The Fragile Foundations of France’s Third Republic

When Adolphe Thiers, founder and first president of France’s Third Republic, died in 1877, the torch of republican leadership passed to Léon Gambetta. This charismatic orator with a distinctive appearance – he always posed for portraits from his left side after losing his right eye in an accident – became the standard-bearer for what he called the “new social strata.” Gambetta’s vision united government functionaries, artisans, and small shopkeepers with the white-collar workers, merchants, and landowners who formed republicanism’s backbone. This social contract became the foundation for the Republic’s surprising longevity during turbulent times.

The political landscape of the 1870s-1880s was dominated by lawyer-journalist Jules Ferry, who built upon Gambetta’s work. Ferry proved remarkably adept at riding waves of popular anti-clericalism and nationalism, though his aloof personality and survival of two assassination attempts earned him little affection. One critic famously quipped that Ferry’s survival was unsurprising since “he had neither heart nor guts to shoot at.” Ferry’s government collapsed in 1885 after military reversals in Indochina, triggering a severe crisis just as an economic depression left farmers drowning in debt and urban workers suffered from unemployment exacerbated by 1887 tariff hikes.

The Boulanger Crisis and Republican Resilience

By 1887, scandals rocked the Republic – most notoriously when President Jules Grévy resigned over his son-in-law’s trafficking of Legion of Honor medals. Into this vacuum stepped General Georges Boulanger, the dashing “General of Revenge” who became a nationalist symbol amid parliamentary chaos. Though many expected Boulanger to assume the presidency, the honor went instead to Sadi Carnot, known for financial integrity during his tenure as finance minister.

Boulanger’s populist campaign gained astonishing momentum, with supporters envisioning him as France’s savior and potential new Napoleon. His 1889 electoral victory in Paris seemed to herald his ascendancy, but Interior Minister Jean Constans – a corrupt but shrewd former Indochina governor – outmaneuvered him. Constans’ threat of arrest prompted Boulanger’s panicked flight to Belgium, where he eventually committed suicide on his mistress’s grave. The Republic survived, but the Boulanger episode revealed deep public disillusionment after two decades of neglected social reforms.

The Rise of Social Solidarity and Welfare Reforms

Post-Boulanger, Radicals rejoined mainstream republicans in launching the “solidarism” movement while socialists formed the left’s core. The 1889 elections returned republican majorities who enacted landmark reforms: abolishing worker passbooks, establishing free medical care for the poor (1893), creating labor arbitration (1892), limiting women’s and children’s work hours, and introducing worker compensation (1898-1903) and pensions (1910). By 1914, France had instituted 8-hour days for miners and 10-hour limits for many other workers.

Yet these progressive measures had significant limitations. About 9 million French citizens still lacked access to national pension, insurance, or healthcare systems. Where such systems existed, local governments often withheld funds – five-sixths of 1897’s allocated medical funds went unspent. Work hour laws proved notoriously difficult to enforce, revealing the gap between republican ideals and implementation.

The Dreyfus Affair: France’s Defining Crisis

In late 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus’s wrongful conviction for espionage – based on forged evidence and rampant anti-Semitism – ignited the century’s most divisive political storm. The Alsatian artillery officer’s 1895 public degradation and exile to Devil’s Island became a lightning rod for France’s deepest tensions. When evidence emerged identifying the real traitor as Major Ferdinand Esterhazy in 1897, the military’s refusal to reopen the case exposed institutional corruption.

Émile Zola’s 1898 manifesto “J’accuse” mobilized intellectuals, splitting France into pro- and anti-Dreyfusard camps. Violent anti-Semitic riots erupted in Marseille, while right-wing nationalists and clergy framed the affair as a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy. Dreyfus’s eventual 1899 pardon and 1906 exoneration came only after the scandal had forced republicans to confront the army’s anti-republican tendencies and Catholic orders’ political influence.

The Radical Republic and Church-State Conflict

The Dreyfus Affair’s aftermath saw Prime Minister Émile Combes – a penny-pinching former seminarian embodying Gambetta’s “new social strata” – intensify anti-clerical policies. Over 200 religious orders were dissolved, and secular education expanded. This period also witnessed socialism’s final purge of anti-Semitic elements, even as right-wing figures like Édouard Drumont stoked racial hatred through his 100,000-circulation La Libre Parole.

The 1906 elections brought Radicals to power under fiery leader Georges Clemenceau, nicknamed “The Tiger” for his dueling and uncompromising style. Though Clemenceau had championed Zola and Dreyfus, as premier he prioritized crushing labor unrest over social reform, using troops against strikers and alienating socialists. His 1909 fall ushered in years of governmental instability, with ministries averaging just six months.

The Paradox of Persistent Instability

Beneath this surface turbulence, the Third Republic demonstrated remarkable resilience. Its survival through monarchist threats (1870s), Boulangism (1880s), and the Dreyfus Affair (1890s) owed much to several factors:

1. A powerful bureaucracy, especially provincial prefects, provided continuity
2. Strong regional voting blocs resisted national political shifts
3. A large peasant class slowed social change
4. The Chamber of Deputies contained many long-serving members (25% served 20+ years between 1870-1940)

Though governments changed frequently, many ministers held office repeatedly. Aristide Briand served three premierships (1909-13), while Charles de Freycinet held the war ministry seven times. This allowed sustained policy implementation, from Ferry’s education reforms to Combes’ anti-clerical laws and early welfare measures.

The German Contrast: Authoritarianism with Democratic Elements

Unlike France’s parliamentary supremacy, Germany’s constitutional monarchy concentrated power with the Kaiser and his chancellor. Bismarck’s introduction of universal male suffrage in 1871 aimed to bypass liberals by appealing to conservative rural voters, but backfired as Catholic Center and Social Democratic parties grew. By 1912, Social Democrats became the largest Reichstag party despite systemic discrimination – including Prussia’s three-class voting system that gave wealthy voters disproportionate power.

Wilhelm II’s erratic leadership (1888-1918) exacerbated tensions. His dismissal of Bismarck in 1890 and subsequent “New Course” failed to establish stable governance. Chancellors like Caprivi and Bülow struggled between Reichstag factions and the Kaiser’s whims, while naval expansion and colonial ambitions fueled nationalist agitation. The 1912 Zabern Affair, where the military abused Alsatian civilians with impunity, revealed the limits of parliamentary influence over an increasingly militarized state.

Conclusion: The Third Republic’s Surprising Longevity

Despite its chronic instability, France’s Third Republic outlasted all post-revolutionary regimes until 1940. Its survival through crises demonstrated how republican institutions gradually took root in French society, even as Germany’s more authoritarian system struggled with democratic pressures. Both nations grappled with industrialization’s social consequences, but France’s welfare state beginnings and Germany’s social insurance programs represented divergent responses to modernity’s challenges. The Republic’s ultimate test would come in 1914, when the guns of August sounded across Europe.