Political problems faced by the Third Republic in France 1870-1900:
Political problems faced by the Third Republic in France 1870-1900:
The year 1871 signalled the end for the French 2nd Empire. The 2 September 1870, the Prussians had beaten, in Sedan, the French convincingly and had captured Napoleon III, France Emperor at the time. Two days later the third republic was proclaimed without violence. The new government continued resistance to the Germans who then laid siege to Paris. To defend the city, a National Guard was raised. Paris was besieged until January 1871.
On 8 February 1871, a new National Assembly was elected and this one gave to Thiers the title of Chef du Pouvoir. This government was established at Versailles not in Paris because of revolt in the city. The Paris Commune was elected on 28 March with its seat at the Hotel de Ville but a civil war was fought between the Commune and the troops of the Versailles government. The Second Siege of Paris began. The Commune was suppressed by government troops led by Marshal McMahon.. In May the Nation Assembly approved the Treat of Frankfurt with Germany that ended the Franco-Prussian war but France lost Alsace and Lorraine.
Between the years 1879 and 1914 the Third Republic faced 3 major crises. However the Republic survived.
The split in French society was shown clearly by the support for General Boulanger. The army was traditionally dominated by monarchists. General Georges Boulanger was one of the few republican generals in the army. In 1886 he was appointed Minister of War, largely by the influence of Georges Clemenceau. He brought in measures that improved the welfare of his troops and this earned him great popularity. His popularity and his speeches attacking Germany worried the government and he was removed as Minister of War in 1887.
He was now a national figure around whom opposition to the government especially from the right began to rally. His support increased when it was revealed that the President's son in law, Daniel Wilson, was selling favours from the Elysee Palace. As a result the President, Jules Grevy, was forced out of office. Monarchists hoped that his popularity might be used to overthrow the republic. Economic conditions were poor and he received support from socialists and the unemployed as well.
In 1888 he was removed from the army and this allowed him to stand for election. He ...
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He was now a national figure around whom opposition to the government especially from the right began to rally. His support increased when it was revealed that the President's son in law, Daniel Wilson, was selling favours from the Elysee Palace. As a result the President, Jules Grevy, was forced out of office. Monarchists hoped that his popularity might be used to overthrow the republic. Economic conditions were poor and he received support from socialists and the unemployed as well.
In 1888 he was removed from the army and this allowed him to stand for election. He won a number of spectacular by-election victories culminating in an overwhelming success in Paris. His supporters urged him to stage a revolution. But Boulanger hesitated and the moment was lost. The government then began legal proceeding against him and he fled the country. A few years later he committed suicide. With his flight the movement collapsed. The elections of 1889 resulted in a clear majority for the Republicans.
The next crisis to hit the Republic was the Panama Scandal. It's a corruption affair linked to the building of the Panama Canal. This crisis broke when members of the government were charged of having taken bribes from the Panama Canal Company to withhold from the public, news that the Company was in serious debts. This meant people in Paris continued to invest and as a result lost money. All but one of the accused went unpunished due to lack of evidence. The heat was taken away from the government somewhat by the fact that two Jews were also involved in the scandal and they received most of the coverage from the press and public. Georges Clemenceau was defeated in the 1893 election because of his association with Cornelius Herz one of the Jews involved in this crisis. This crisis obviously differs from the previous one in that the Republic was never really in threat of being overthrown. However, it did raise doubts in the public eye and meant that politicians were no longer trusted as much as they once were.
The Dreyfus Affair, which began in October of 1894, proved to be another one of the problems that plagued the French Third Republic as it amplified the differences between various political and social groups, and created conflict between them. Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely accused and convicted for espionage, served as a pivotal point for controversy and conflict. The country was divided into basically two groups: the Dreyfusards and the anti-Dreyfusards. The Dreyfusards consisted of people such as the intellectuals, liberals and extremists from the left and the right, while the anti-Dreyfusards were made of groups such as the Roman Catholic Church and the army. One of the primary results of the Dreyfus Affair was the conflict between right and left wing political and social groups. When Dreyfus being Jewish was first found guilty, anti-Semitic groups quickly responded by spreading anti-Semitic propaganda, much of the anti-Semites coming from the French Army. However, cover-ups made by the French General Staff gradually became more apparent. As Picquart, the new head of French Intelligence, revealed Dreyfus' innocence (by revealing Esterhazy's guilt), and was later arrested in July of 1898 for doing so, Liberal groups and other Dreyfusards then had something to protest. The right wing groups, specifically the Roman Catholic Church and the French army remained in support of the court decisions concerning Dreyfus. The army did so in order to maintain appearances, not wanting to look foolish for falsely accusing one of their own. Writers such as Anatole France, who wrote L'histoire Contemporaine (an analysis of the negative effects of the Dreyfus Affair), and Charles Peguy, led the intellectuals and the liberals, denouncing the position of the right wing groups. Anti-Semitic movements also flourished as a result of the Dreyfus Affair, aside form mere propaganda. Much of this came as the result of Emile Zola's article J'Accuse which accused members of the government and the army of anti-Semitism and conspiracy. January 14, 1898, a day after Zola's article was published in the newspaper L'Aurore, anti-Semitic protests begin throughout France, lasting for three days. The French-ruled Algerians began to persecute and kill Jews. Over a month later, Zola was put on trial and found guilty of libel, but escaped to England. These sorts of conflicts, the conflict between the right and left and anti-Semitism, arose from the Dreyfus Affair, thus causing it to be another problem for the French Third Republic.
In it would seem fitting to directly quote Thiers by saying that "the Republic is the form of government that divides us least". All throughout the 3rd Republic this is proved to be true. No other party was able to organise themselves and co-ordinate their efforts to pose a serious threat to the Republic. People want strong leaders who are going to defend the Country and their beliefs, and the Republic proved themselves to be very strong. It gives a sense of security and stability rather than constant and disorienting social uprooting. The Republic didn't change anything dramatically. Rather they took pride in bringing about change slowly and surely.