16.3 France in the 19th Century

The 19th Century found France experiencing a crisis of identity. The basic question was: which of two nations was France?  Was France to be the France of the Revolution - a constitutional republic based on the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen?  Or was France to be the France of the Throne and Altar - royalist, conservative, and committed to traditional values of law and order?  The answer to the question was both, and their relationship was neither easy nor comfortable.   

                  In 1814 the Bourbon monarchy was restored and saw the crown passed in succession to the younger brothers of the executed Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X.   As king, Louis XVIII (1814 – 1824) was strongly conservative, yet smart enough to recognize that he could not undo the Revolution completely.  The Charter of 1814 preserved the major Napoleonic reforms in law (Code Napoleon), religion (Concordat of 1801), and finance.  Under the Charter, there existed a parliamentary Chamber of Deputies chosen by a franchise limited to some 100,000 wealthy male voters and a hereditary upper house, the Chamber of Peers.   Increasing industrialization led to the growth of capitalism and the rise of a wealthy, politically ambitious bourgeoisie.  As in Britain, industrial growth meant an expanding working class. Among the legacies of the Revolution was political activism characterized by diverse forms of political expression all seeking their solutions to France's problems - royalists, moderates, and republicans.   In foreign affairs France became a model of reactionary propriety as a member of the Concert of Europe and actively supported Metternich's view of the proper European order.

Louis’ successor was his younger brother Charles X (1824-1830).     

                History shows that Charles learned nothing from his oldest brother Louis XVI’s experience or Louis XVIII’s example.  Aspiring to make his crown absolute, his policies increased the powers of the Catholic Church and reimbursed former landowners whose lands had been seized and redistributed during the Revolution. His actions undermined the Charter of 1814 and antagonized elements of the political nation previously loyal to his brother.  The result was unrest which he met with further restrictive measures including disbanding the elected Chamber of Deputies.  In July 1830 middle and lower class opposition in Paris became violent and forced Charles' abdication. The result of this Revolution of 1830 was the establishment of a new parliamentary monarchy under a Bourbon cousin, Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans.  The new government revised the Charter doubling the franchise to some 200,000 (about 1/30th of the adult male population) but was still based on restrictive wealth qualifications.   

             The Revolution of 1830 rattled through Europe as if an aftershock to the revolutionary tremor of 1789.  Outbreaks of liberal and nationalist expression challenged the Metternich System in the German and Italian states, Belgium, and Poland. Metternich is said to have remarked, "When France sneezes, all of Europe catches cold." 

            The monarchy of Louis-Philippe, the "Citizen King" (1830 - 1848), saw continued industrial growth and the renewal of overseas imperialism.  In 1830 French armies invaded Algeria in North Africa and the region soon attracted thousands of French settlers.   With strong bourgeois control of economy, the working class became increasingly resentful and actively demanded reforms to improve working and living conditions for the urban poor.  Among the voices calling for reform of the capitalist system were those advocating replacing the injustice of capitalism with a new form of social organization called socialism.  The predictable bourgeois reaction was the increased suppression of labor unions and the silencing of criticism through intensified censorship.

            Among the responses to the growing discontent in France was the revival of the Napoleonic Legend and the rise of the "Bonapartist" political movement.  The Bonapartists claimed that, as in 1799, a troubled France on the verge of collapse could be saved only by a strong heroic figure who could command the respect of all elements of the population. There was no such figure in France at that time, but that did not deter Napoleon's unscrupulous but ambitious nephew, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, from presenting himself as the man who could revive a powerful and glorious France.

The Revolution of 1848

            In 1848 a revolutionary wave again swept through Western and Central Europe ending forever the Old Regime. In Paris the Revolution of 1848 began in February with a republican victory forcing the abdication of Louis Philippe.  A Provisional Government of ten “political” and “social” republicans took control pending election of a new Constituent Assembly that would draw up a new constitution.

            Most daunting of the challenges faced by the Provisional Government was the potential for continued revolutionary working class unrest.  In response, the government gave lip service to instituting a program of “National Workshops.”  The idea of the socialist Louis Blanc, these workshops were intended to be state-supported enterprises wherein the workers would share the wealth of their production.  Reluctant to make the National Workshop program a competitor for private enterprise, the Provisional Government made them more a form of unemployment relief rather than substantive businesses.  Nonetheless, tens of thousands of Parisian workers flooded the workshops seeking the daily two-franc wage. 

             The new Constituent Assembly, chosen through universal male suffrage, reflected its bourgeois and peasant electorate and rejected socialism’s role in the future of France.  The new five-man executive committee had no socialists.  Fearing the loss of their voice, the Parisian workers, effectively collectivized in the National Workshops, began agitating for further reforms.  The agitation fueled anger and activism.  A workers’ attack on the Constituent Assembly caused the government to impose martial law and begin efforts to abolish the National Workshops. The workers took to the streets intending to seize power in what became known as the “June Days.”  For three days the streets of Paris were wracked by class warfare.   Supported by armed bourgeois civilians, the army under General Cavaignac brutally suppressed the insurrection.  Some 10,000 were killed or injured and another 11,000 were arrested and speedily deported to the colonies. 

            The conservatives victorious, work on the new constitution continued.  It was decided to grant executive power to a strong president elected through universal suffrage.  The first elections (December 1848) were held even before the constitution was completed.  Elected to the presidency by an overwhelming majority over his three rivals was Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. 

           On completing its work in 1849, the Constituent Assembly, having established the Second Republic, dissolved itself, turning legislative power over to a Legislative Assembly.  The new legislature echoed that of 1797 – two-thirds of the delegates were monarchists (divided into the “Legitimists,” those favoring the restoration of the heirs of Charles X and the Orleanists, favoring the heirs of Louis Philippe); one-third was republicans, of whom some two-thirds were socialists.  Here we again see the legacy of the Revolution of 1789 – a France uncertain of its political identity. 

Napoleon III and the Second Empire

            The ambitious nephew of Napoleon, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte presented himself as the "Man of Destiny" who would be "all things to all people." As president (1848 - 1852) he implemented cautious policies aimed at winning support of the Church, landowners, business interests, and laborers. Bonaparte sought to revive a French empire and make France the center of European civilization.  The city of Paris underwent major redevelopment earning it the title "city of lights." 

            Following his uncle's example, Bonaparte dissolved the Assembly and held a plebiscite in late 1851 wherein the French voters approved his holding the presidency for ten years.  This was not without controversy and bloodshed, but the mood of the nation was for the order and progress he seemed to represent.  In 1852 another plebiscite gave overwhelming approval to his ending the republic and becoming Emperor of the French.  He took the imperial title Napoleon III.  He modeled his new government on that of the Consulate of 1799 - 1804.  As Emperor, his eighteen-year rule (1852 - 1870) was known as the Second Empire and briefly rivaled the glory (but never the accomplishment) of that of his illustrious uncle. Hoping to achieve through diplomacy the reputation his uncle achieved in battle, Napoleon III pursued a foreign policy intended to make himself the arbiter of international affairs.

Napoleon III (by Cabanel, 1865)

            In the Crimean War (1854 - 1856) Napoleon III formed an alliance with Britain and the Ottoman Empire to oppose Russian ambitions in the Ottoman Empire.  In 1859 he supported Italy in its war against Austria for Italian unification and acquired Savoy and Nice.  French armies were sent to Rome to protect the Pope from the new Italian kingdom's attempt to bring the Papal States under Italian sovereignty. Abroad, he created a short-lived satellite empire in Mexico headed by Prince Maximilian, younger brother of the Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph.  Lacking the will to support Maximilian when the Mexicans rebelled, Napoleon III abandoned the hapless Habsburg to his inevitable fate. In 1865, thinking he was making a clever arrangement with the Prussian Chancellor Bismarck, Napoleon III agreed to keep France neutral in a future war that Bismarck was planning to launch against Austria.  Little did he know that Bismarck was setting him up to look like an aggressor in Bismarck's scheme to unify the German states through a future war with France!  In 1866 France stood by while Prussia defeated Austria in a seven-week war that gave Prussia domination over the German states.  Revealing the 1865 agreement whereby France demanded Belgium and some southern German territories as the price of its neutrality, Bismarck was able to portray France as an aggressive power seeking to expand its sovereignty at the expense of smaller states. Tensions between France and Prussia rose to a fever pitch and, to Bismarck's delight, France declared war on Prussia in the summer of 1870.

The Franco-Prussian War and the Third Republic 

            The Franco - Prussian War (July 1870 - May 1871) was Napoleon III's downfall.  French armies, believed to be Europe's strongest, were defeated and humiliated by the invading Germans.  German armies smashed into France and seized control of Alsace and Lorraine. French forces fell back in confused retreat. In a futile effort to emulate his uncle and save France, Napoleon assumed personal command of the army in the field.  Defeated in the Battle of Sedan, he was captured by the Germans and personally interviewed by Bismarck.  While the Germans advanced on Paris, republicans in the capital proclaimed France to be a republic and established a provisional government. The new government mobilized the National Guard, calling some 50,000 Parisians to arms in the city’s defense.  Intending to besiege the city, the Germans surrounded Paris and closed its access to the outside world.

            The Siege of Paris lasted from September 1870 to January 1871.  Cut off from the rest of the country, the city experienced an ever-tightening strangulation. The leader of the provisional government, Leon Gambetta, made a dramatic escape to Tours, flying over the German lines by balloon. Starvation loomed as it became impossible to move food and fuel through the siege lines. Restaurant menus included dog, cat, rat, and even elephant and ostrich as zoo animals were slaughtered for food.   With Paris isolated, what French resistance remained elsewhere soon collapsed and the new government agreed to a truce pending a final peace treaty.

            Germany’s terms for peace included cession of Alsace and Lorraine; France’s paying an indemnity of some five billion francs within five years; and German military occupation in the departments along the new Franco-German boundary until the indemnity was paid. (These conditions were finalized in the Treaty of Frankfurt, May 1871.)  Adding insult to injury, on March 1, 1871 the victorious German army paraded down the Champs-Elysees 

            Another indignity had taken place several weeks earlier.  Gathering in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on January 18, 1871, the princes of the German states proclaimed the establishment of the German Empire.  Bismarck’s goal of a united Germany had been realized on the humiliation of France.

            In February 1871, national elections called by the provisional government created a new National Assembly. This body would serve as both an interim legislature and a constitutional convention. It was dominated by royalists and Bonapartists, a clear indication that the country was tired of the war and of the republicans who had lost it.  Headquartered in Bordeaux, the leadership of the new government fell to Adolphe Thiers. Thiers (1797-1877), a journalist and historian, had an extensive record of active political participation since the 1830s.  A conservative republican, Thiers was acceptable to the royalist majority.  He took the title “Head of State.”  Having accepted the German terms, the new government was seen by many, especially Parisian republicans, as treasonous. Anticipating possible unrest in the capital, Thiers in mid-March authorized the seizure of the National Guard’s artillery in the Montmartre heights section of the city. The result was the Paris Commune.

            In brief, the Paris Commune was an armed republican uprising against the new central government. It was characterized by the establishment of a “commune,” an independent government for the city.  The Communard leadership was made up of radical republicans, much like the Jacobins of 1793 in their political thinking. They were not Marxist revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the existing social and economic system, although Marxists across Europe hailed the uprising as the beginning of the proletarian revolution and the Commune’s enemies labeled it as such.  The Communard agenda for reform included fair taxation, a minimum wage, and free universal education.  While not without opposition, the Commune did have support from across all classes within the city’s population. Capitalist institutions such as the Bank of France remained undisturbed and continued to operate.  Inspired by their initial success, the Communard authorities called for similar uprisings across France. Revolts in Lyons, Marseilles, and several other industrial centers were quickly suppressed.   Thiers relocated the National Assembly to Versailles in order to better direct the suppression of the uprising.

            Once again, Paris was surrounded and besieged, this time by French forces under the command of Marshall Patrice de MacMahon.  In Paris the National Guard was charged with the city’s defense.  The new siege put tremendous strain on the city’s resources, causing criticism of Communard policies and actions. Where the Commune’s leadership failed its supporters was in its taking extreme methods to preserve its survival.  Such actions included censorship of newspapers and wide-scale arrests of dissidents critical of the leadership. The Archbishop of Paris was arrested to be held as a hostage against possible attack by the army.

            The Commune lasted two months before being brutally suppressed. In May Thiers ordered MacMahon to take the city. The “Bloody Week” of May 21 – 28 saw heavy street-to-street fighting in which some 20,000 were killed.  Communards who surrendered were immediately executed by firing squads.  In retaliation, the Communards likewise executed their hostages, including the Archbishop. The violence saw the willful destruction of several of the city’s significant buildings, including the Tuileries Palace, the Courts of Justice, and the Hôtel de Ville (the city hall) which had served as the Commune’s headquarters. Once the city was taken, some 330,000 persons were denounced as traitors of which 38,000 were arrested and detained for trial and of whom 20,000 were executed. Another 7500 were deported to penal settlements in New Caledonia, a French colony in the South Pacific. The National Guard was abolished. (Palmer et al., 586)

            With public order restored, Thiers turned France’s attention to its future: namely, creation of a constitution. Much like Talleyrand, Thiers was a political chameleon who could thread his way through the twists and turns of monarchist, Bonapartist, and republican interests. While sympathetic to the restoration of the monarchy, especially as monarchists dominated the National Assembly, Thiers concluded that a republic would be the government that would divide France least. This was largely in part because the monarchists were themselves divided. 

            The two contending royalist factions, Bourbon and Orleanist, were unwilling to compromise, even though an arrangement was agreed upon.  The childless and aging Bourbon heir, the Duke of Chambord, would be succeeded by his younger Orleanist cousin, the Count of Paris. What should have worked was undone by the demand of the Bourbons that the ancient white royal fleur-de-lys flag replace the blue, white, and red tricolor as France’s national flag. Public outrage expressed in the press made it clear that this was unacceptable to the French people. The tricolor was the flag of the Revolution and, as such, symbolic of France as a nation of free people, not a kingdom of subjects. 

            Tired of politics, Thiers resigned as Head of State in 1873.  Realizing that a conservative republican was their best bet, the royalist-dominated National Assembly chose Marshall MacMahon as his successor. The general who crushed the Commune would now preside over creating a government. The monarchists hoped MacMahon would maintain the status quo until Chambord either changed his mind about the flag or died. MacMahon did not disappoint them. In the name of “moral order,” restrictions were imposed on expression and assembly and the Church asserted a greater presence in public life. Still, republican sentiment remained high and regional balloting in 1874 saw republicans win local elections across the country.

                France would remain a republic. Between 1873 and 1875 a series of “organic laws” created the constitutional foundation for the Third Republic. These laws, collectively identified as the Constitution of 1875, would remain the foundation of French government until 1940. Its characteristics were a bicameral legislature and a ceremonial presidency with executive power held by a premier and cabinet dependent upon a majority in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house).  The Chamber was elected through universal male suffrage. The Senate, however, was based on a wealth-based restricted franchise that assured a conservative presence in that body.  Eventually some 10 to 15 political parties would reflect the broad and diverse range of French political expression (socialists, radical republicans, bourgeois moderates, Bonapartists, and monarchists).  Government was possible only through coalition (political alliances of enough parties to secure a majority) and avoiding controversy.  Between 1871 and 1914 there were 50 changes of government.  

             The National Assembly, its constitutional work completed, abolished itself in 1875. New elections brought a republican majority to the new Chamber of Deputies. MacMahon refused to name a cabinet and called for new elections, but his efforts failed to affect any significant change.  When republicans won a majority in the 1879 Senate elections, MacMahon resigned. In control of the government, the republicans made Paris the official national capital, declared July 14 to be France’s national day, and issued amnesties to imprisoned Communards. The Third Republic was now truly republican.

             Avoiding controversy and preserving government stability proved difficult. We have seen above that forming cabinets was dependent upon tenuous political coalitions. The status of the Church and education proved continually divisive.  Scandals relating to political corruption also proved troublesome. Any controversy immediately fueled monarchist reaction to the effect that things were better when France had strong leadership. Such was the case in 1889 when an attempt to overthrow the Republic led to a comedy of errors that saw France’s “savior,” General George-Ernest Boulanger, flee the country and later commit suicide on the grave of his mistress. In the early 1890s accusations that leading politicians had been bribed to support public financing of the failed Panama Canal Company proved true. French efforts to build a canal across Panama in the 1880s collapsed in the jungles and mountains of the isthmus. Thousands of investors lost millions of francs, while political office holders benefited from donations from company officials.  Right-wing extremists placed the blame on Jewish financiers who had supported the company, contributing to a rising wave of anti-Semitism. That anti-Semitism would be a factor in a crisis of controversy that almost ended the Third Republic – the Dreyfus Affair.             

           In 1894 the Dreyfus Affair rocked and divided the nation, pitting the forces of intolerance and reaction against those of justice and liberty.  Captain Alfred Dreyfus (left), a Jewish army officer, was falsely accused and convicted of selling military secrets to the Germans.  He was tried and convicted before a military court martial and exiled to the French penal colony on Devil’s Island.  Dreyfus became the center of national attention, and it was not long before the evidence used to convict him came into question.  Fearing that the integrity of the army might be challenged, the military leadership sought to cover up the case by refusing a new trial.