The Establishment of the Third Republic in France

At first the majority of Frenchmen favoured the return of the monarchy. Monarchists
won the elections of 1871. However they were divided on the issue of who was to be
the new king. As the Bonapartists were discredited by the recent war, there
were two main claimants to the throne of France:

1. The Comte de Chambord who was the grandson of Charles X (King:1824-

1830) and a member of the Bourbon family
2. The Comte de Paris from the Orlean family was the grandson of Louis Philippe
(King 1840-1848)

The Comte de Chambord was old and childless and very conservative. He wanted to
replace the tricolour with the pre-Revolutionary flag. This was very unpopular. It was
hoped that he would stand aside for the Comte de Paris. However he refused to
surrender his title to the Orleanist claimant.

The first president, Adolphe Thiers, was a moderate republican.

He commented that “there is only one throne of France and two
men can not sit on it”. Thiers made many political enemies and was
replaced by the monarchist, Marshal McMahon.

The failure of the monarchists to agree on a suitable candidate

played into the hands of the republicans. Briefly discredited by the
Commune, the Republicans won a number of by-election victories
as popular opinion moved in their favour.

In 1875 a new constitution was approved that made France a republic. It was passed
by one vote. In 1876 this new arrangement was strengthened when the Republicans
gained an overall majority in the Chamber of Deputies (parliament). The
monarchists still controlled the senate.

The elections of 1877 were won by the republicans and McMahon resigned as
president in 1879. The government returned to Paris from Versailles.

Thereafter all Presidents and Prime Ministers were republicans. A series of political
measures reflected the victory of Republicans. They were designed to increase
patriotic identity to the republic in France and they included:

 The Marseillaise became the National Anthem.

 July 14 (Bastille Day) became a national holiday.
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3. The Constitution:

The President was the head of state and had little political power:

 He had the right to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies with the support of the
Senate.
 He had the right to nominate the new head of government
 He played an important role in foreign affairs.

The Senate was elected by mayors and councillors in departments (counties)

throughout France. It was nicknamed the “Chamber of Agriculture” because the
countryside was over represented. Senators were elected every nine years.
Conservative, rural interests dominated in the senate and were thereby able to block
progressive legislation in the areas of women’s rights and worker’s rights.

The Chamber of Deputies was chosen every four years. It contained 600 members
elected by universal male suffrage. It chose the government or ministry. There was
no organised party system although there were four main political groupings in the
Chamber:

Moderate Republicans
Socialists Radicals Monarchists
(Opportunists)
Formed most of the It was said that their Very Catholic. Saw the
Political force after governments during this hearts were on the left Republic as weak and
1890. Many were period. Middle class but their wallets were corrupt. Divided
revolutionaries who and social on the right. Very anti- between Bonapartists
followed the theories of conservatives. clerical. Powerful and more traditional
Karl Marx. influence after Dreyfus monarchists
Affair.

Because there were so many different factions, all governments were coalitions. On
average a ministry lasted eight months. Most governments contained six or seven
ministers. Often the new government contained nearly all of the same men as the
previous one!

Ministries gave a lot of local favours to MPs (who were relatively poorly paid) in
exchange for his support. This led to a lot of corruption.
Some of the most important political figures during the Third Republic were Leon
Gambetta, Jules Ferry (Opportunists). Emil Combes, George
Clemenceau (Radical) and Aristide Briand (Socialist)

The Third Republic faced four major crises between the years 1879 and 1914. They
exposed the fundamental political difference between Frenchmen, Monarchists versus
Republicans. However the Republic survived