The American University of Phnom Penh

“ The Collapsed of The French Third Republic”

Thavann THAI

GBLA 341

Professor: Dr. Jose Mora

(Spring 2022)
Introduction

The French Third Republic was the French political system set up on September 4, 1870,

once the Second French System collapsed apart during the Franco-Prussian War. On July 19, 1870,

Napoleon III, the French emperor of the French Second Republic, declared war on Prussia after

his military advisers convinced him that the French army could conquer Prussia and that such a

victory would restore his falling popularity in France. The French assumed that their army's reform

in 1866 had made them stronger against the German troops. They also had high hopes for two

recent technological breakthroughs, such as their modern rifles, which were being adopted and

was being used by the entire army, and the newly designed mitrailleuse, an early machine gun.

The French military leaders were blinded by national pride and speculated that they would win

this war. (Woloch, 2022).

After Napoleon III's Second Empire was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, the French

Third Republic emerged from the ashes. The Third Republic was a parliamentary republic that was

frequently unstable and always on the lookout for legitimacy, it had a hard time gaining widespread

support. The situation was not great, since the nation had been invaded by Germany and was

suffering social and political instability. By the end of the 1870s, the Third Republic had

established itself at the center of France's revolutionary and democratic traditions. The government

adopted legislation to strengthen the common identity of all Frenchmen, including compulsory

schooling, a centralized curriculum, civics education, forced military service, and central control

of all media and government information from Paris, especially the French government of National

Defense tried to pursue to establish peace for their nation. (Woloch,2022). The French attempted
to regain their reputation and status during this third regime, but it occurred at a high cost in terms

of financial. They managed to rebuild their army by strengthening and modernizing their

capabilities, including weaponry and military aircraft. Based on historical evidence and extensive

research into the French third republic, it appears that the government was quite complex for so

many reasons, however, there are some of the main issues that weaken and lead the regime to

collapse, such as social and political instability, the division of parties, and conflicts between

different factions in government (the rightist and the leftist), the Dreyfus Affair, economic crisis,

religious and especially the devastating occupation of the Nazi’s German occurred and destroyed

the regime that contributes to its collapse or fall after seventy years.

Adolphe Thiers was the first president of the third republic, he led the republic with passion

and efficiency. He restructured the army and attempted to rebuild public morale, he successfully

floated two bond offerings in 1873, allowing the war debt to be paid off ahead of schedule, and

ending the German occupation. (Woloch, 2022). He believed that the regime is republicanism

because of the form of government that divides France the least. As it actually demonstrates that

the French political system has a real separation of powers by each functioning differently, it

essentially demonstrates how the government would encounter difficult challenges and how hard

it will be for them to achieve and maintain a stable system.

The excess number of political parties, which requires the establishment of coalition

governments, is clearly the major source of instability. (Goguel, 1954, p.112). Not only to the

French government, but it also applies to every government. Having a coalition government will

add complexity to the government’s framework. People basically have different views, different

ways of thinking, and different interests or goals. In this case, the regime will not progress if the
two parties have opposing ideas or concepts about how to run the society. For instance, just like

what is happening in the French third republic, one side wanted political reform and another side

wanted social and economic reform. This led to a weakening of the government’s performance

that had a huge impact on the state's erosion because of the lack of good governance and coalition

government. Also, from 1894 until 1906, France was involved in a major political controversy

known as the Dreyfus Affair. It is viewed as one of the most extreme examples of a complicated

gross injustice in which the press and public opinion played a significant part. The issue was open

anti-Semitism by the French Army, which was backed by conservatives and Catholic rightists

against secular center-left, left, and republican forces, and that included most Jews. It appears that

during the third republic regime there are many issues that happen regarding politics and morals.

The Dreyfus Affair was one of the major conflicts in the religious and ideological fight that the

French have fought since the Restoration and the Revolution. (Jame, 2007, p.49). The affair left

major impacts on French political and social life for a generation. The Radicals took control of

Social conservatives, who had sought to avoid involvement in the affair and had eventually divided

into two conflicting groups. In June 1899, a pro-Dreyfus Radical coalition government under the

René Waldeck-Rousseau gained power, the Radicals dominated the coalition, and even the

socialists joined it. From then until the end of the Third Republic, the Radical Party (after known

as the Radical-Socialist Party) was the core of French politics. Both the army and the church

suffered losses as a result of their involvement in the issue. The new left government countered by

putting the army under stricter civilian control and adopting several of the anti-clericalism

legislation. Most religious orders were disbanded and evacuated, and a new law integrating church

and state was implemented in 1905, religious education was disallowed in all institutions, and

religious orders were not allowed to teach in them. Religious schools had their funds appropriated

to create new state schools. (Forster, 1959, p.435-436). The Affair of Dreyfus had a significant
influence on French politics. It revealed the tensions that existed in France following the defeat in

the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, divided the country between Left and Right, reflected the

consistency of antisemitism in the origin of liberty and the Revolution, and doubted France's

identity as a Catholic nation.

French foreign policy during the third republic regime was really based on a fear of

Germany. To counter the threat given by Germany at that time, the French's foreign policy from

1871 to 1914 was based on a gradual restoration of relations with Russia and Britain which meant

that they try to get close and improve the relationship between both countries, using them or asked

for intervention in order to revenge Germany. Bismarck who was a prime minister of Prussia,

made a mistake when he occupied Alsace and Lorraine in 1871, generating decades of anti-German

sentiment and demands for revenge. Bismarck's decision was based on public demand as well as

the Army's need for a strong border. It wasn't essential because France was militarily far poorer

than Germany, but it led Bismarck to adjust German foreign policy in order to avoid France from

gaining any major allies, without the Soviet alliance it quite be a tough time to deal with Germans,

that is why France took whatever it cost to ask Soviet for help otherwise they would much rely

more on the western democracies like Holland, Belgium, and Great Britain. (Nord, 2011, p.53).

At the same time, to confront Germany, the French also expanded its army, concentrating on

modernization in sectors such as new weaponry, and extensively invested in military aircraft

during 1905.

The significance of a big focus on the rising French Empire, which brought prestige due to

high financial expenditures, was essential in restoring prestige. while they have limited access to

the resources and economy required to help contribute to the general economy. But it is interesting
to note that due to the fact that Franco-Soviet connections should have been equally important to

French security in 1940, France had no Russian ally to draw German forces to the east at the time.

Other factors began to affect French policy. The Ruhr crisis in January 1923 was the peak of

France's growing conflict with Germany over reparations and security problems. As a result of

these conditions, several French authorities and politicians advocated for relations between the

two countries with Russia. (Carley, 1996, p.175). France wanted Russia to act as a counterbalance

to Germany on the eastern battlefield. The Russian government will have very little reason to

respect French interests in moments of crisis if the USSR developed and recovered on its own or

with the support of France's opponents. Some Soviet governments feared isolation and want

"friends," but if France did not respond, the situation would not hold permanently, by having good

relations with the Soviet Union were a crucial element in French security on the Rhine. (Carley,

1996, p.179-180).

The invasion of Czechoslovakia by Germany in March 1939 did little to unsettle French

left-wing pacifists or right-wing appeasers, but the Nazis' arrival in Prague forced Daladier to

abandon appeasement, and France joined Britain is promising to protect Poland. Even though,

without a Franco-Soviet military alliance but solid support for Poland in conflicts was a geo-

military vision Even so, once the Nazi-Soviet alliance of August paved the way for Hitler's

invasion of Poland, the British and French governments were obligated to declare war on

Germany. France entered the war in a defensive stance, hoping to avoid the horrors of the Great

War. According to French strategic planning, a conflict with Germany would be long and drawn

out their military power also could heavily impact to drawn their economic resources and

production. When Germany opened a sneak attack through the Low Countries in May, the Allies

(France and their allies) mobilized to gather their best military forces, financial assets, and
everything, for a planned blocking intervention in Belgium. In Belgium, unexpected British and

French troops were outflanked, cut off from their back, and trapped with little hope of

reinforcement. Many of these troops were rescued and evacuated during the battle, but this defeat

shifted the battle significantly in Germany's favor. On June 12, the Wehrmacht destroyed France's

last line of defense along the Somme/Aisne Rivers, leaving the whole nation, including Paris,

vulnerable to takeover. (Woloch, 2019, p.63-64).

It basically highlighted and show the lack of performance in the military such as

inefficiency and demotivation from the inside of a French army poorly to confront Germany's

tactics in postmortems on the downfall of France. Panic at the leadership and tactical levels in the

face of unexpected and devastating failures, as well as panic fleeing from German forces by transit

massive of people. Some people related the French collapse to the political and social polarization

of the 1930s, which were illustrated as underlying causes of the disaster in 1940, class hatreds,

defeatism on the Left or Right in the 1930s, and the supposed "decadence" and opportunism of

Third Republic political culture were all cited. (Woloch, 2019, p.65). The infections of alliances

warfare, including how to deploy British Combatant wings in France, poor handling of military

intelligence about German preparations in the Ardennes of Belgium, the incapability of the high

command to respond quickly to the changing situations, defective communication systems at all

levels, and outdated strategic and operational doctrines on how to use the tank forces that suited

Germany's in performance and numbers, all made a significant contribution to France's military

collapse.

After Germany destroyed and devastated the French Army and took over the regime, the

French government and their people pledged to keep the fight going. However, as the Germans
drove through the Somme/Aisne defenses, the French government was forced to leave Paris and

ended up settling in Bordeaux. The army's hopes of holding a portion of the national territory in

Brittany were diminishing at that time. Continuing the fight with Britain would require relocating

the French government, military, and whatever troops and equipment were transportable to French

North Africa, which is the place that was controlled and occupied by the French government in

North Africa during the colonial era. (Woloch, 2019, p.65-66).

On July 10, 1940, the Third Republic came to an end, by replacing the government due to

inefficiency and lack of leadership in the state, replacing Daladier with Marshal Philippe Petain

demonstrates how the government is much better in terms of governing and state performance.

Marshal Petain proclaimed the French State or Vichy regime as the new state. The Third Republic

has struggled from issue to issue throughout its seventy-year history. It battled the German Empire

vigorously throughout World War I, and the interwar years saw an enormous political struggle,

with a widening split between the right and the left. When France was liberated in 1944, the French

government needed time for the restoration of the Third Republic, so the government of a

temporary French Republic formed a New Parliament to draft a new constitution for a successor,

which was established as the Fourth Republic (1946–58) in December, with a parliamentary

system different from the Third Republic. (Woloch, 2019, p.68).

Conclusion

The Third Republic was a parliamentary republic that struggled to gain political support

because it was usually unstable and continually on the seek for legitimacy. The situation was

serious since the country had been occupied by Germany and was experiencing social and political
instability. The government of the French Third Republic appears to be quite difficult and

complicated for a number of reasons; however, there are a lot of major problems that destabilized

and did lead to the regime's eventual downfall, including social and political conflicts, party

factions, and conflict between two factions in government (rightist and leftist), the Dreyfus Affair,

financial recession, religion, and, most notably, the Nazi German invasion that led to the regime's

weakening and collapsing. The weakening of alliance warfare, including how to deploy British

combatants in France, was highlighted and demonstrated the lack of performance of weak military

capabilities, such as inefficiency and demotivation from within a French army poorly prepared to

face Germany's tactics, the inability of the high command to respond quickly to changing

situations, defective communication systems at all levels, and outdated corporate strategy

doctrines, All of these major issues are a significant point that possibly causes the downfall of the

French third republic.

References:

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Historiques, 22(1), 175. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41299054

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3. Forster, K. (1959). Stability versus instability in the third republic - 1894-1914. The French review, 32(5),

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https://www.britannica.com/place/France/France-under-conservative-presidencies