republic. Most of the governments failed to exist for longer periods. But the political and social structure of France changed gradually and started gaining economic growth and political steadiness as a result of the innovative and wise steps undertaken by the responsible governments of the Third Republic of France. The middle age of the Third republic is considered as the most effective and desired regime. The field of agriculture and industry experienced tremendous development during this period. The rulers were keen on the development of infrastructures like railway lines and roads especially in the rural areas which resulted in unifying different territories. The educational policy undertaken by the republicans helped French to dominate over other regional languages and thereby boosting national integration. The compulsory military service was another policy landmark which created a patriotic feeling among the younger generation of the country who were from different regions of France and were speaking different regional languages. The constitution of 1875 remained up till the French defeat to Germany in 1940. The most surprising factor about the Third Republic was its stability and the republican governments succeeded in winning the support of the majority of the French population during the regime. A detailed examination of the history of Third Republic indicate that the movement was from one crisis to another with included frequent collapse of governments, military scandals, clash with the Church and ultimately which caused the end of the Third Republican regime in 1940. Even in the presence of these draw backs, the Third Republic holds an important role in the history of France in laying the constitutional foundations of France as we see today. References Anderson, R.D 1984, France, 1870-1914: politics and society, Illustrated ed: Routledge. France History - French Third Republic 2011, Bonjour La France, viewed 19 Feb. 11, < http://www.bonjourlafrance.com/france-history/french-third-republic.htm>. Beer, W.R & Jacob, J.E 1985, Language policy and national unity, Government Institutes. Bloy, M 2011, European History, A Web of English History, viewed 19 Feb. 11, . Hazareesingh, S 1994, Political traditions in modern France, Illustrated ed, Oxford University Press. The Third Republic of France 2004, MapsOfWorld.com, viewed 19 Feb. 11, < http://www.mapsofworld.com/france/history/third-republic.html>. Read More