Foundations Of French Third Republic Essay Research

Foundations Of French Third Republic Essay, Research Paper

What problems did the third republic face and how close did it come to being overthrown

The Third republic was destined to difficulties from it’s very conception, any new system of government born out of the collapse of another; especially coupled with France’s extra problems at this time meant the new ministers had some very major issues to resolve on top of simply trying to find their feet as the new republic came into being.

After twenty-two years in power and 18 years as autocratic emperor of France Napoleon III had left a nasty legacy, coming to power on the crest of bonapartism with promises to restore the great French empire his uncle had founded. Napoleon III was constantly looking to expand the empire, although a dictator he was still very much a populist and saw gaining new territory as an assured ‘vote-winner’ with the French public.

This plan catastrophically back-fired after the Hohenzolleren affair; Prince Leopold Hohenzolleren, a distant relation of the king of Prussia was offered the Spanish throne. Various nations around Europe were understandably concerned at such a close link between Prussia and Spain.

In a classic case of French indecision under Napoleon III they first applied pressure to the king of Prussia to refuse the claim instead of approaching the French then after other efforts came back with a more moderate approach. They then blew this all out of the water by demanded Prussian assurances that the claim would never be taken after the king had already said the position would not be filled.

Suddenly France found herself on the brink of war which the French and Napoleon thought they would undoubtedly win, Prussia was a lot better organised and equipped than the French thought and they duly lost. An enduring image of this war was the capture of Napoleon, left to sit with Bismarck watching over the battlefields. Once Napoleon was captured, it was still theoretically possible for the French to win but with the huge centralisation on Paris, most troops retreated to fortify the city and were eventually forced to surrender after the Prussians fully encircled the city.

Bismarck, reflecting what a great statesman he was, realised any war reparations and peace treaties agreed by a government seizing power, promptly allowed elections to go ahead so he has already dealing with an elected body who therefore had no claim to reject his terms. This led to the first of the third republic’s problems and meant whilst it was an elected body, it hardly reflected the will of the people. The elections were announced to go ahead two weeks after the surrender of Paris, leaving candidates no time to formulate or carry out political campaigns. Furthermore after nearly twenty years of autocratic rule, national parties as such didn’t really exist, the republicans and the monarchists was a very general way to look at things and suddenly the republicans had had their wish granted whilst the monarchists were on their way also by seeing the end of Napoleon.

The elections resulted into mainly being a choice between a candidate supporting peace or voting to carry on the fight against the Prussians. Naturally the majority of the French realised the game was up and voted for peace. It just so happened that the majority of those standing in the provinces were local men of standing who were usually monarchists as well as such a system had always suited these upper class individuals. As a result the third republic got off to a terrible start, the first proper democratic republic in twenty years and instead of being filled by the republicans campaigning to Napoleon to bring in representative government, the monarchists held the majority but they were split also leaving a very ineffectual commune de Paris.

Aldophe Thiers emerged as the new leader of this new national assembly and faced a huge struggle to contain all the political in fighting within the assembly, he succeeded at least in repaying the war indemnity and getting the German troops to pull out of France. Thiers biggest threat came from the monarchists, working very much to their own agenda and keen to impose more control to further their own goals. They saw the election of life peers to the new senate as the perfect opportunity but were amazed to see their plan foiled with republicans and bonapartists taking almost every peerage. The infighting between the monarchists deepened meaning even less was being done with such a substantial monarchist majority in the national assembly. The legitimists continued their claims for a return to the Bourbon family that had ruled until 1830 whilst the Orleanists wanted the descendants of the royal family ruling form 1830-1848. Thiers finally managed to break the deadlock by getting those moderately liberal Orleanists to back the republicans and so the monarchists lost their assembly majority.

The problem didn’t want to go away and the decidedly monarchist president Mcmahon was displeased with the republican ministers below him blocking his moves. He decided to dissolve the whole senate as his presidential powers allowed and reinstated some monarchist ministers instead. Problems then came with the national assembly which now had gained a republican majority thus countering the presidents moves. A re-election was called by the president and the monarchists we