The Third Republic

1875-1940

Origins

Collapse of the Second Empire in the Franco Prussian War (September 2, 1870)

Siege of Paris (September 1870 – January 1871)

Experience of the Commune (March - May 1871) Event Symbol Lessons learned

Dreams Dashed in Six Weeks

John Tenniel, Franco Prussian War, Punch, 1870

Honore Daumier’s View

Appalled at the Heritage, January 11 1871 Whose Turn Now? October 18, 1870

Siege of Paris

Pantheon 1870 (note barricade)

Effects of Bombardment of Paris

Dionis, The Arsenal, Paris, 1871

Rotonde de la Barrière du Combat. Paris, France 1871

Dionis, Carrefour de la Croix-rouge. Paris, France 1871

Dionis, Ministère des finances (Rue St. Florentin), Paris 1871

Dionis, Grenier d'abondance (exterior)(grainary), Paris 1871

The Shoemaker

Adolphe Thiers

Negotiated the armistice Elected chief of state (February 12,

1871) Negotiated the final peace (March

1871) Ruthlessly suppressed Commune

(May 1871) Elected head of provisional

government (August 1871) Inflexible attitude impacts

constitutional development (stronger legislative than executive)

Paris Commune: Event

Attempt to force Parisians to surrender cannons and guns triggers street fighting in March

Establishes an efficient municipal government lasts 72 days

Civil war against the rest of France Who had abandoned/sold out Parisian patriots Who had signed humiliating peace

Reparations and army of occupation Alsace Lorraine Coronation at Versailles

Communal Projects

Toppling Column commemorating Napoleon I’s victory at Austerlitz, Place de Vendome

Paris Commune: Symbol

Marx greeted it as the coming of the revolution of the proletariat

Socialist revolution challenging capitalist system 1895 Peter Kropotkin still saw it as a social

revolution that had not fulfilled its promise but the first example of the “lowest” people attempting to gain their rights on their own behalf

Became the symbol for future revolutionaries

Palais de Légion d'honneur. Hotel de Salm, Paris 1871

Hôtel de Ville. Administrative headquarters for the Commune, Paris, 1871

Hôtel de ville. (interior view) Paris, 1871

Causes of “Week of Blood”

Perhaps motivated by the Commune’s symbolic impact in socialist circles

Desire to distance government of Third Republic from the image of Second Republic still part of French national consciousness

Third Republic’s desire to establish itself as a capable and responsible government

End of the Commune 1871

Lessons learned

National identity and patriotism a powerful motivation for popular action

Power of the state Reprisals for rebellion were swift and harsh

25,000 Parisians masssacred 40,000 arrested 5,000 sent to penal colonies

Massive forces of repression

The Ghosts of the Communards

Challenges for Third Republic Corruption The “right” (throne, altar, and sword)

Monarchists (2/3 France split between Bourbon and Orleanist branches)

Religion (republicans mostly anti-clerical) Military (Boulanger and Dreyfus Affair)

Integrating the whole Education Transportation Newspapers

Anti-Semitism – a search for scapegoats The Dreyfus Affair The Press

Georges Boulanger 1837-1891 1886 War minister who built his

popularity by espousing revenge on Germany (revanchement)

Military reforms engender soldiers’ support

Puts down strikes winning business support

Image cultivated and spread (black horse, Messiah)

In age of mass politics planned to use people to establish dictatorship

The Dreyfus Affair 1894, 1899, 1906

Le Petit Journal, January 13, 1895. Police photograph of Albert Dreyfus

Anti-SemitismPostcards and Posters

Anti-Semitism in the Press

"Judas Defended by his Brothers"

Dreyfus receiving money from a German, while Jews distribute the pamphlet "A Judicial Error."

Published in La Libre Parole, 1898

Emile Zola 1820-1910

Theodor Herzl (1860–1904)

Hungarian born Jewish journalist from Vienna covering the trial

concludes that assimilation is no protection against anti-Semitism

even a person integrated as an officer on French general staff not safe from the hatred

Jews will remain strangers in their countries of residence and need a country of their own

The Jewish State: A Modern Solution to the Jewish Question, 1896

Zionist Organization founded 1897

Achievements

Recorded in art Creation of modern

state Leisured, urban,

middle class

Claude Monet, Boulevard des Capucines, 1872

Gustave Caillebotte,Paris: A Rainy Day, 1876

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881

Built in 1889 for the Universal Exposition celebrating the centenary of the French Revolution.

Contractor: Gustave Eiffel & Cie.

Engineers: Maurice Koechlin & Emile Nouguier.

Construction : 1887 - 1889 (2 years, 2 months and 5 days).

Workmen: 50 engineers, designers produced 5,300 "blueprints"100 ironworkers produced the 18,038 individual parts to be assembled121 men working the construction site

                    

Eiffel Tower: Symbol of the New Age,1889

Conspicuous consumption : The Bon Marché Department Store

1896. The first delivery vehicle was developed by Karl Benz for Bon Marche

Felix Vallotton: WoodBlock Print, 1893 Le Bon Marché

Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class: A Study

Georges Seurat A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,1884-86

Organized Recreation:The Tour de France 1903

Other Evidence

The reality of working class life Unrelenting poverty and harshness of

modern life Seen not in moral terms but simply as

statement of what was Social evils paired with smugness of self

absorbed middle class

Gustave Caillebotte, The Floor-Scrapers, 1875

Edgar Degas, Women Ironing, 1884

Edgar Degas, Milliners, 1882