France in the long nineteenth century
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In the history of France, the period from 1789 to 1914, dubbed the "long 19th century" by the historian Eric Hobsbawm, extends from the French Revolution's aftermath to the brink of World War I.
Throughout this period, France underwent significant transformations that reshaped its geography, demographics, language, and economic landscape, marking a period of profound change and development. The French Revolution and Napoleonic eras fundamentally altered French society, promoting centralization, administrative uniformity across departments, and a standardized legal code. Education also centralized, emphasizing technical training and meritocracy, despite growing conservatism among the aristocracy and the church. Wealth concentration saw the richest 10 percent owning most of the nation's wealth. The 19th century saw France expanding to nearly its modern territorial limits through annexations and overseas imperialism, notably in Algeria,
The period was also marked by significant linguistic and educational reforms, which sought to unify the country through language and secular education, contributing to a stronger national identity. Economically, France struggled to match the industrial growth rates of other advanced nations, maintaining a more traditional economy longer than its counterparts. Politically, the century was characterized by the end of the ancien régime, the rise and fall of the First and Second Empires, the tumultuous establishment of the Third Republic, and the radical experiment of the Paris Commune, reflecting the ongoing struggle between revolutionary ideals and conservative restoration. The Third Republic embarked on modernizing France, with educational reforms and attempts to create a unified national identity. Foreign policy focused on isolation of Germany and forming alliances, leading to the Triple Entente. Domestically, issues like the Dreyfus affair highlighted the nation's divisions, while laws aimed at reducing the Catholic Church's influence sparked further controversy.
Cultural and artistic movements, from Romanticism to Modernism, mirrored these societal changes, contributing to France's rich cultural legacy. The Belle Époque emerged as a period of cultural flourishing and peace, overshadowed by the growing threats of war and internal discord. The long 19th century set the foundations for modern France, navigating through revolutions, wars, and social upheavals to emerge as a unified nation-state near the front of the global stage, by the early 20th century.
General aspects
Geography
By the French Revolution, the
In 1830,
With the French defeat in the
Demographics
Between 1795 and 1866, metropolitan France (that is, without overseas or colonial possessions) was the second most populous country of Europe, behind Russia, and the fourth most populous country in the world (behind China, India, and Russia); between 1866 and 1911, metropolitan France was the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany. Unlike other European countries, France did not experience a strong population growth from the middle of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. The French population in 1789 is estimated at 28 million; by 1850, it was 36 million and in 1880 it was around 39 million.[1] Slow growth was a major political issue, as arch-rival Germany continued to gain an advantage in terms of population and industry. Ways to reverse the trend became a major political issue.[2]
Until 1850, population growth was mainly in the countryside, but a period of slow
In the 19th century, France was a country of immigration for peoples and political refugees from Eastern Europe (Germany, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Ashkenazi Jews) and from the Mediterranean (Italy, Spanish Sephardic Jews and North-African Mizrahi Jews). Large numbers of Belgian migrant workers laboured in French factories, particularly in the textile industry in the Nord.
France was the first country in Europe to emancipate its Jewish population during the French Revolution. The Crémieux Decree of 1870 gave full citizenship for the Jews in French Algeria. By 1872, there were an estimated 86,000 Jews living in France (by 1945 this would increase to 300,000), many of whom integrated (or attempted to integrate) into French society, although the Dreyfus affair would reveal antisemitism in certain classes of French society (see History of the Jews in France).
Alsace and Lorraine were lost to Germany in 1871. Some French refugees moved to France. France suffered massive losses during World War I — roughly estimated at 1.4 million French dead including civilians (see World War I casualties) (or nearly 10% of the active adult male population) and four times as many wounded (see World War I § Aftermath).
Language
Linguistically, France was a patchwork. People in the countryside spoke various languages. France would only become a linguistically unified country by the end of the 19th century, and in particular through the educational policies of Jules Ferry during the French Third Republic. From an illiteracy rate of 33% among peasants in 1870, by 1914 almost all French could read and understand the national language, although 50% still understood or spoke a regional language of France (in today's France, only an estimated 10% still understand a regional language).[4]
Through the educational, social and military policies of the Third Republic, by 1914 the French had been converted (as the historian Eugen Weber has put it) from a "country of peasants into a nation of Frenchmen". By 1914, most French could read French and the use of regional languages had greatly decreased; the role of the Catholic Church in public life had been radically diminished; a sense of national identity and pride was actively taught. The anti-clericalism of the Third Republic profoundly changed French religious habits: in one case study for the city of Limoges comparing the years 1899 with 1914, it was found that baptisms decreased from 98% to 60%, and civil marriages before a town official increased from 14% to 60%.
Economic laggard: 1815–1913
French economic history since its late 18th century Revolution was tied to three major events and trends: the Napoleonic Era, the competition with Britain and its other neighbors in regards to 'industrialization', and the 'total wars' of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Quantitative analysis of output data shows the French per capita growth rates were slightly smaller than Britain. However the British population tripled in size, while France grew by only third – so the overall British economy grew much faster. François Crouzet has summarized the cycles of French per capita economic growth in 1815–1913 as:[5]
- 1815–1840: irregular, but sometimes fast growth;
- 1840–1860: fast growth;
- 1860–1882: slowing down;
- 1882–1896: stagnation; and
- 1896–1913: fast growth.
For the 1870–1913 era, Angus Maddison gives growth rates for 12 Western advanced countries – 10 in Europe plus the United States and Canada.[6] In terms of per capita growth, France was about average. However again its population growth was very slow, so as far as the growth rate in total size of the economy France was in next to the last place, just ahead of Italy. The 12 countries averaged 2.7% growth per year in total output, but France only averaged 1.6% growth.[7] Crouzet concludes that the
average size of industrial undertakings was smaller in France than in other advanced countries; that machinery was generally less up to date, productivity lower, costs higher. The domestic system and handicraft production long persisted, while big modern factories were for long exceptional. Large lumps of the Ancien Régime economy survived. ... On the whole, the qualitative lag between the British and French economy ... persisted during the whole period under consideration, and later on a similar lag developed between France and some other countries—Belgium, Germany, the United States. France did not succeed in catching up with Britain, but was overtaken by several of her rivals.[8]
French Revolution (1789–1792)
End of the Ancien Régime (to 1789)
The reign of
Louis XVI shut the Salle des États where the Assembly met. The Assembly moved their deliberations to the king's tennis court, where they proceeded to swear the Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789), under which they agreed not to separate until they had given France a constitution. A majority of the representatives of the clergy soon joined them, as did 47 members of the nobility. By June 27 the royal party had overtly given in, although the military began to arrive in large numbers around Paris and Versailles. On July 9 the Assembly reconstituted itself as the National Constituent Assembly.[10]
On July 11, 1789, King Louis, acting under the influence of the conservative nobles, as well as his wife, Marie Antoinette, and brother, the Comte d'Artois, banished the reformist minister Necker and completely reconstructed the ministry. Much of Paris, presuming this to be the start of a royal coup, moved into open rebellion. Some of the military joined the mob; others remained neutral. On July 14, 1789, after four hours of combat, the insurgents seized the Bastille fortress, killing its governor and several of his guards. The king and his military supporters backed down, at least for a short time.
After this violence, nobles started to flee the country as
Constitutional monarchy (1789–1792)
On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly abolished
Looking to the
Louis XVI opposed the course of the revolution and on the night of June 20, 1791 the royal family fled the Tuileries. However, the king was recognised at Varennes in the Meuse late on June 21 and he and his family were brought back to Paris under guard. With most of the Assembly still favouring a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, the various groupings reached a compromise which left Louis XVI little more than a figurehead: he had perforce to swear an oath to the constitution, and a decree declared that retracting the oath, heading an army for the purpose of making war upon the nation, or permitting anyone to do so in his name would amount to de facto abdication.
Meanwhile, a renewed threat from abroad arose: Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick William II of Prussia, and the king's brother Charles-Phillipe, comte d'Artois issued the Declaration of Pillnitz which considered the cause of Louis XVI as their own, demanded his total liberty and the dissolution of the Assembly, and promised an invasion of France on his behalf if the revolutionary authorities refused its conditions. The politics of the period inevitably drove France towards war with Austria and its allies. France declared war on Austria (April 20, 1792) and Prussia joined on the Austrian side a few weeks later. The French Revolutionary Wars had begun.[12]
First Republic (1792–1799)
In the
Reign of Terror (1793–1794)
The first half of 1793 went badly for the new French Republic, with the French armies being driven out of Germany and the Austrian Netherlands. In this situation, prices rose and the
The Committee of Public Safety came under the control of Maximilien Robespierre, and the Jacobins unleashed the Reign of Terror. At least 1200 people met their deaths under the guillotine — or otherwise — after accusations of counter-revolutionary activities. In October, the queen was beheaded, further antagonizing Austria. In 1794 Robespierre had ultra-radicals and moderate Jacobins executed; in consequence, however, his own popular support eroded markedly. Georges Danton was beheaded for arguing that there were too many beheadings. There were attempts to do away with organized religion in France entirely and replace it with a Festival of Reason. The primary leader of this movement, Jacques Hébert, held such a festival in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, with an actress playing the Goddess of Reason. But Robespierre was unmoved by Hébert and had him and all his followers beheaded.
Thermidorian Reaction (1794–1795)
On July 27, 1794, the French people revolted against the excesses of the Reign of Terror in what became known as the
Directory (1795–1799)
The new constitution installed the
By 1795, the French had once again conquered the Austrian Netherlands and the left bank of the Rhine, annexing them directly into France. The Dutch Republic and Spain were both defeated and made into French satellites. At sea however, the French navy proved no match for the British, and was badly beaten off the coast of Ireland in June 1794.
Although the
Consulate (1799–1804)
Napoleon himself escaped back to France, where he led
By that point, the War of the Second Coalition was in progress. The French suffered a string of defeats in 1799, seeing their satellite republics in Italy overthrown and an invasion of Germany beaten back. Attempts by the allies on Switzerland and the Netherlands failed however, and once Napoleon returned to France, he began turning the tide on them. In 1801, the Peace of Lunéville ended hostilities with Austria and Russia, and the Treaty of Amiens with Britain.
First Empire (1804–1814)
By 1802, Napoleon was named First Consul for life. His continued provocations of the British led to renewed war in 1803, and the following year he proclaimed himself emperor in a huge ceremony in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The pope was invited to the coronation, but Napoleon took the crown from him at the last minute and placed it on his own head. He attracted more power and gravitated towards imperial status, gathering support on the way for his internal rebuilding of France and its institutions. The French Empire (or the Napoleonic Empire) (1804–1814) was marked by the French domination and reorganization of continental Europe (the Napoleonic Wars) and by the final codification of the republican legal system (the Napoleonic Code). The Empire gradually became more authoritarian in nature, with freedom of the press and assembly being severely restricted. Religious freedom survived under the condition that Christianity and Judaism, the two officially recognized faiths, not be attacked, and that atheism not be expressed in public. Napoleon also recreated the nobility, but neither they nor his court had the elegance or historical connections of the old monarchy. Despite the growing administrative despotism of his regime, the emperor was still seen by the rest of Europe as the embodiment of the Revolution and a monarchial parvenu.[14]
By 1804, Britain alone stood outside French control and was an important force in encouraging and financing resistance to France. In 1805, Napoleon massed an army of 200,000 men in Boulogne for the purpose of invading the British Isles, but never was able to find the right conditions to embark, and thus abandoned his plans. Three weeks later, the French and Spanish fleets were destroyed by the British at Trafalgar. Afterwards, Napoleon, unable to defeat Britain militarily, tried to bring it down through economic warfare. He inaugurated the Continental System, in which all of France's allies and satellites would join in refusing to trade with the British.
Portugal, an ally of Britain, was the only European country that openly refused to join. After the Treaties of Tilsit of July 1807, the French launched an invasion through Spain to close this hole in the Continental System. British troops arrived in Portugal, compelling the French to withdraw. A renewed invasion the following year brought the British back, and at that point, Napoleon decided to depose the Spanish king Charles IV and place his brother Joseph on the throne. This caused the people of Spain to rise up in a patriotic revolt, beginning the Peninsular War. The British could now gain a foothold on the Continent, and the war tied down considerable French resources, contributing to Napoleon's eventual defeat.
Napoleon was at the height of his power in 1810–1812, with most of the European countries either his allies, satellites, or annexed directly into France. After the defeat of Austria in the War of the Fifth Coalition, Europe was at peace for 2+1⁄2 years except for the conflict in Spain. The emperor was given an archduchess to marry by the Austrians, and she gave birth to his long-awaited son in 1811.
After eleven months of exile on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, Napoleon escaped and returned to France, where he was greeted with huge enthusiasm. Louis XVIII fled Paris, but the one thing that would have given the emperor mass support, a return to the revolutionary extremism of 1793–1794, was out of the question. Enthusiasm quickly waned, and as the allies (then discussing the fate of Europe in Vienna) refused to negotiate with him, he had no choice but to fight. At Waterloo, Napoleon was completely defeated by the British and Prussians, and abdicated once again. This time, he was exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he remained until his death in 1821.
Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830)
Louis XVIII was restored a second time by the allies in 1815, ending more than two decades of war. He announced he would rule as a limited, constitutional monarch. After the Hundred Days in 1815 when Napoleon suddenly returned and was vanquished, a more harsh peace treaty was imposed on France, returning it to its 1789 boundaries and requiring a war indemnity in gold. Allied troops remained in the country until it was paid. There were large-scale purges of Bonapartists from the government and military, and a brief "White Terror" in the south of France claimed 300 victims. Otherwise the transition was largely peaceful. Although the old ruling class had returned they did not recover their lost lands, and were unable to reverse most of the dramatic changes in French society, economics, and ways of thinking.[15][16]
In 1823, France intervened in Spain, where a civil war had deposed king Ferdinand VII. The French troops marched into Spain, retook Madrid from the rebels, and left almost as quickly as they came. Despite worries to the contrary, France showed no sign of returning to an aggressive foreign policy and was admitted to the Concert of Europe in 1818.[17]
Louis died on September the 16th in the year 1824 and was succeeded by his brother.
The Restoration did not try to resurrect the ancien régime. Too much had changed for that. The egalitarianism and liberalism of the revolutionaries remained an important force and the autocracy and hierarchy of the earlier era could not be fully restored. The economic changes, which had been underway long before the revolution, had been further enhanced during the years of turmoil and were firmly entrenched by 1815. These changes had seen power shift from the noble landowners to the urban merchants. The administrative reforms of Napoleon, such as the Napoleonic Code and efficient bureaucracy, also remained in place. These changes produced a unified central government that was fiscally sound — for example, the indemnities imposed by the victors were quickly paid off, and the occupation troops left quietly. The national government did not face strong regional parliaments or power centers and had solid control over all areas of France in sharp contrast with the chaotic situation the Bourbons had faced in the 1770s and 1780s. Restoration did not lessen inequality in France, and it did not promote industrialisation. On the whole, however, there was more wealth, and more political freedom for all classes. The parliamentary system worked well. Restrictions on the press resembled those in most of Europe. Frequent parliamentary transitions took place, but the losers were not executed or exiled. France regained its place among the respected major powers, and its voice was heard in international diplomacy. There was a new sense of humanitarianism, and popular piety. France began, on a small scale, to rebuild the overseas empire it had lost in 1763.[20]
July Monarchy (1830–1848)
Charles X was overthrown in an uprising in the streets of Paris, known as the 1830
Louis-Philippe, who had flirted with
However, during the first several years of his regime, Louis-Philippe appeared to move his government toward legitimate, broad-based reform. The government found its source of legitimacy within the
During the years of the July Monarchy,
The reformed Charter of 1830 limited the power of the King – stripping him of his ability to propose and decree legislation, as well as limiting his executive authority. However, the King of the French still believed in a version of monarchy that held the king as much more than a figurehead for an elected Parliament, and as such, he was quite active in politics. One of the first acts of Louis-Philippe in constructing his cabinet was to appoint the rather conservative
Further expressions of this conservative trend came under the supervision of Perier and the then
Though two factions always persisted in the cabinet, split between liberal conservatives like Guizot (le parti de la Résistance, the Party of Resistance) and liberal reformers like the aforementioned journalist
Louis-Philippe conducted a pacifistic foreign policy. Shortly after he assumed power in 1830, Belgium revolted against Dutch rule and proclaimed its independence. The king rejected the idea of intervention there or any military activities outside France's borders. The only exception to this was a war in Algeria which had been started by Charles X a few weeks before his overthrow on the pretext of suppressing pirates in the Mediterranean. Louis-Philippe's government decided to continue the conquest of that country, which took over a decade. By 1848, Algeria had been declared an integral part of France.[24]
Second Republic (1848–1852)
The Revolution of 1848 had major consequences for all of Europe: popular democratic revolts against authoritarian regimes broke out in Austria and Hungary, in the German Confederation and Prussia, and in the Italian states of Milan, Venice, Turin and Rome. Economic downturns and bad harvests during the 1840s contributed to growing discontent.
In February 1848, the French government banned the holding of the Campagne des banquets, fundraising dinners by activists where critics of the regime would meet (as public demonstrations and strikes were forbidden). As a result, protests and riots broke out in the streets of Paris. An angry mob converged on the royal palace, after which the king abdicated and fled to England. The Second Republic was then proclaimed.
The revolution in France had brought together classes of wildly different interests: the bourgeoisie desired electoral reforms (a democratic republic), socialist leaders (like
The constitution of the
Second Empire (1852–1870)
France was ruled by Emperor
In 1852, Napoleon declared that "L'Empire, c'est la paix" (The empire is peace), but it was hardly fitting for a Bonaparte to continue the foreign policy of Louis-Philippe. Only a few months after becoming president in 1848, he sent French troops to break up a short-lived
In 1854, the emperor allied with Britain and the Ottoman Empire against Russia in the
Public opinion was becoming a major force as people began to tire of oppressive authoritarianism in the 1860s. Napoleon III, who had expressed some rather woolly liberal ideas prior to his coronation, began to relax censorship, laws on public meetings, and the right to strike. As a result, radicalism grew among industrial workers. Discontent with the Second Empire spread rapidly, as the economy began to experience a downturn. The golden days of the 1850s were over. Napoleon's reckless foreign policy was inciting criticism. To placate the Liberals, in 1870 Napoleon proposed the establishment of a fully parliamentary legislative regime, which won massive support. The French emperor never had the chance to implement this, however - by the end of the year, the Second Empire had ignominiously collapsed.
Napoleon's distraction with Mexico prevented him from intervening in the
The Prussian chancellor
Third Republic (from 1870)
The birth of the Third Republic would see France occupied by foreign troops, the capital in a popular socialist insurrection — the
Napoleon's rule came to an abrupt end when he declared war on
The French legislature established the Third Republic which was to last until the military defeat of 1940 (longer than any government in France since the Revolution). On 19 September the Prussian army arrived at Paris and besieged the city. The city suffered from cold and hunger; the animals, including the elephants, in the Paris zoo were eaten by the Parisians. In January the Prussians began the bombardment of the city with heavy siege guns. The city finally surrendered on January 28, 1871. The Prussians briefly occupied the city and then took up positions nearby.
Paris Commune (1871)
A revolt broke out on 18 March when radicalised soldiers from the Paris National Guard killed two French generals. French government officials and the army withdrew quickly to Versailles, and a new city council, the Paris Commune, dominated by anarchists and radical socialists, was elected and took power on March 26, and tried to implement an ambitious and radical social programme.
The Commune proposed the separation of Church and state, made all Church property state property, and excluded religious instruction from schools, including Catholic schools. The churches were only allowed to continue their religious activity if they kept their doors open to public political meetings during the evenings. Other projected legislation dealt with educational reforms which would make further education and technical training freely available to all. However, for lack of time and resources, the programs were never carried out. The
The Paris Commune held power for only two months. Between May 21 and 28 the French army reconquered the city in bitter fighting, in what became known as "
Army casualties from the beginning April through Bloody Week amounted to 837 dead and 6,424 wounded. Nearly seven thousand Communards were killed in combat or summarily executed by army firing squads afterwards, and buried in the city cemeteries, and in temporary mass graves.[27] About ten thousand Communards escaped and went into exile in Belgium, England, Switzerland and the United States. Forty-five thousand prisoners were taken after the fall of the Commune. Most were released, but twenty-three were sentenced to death, and about ten thousand were sentenced to prison or deportation to New Caledonia or other prison colonies. All the prisoners and exiles were amnestied in 1879 and 1880, and most returned to France, where some were elected to the National Assembly.[28]
Royalist domination (1871–1879)
Thus, the Republic was born of a double defeat: before the Prussians, and of the revolutionary Commune. The repression of the commune was bloody. One hundred forty-seven Communards were executed in front of the
Beside this defeat, the
"Radicals" (1879–1914)
The initial republic was in effect led by pro-royalists, but republicans (the "
The moderates however became deeply divided over the
In 1880,
Bismarck had supported France becoming a republic in 1871, knowing that this would isolate the defeated nation in Europe where most countries were monarchies. In an effort to break this isolation, France went to great pains to woo Russia and the United Kingdom to its side, first by means of the
Distrust of Germany, faith in the army and
The period and the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century is often termed the Belle Époque. Although associated with cultural innovations and popular amusements (cabaret, cancan, the cinema, new art forms such as Impressionism and Art Nouveau), France was nevertheless a nation divided internally on notions of religion, class, regionalisms and money, and on the international front France came sometimes to the brink of war with the other imperial powers, including Great Britain (the Fashoda Incident). Yet in 1905–1914 the French repeatedly elected left-wing, pacifist parliaments, and French diplomacy took care to settle matters peacefully. France was caught unprepared by the German declaration of war in 1914. The human and financial costs of World War I would be catastrophic for the French.
Themes
Foreign relations
Colonialism
Starting with its scattered small holdings in India, West Indies and Latin America, France began rebuilding its world empire.[33][34][35] It took control of Algeria in 1830 and began in earnest to rebuild its worldwide empire after 1850, concentrating chiefly in North and West Africa, as well as South-East Asia, with other conquests in Central and East Africa, as well as the South Pacific. Republicans, at first hostile to empire, only became supportive when Germany started to build her own colonial empire In the 1880s. As it developed the new empire took on roles of trade with France, especially supplying raw materials and purchasing manufactured items, as well as lending prestige to the motherland and spreading French civilization and language, and the Catholic religion. It also provided manpower in the World Wars.[36]
It became a moral mission to lift the world up to French standards by bringing Christianity and French culture. In 1884 the leading exponent of colonialism, Jules Ferry declared: "The higher races have a right over the lower races, they have a duty to civilise the inferior races." Full citizenship rights – assimilation – was a long-term goal, but in practice colonial officials were reluctant to extend full citizenship rights.[37] France sent small numbers of white permanent settlers to its empire, in sharp contrast to Britain, Spain and Portugal. The notable exception was Algeria, where the French settlers nonetheless always remained a powerful minority.
Africa
The Suez Canal, initially built by the French, became a joint British-French project in 1875, as both saw it as vital to maintaining their influence and empires in Asia. In 1882, ongoing civil disturbances in Egypt prompted Britain to intervene, extending a hand to France. The government allowed Britain to take effective control of Egypt.[38]
Under the leadership of expansionist Jules Ferry, the Third Republic greatly expanded the French colonial empire. Catholic missionaries played a major role. France acquired Indochina, Madagascar, vast territories in West Africa and Central Africa, and much of Polynesia.[34]
In the early 1880s,
During the
Fashoda Crisis
In the 1875–1898 era, serious tensions with Britain erupted over African issues. At several points war was possible, but it never happened.
Asia
France had colonies in Asia and looked for alliances and found in Japan a possible ally. At Japan's request Paris sent military missions in
Literature
France's intellectual climate in the mid to late 19th century was dominated by the so-called "Realist" Movement. The generation that came of age after 1848 rejected what it considered the opulence and tackiness of the Romantic Movement. Realism was in a sense a revival of 18th-century Enlightenment ideas. It favored science and rationality and considered the Church an obstruction to human progress. The movement peaked during the Second Empire with writers and artists such as
In addition, France produced a large body of prominent scientists during the late 19th century such as
Positivism survived as a movement until at least World War I, but beginning in the 1890s was challenged by a rival school of thought that saw the return of Romantic ideas. A number of artists came to disagree with the cold rationalism and logic of the Positivists, feeling that it ignored human emotions. The so-called Symbolists included the poets Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé and an assortment of composers such as Georges Bizet and Camille Saint-Saëns who then gave way to the more experimental music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Symbolist writers and philosophers included
The Symbolist Movement also affected the political climate of the nation: in the syndicalist beliefs of Georges Sorel, in labor activism, and also a resurgent nationalism among French youth in the years immediately preceding World War I. This new spirit brought a revival of belief in the Church and a strong, fervent sense of patriotism. Also a new school of young artists emerged who completely broke with Impressionism and favored a deep, intense subjectivism. Inspired by Cézanne and Gauguin, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Georges Rouault entered the art scene so abruptly that they came to be known as the Fauves (Wild Ones).
Art
The birth of
Impressionism set the stage for further experimentation. Vincent van Gogh introduced expressionism; Georges Seurat developed pointillism; Paul Cézanne explored geometric perceptions; Paul Gauguin sought symbolism and primitivism in exotic locales; and Henri Rousseau exemplified naïve art. This era of artistic exploration laid the foundations for many modern art movements, reflecting a continuous dialogue between past traditions and innovative techniques, including the emerging influence of photography. Many of the developments in French arts in this period parallel changes in 19th-century French literature.
See also
- Palace of Versailles
- Paris in the 18th century
- French Canada
- Québécois people
- Saint-Domingue
- Saint Dominicans
- Haiti
- French Haitians
- Slavery in Saint-Domingue
- Haitian Creole French
- Afro-Haitians
- Americans in Haiti
- Cap-Français
- French India
- Louisiana (New France)
- Louisiana Creole people
- French Revolution
- United States and the Haitian Revolution
- French Revolutionary Wars
- Maximilien Robespierre
- Empress Joséphine
- Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville
- African Americans in France
- Paris under Napoleon
- Paris during the Restoration
- Paris during the Second Empire
- Paris in the Belle Époque
- French Algeria
- French language in Algeria
- French protectorate of Tunisia
- French Somaliland
- French Indochina
- French West Africa
- French people in Senegal
- French Madagascar
- French Equatorial Africa
- French protectorate in Morocco
- French language in Morocco
Notes
- ^ Diebolt and Faustine.
- ^ Spengler, pp. 103.
- ^ Caron.
- ^ Weber, pp. 67–94.
- ^ Crouzet, pp. 171.
- ^ Maddison, pp. 28, 30, 37.
- ^ Crouzet, pp. 169.
- ^ Crouzet, pp. 172.
- ^ Mathews, pp. 115–152.
- ^ Doyle.
- ^ Betros, pp. 16–21.
- ^ Gottschalk.
- ^ Mathews, pp. 153–297.
- ^ Mathews, pp. 297–446.
- ^ Stewart, pp. 9–28.
- ^ Artz.
- ^ Rich, pp. 35–38.
- ^ Stewart, pp. 29–50.
- ^ Stewart, pp. 51–68.
- ^ Stewart, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Collingham and Alexander.
- ^ Howarth.
- ^ Collingham and Alexander, pp. 60.
- ^ Rich, pp. 58–61.
- ^ Women and the Commune.
- ^ Rougerie Paris libre, pp. 248–263.
- ^ Tombs, pp. 619–704.
- ^ Rougerie La Commune, pp. 118–120.
- ^ Tombs, pp. 679–704.
- ^ Anderson.
- ^ Cobban, pp. 23.
- ^ Pope Pius X.
- ^ Quinn.
- ^ a b c Aldrich.
- ^ Roberts.
- ^ Chafer, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Okoth, pp. 318–319.
- ^ Taylor, pp. 286–292.
- ^ Pakenham.
- ^ Turner, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Randell.
- ^ Otte, pp. 693–714.
- ^ Brown.
- ^ Bell, pp. 3.
- ^ Taylor, pp. 381–388.
- ^ Brogan, pp. 321–326.
- ^ Langer, pp. 537–580.
- ^ Wakeman, pp. 189–191.
Works cited
- "Women and the Commune". L'Humanité (in French). 19 March 2005. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
- Aldrich, Robert (1996). Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion.
- Anderson, Benedict (July–August 2004). "In the world-shadow of Bismarck and Nobel". New Left Review. II (28).
- Artz, Frederick (1931). France Under the Bourbon Restoration, 1814–1830. Russell & Russell.
- Bell, P. M. H. (2014). France and Britain, 1900-1940: Entente and Estrangement. ISBN 978-1-3178-9273-1.
- Betros, Gemma (2010). "The French Revolution and the Catholic Church". History Review (68).
- Brogan, D.W. (1940). France under the Republic: The Development of Modern France (1870-1939).
- Brown, Roger Glenn (1970). Fashoda reconsidered: the impact of domestic politics on French policy in Africa, 1893-1898.
- Caron, Francois (1979). An Economic History of Modern France.
- Chafer, Tony (2002). The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization?. Berg. ISBN 978-1-8597-3557-2.
- ISBN 978-0-1401-3827-6
- Collingham, Hugh; Alexander, Robert S. (1988). The July monarchy: a political history of France, 1830-1848.
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- Diebolt, Claude; Faustine, Perrin (2016). Understanding Demographic Transitions. An Overview of French Historical Statistics. Springer.
- Doyle, William (2002). The Oxford history of the French Revolution. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1992-5298-5.
- Gottschalk, Louis R. (1929). The Era of the French Revolution (1715–1815).
- Howarth, T.E.B. (1975). Citizen King: Life of Louis-Philippe.
- Langer, William L. (1951). The Diplomacy of Imperialism: 1890-1902.
- Maddison, Angus (1964). Economic Growth in the West.
- Mathews, Shailer (1923). The French Revolution 1789-1815 (2nd ed.). Longmans, Green and Co.
- Okoth, Assa (2006). A History of Africa: African societies and the establishment of colonial rule, 1800-1915. East African Publishers. ISBN 978-9-9662-5357-6.
- Otte, T. G. (2006). "From 'War-in-Sight' to Nearly War: Anglo–French Relations in the Age of High Imperialism, 1875–1898". Diplomacy and Statecraft. 17 (4): 693–714. S2CID 153431025.
- Pakenham, Thomas (1991). The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912.
- Pope Pius X (1910). "Letter of Pope Pius X to the French Archbishops and Bishops 1910". the-pope.com. Letter to. Where Peter is, There is the Church.
- Quinn, Frederick (2001). The French Overseas Empire.
- Randell, Keith (1991). France: The Third Republic 1870–1914. Access to History. ISBN 978-0-3405-5569-9.
- Rich, Norman (1992). Great Power Diplomacy: 1814-1914.
- Roberts, Stephen H. (1929). History of French Colonial Policy (1870-1925).
- Rougerie, Jacques. Paris libre- 1871.
- Rougerie, Jacques. La Commune de 1871.
- Spengler, Joseph J. (1938). France Faces Depopulation. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-0422-7.
- Stewart, John Hall (1968). The restoration era in France, 1814-1830.
- Taylor, A. J. P. (1954). The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848–1918.
- S2CID 159831886.
- Turner, Barry (26 September 2012). Suez 1956: The Inside Story of the First Oil War. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-4447-6485-7.
- Wakeman Jr., Frederic (1975). The Fall of Imperial China.
- Weber, Eugen (1976). Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914.
Further reading
- Bury, J.P.T. (2003). France, 1814-1940.
- Clapham, J. H. (1921). The Economic Development of France and Germany: 1815-1914. Cambridge [Eng.] The University press.
- Dunham, Arthur Louis (1955). The Industrial Revolution in France, 1815–1848.
- Echard, William E. (1985). Historical Dictionary of the French Second Empire, 1852-1870. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-3132-1136-2.
- Furet, François (1995). Revolutionary France 1770-1880.
- Gildea, Robert (2008). Children of the revolution: The French, 1799-1914.
- Lucien Edward Henry (1882). "Wikidata Q107259201.
- Hutton, Patrick H., ed. (1986). Historical Dictionary of the Third French Republic, 1870-1940.
- Langley, Michael (October 1972). "Bizerta to the Bight: The French in Africa". History Today: 733–739.
- McPhee, Peter (1994). A social history of France, 1780-1880.
- Milward, A.; Saul, S.B. (1977). The development of the economies of continental Europe: 1850-1914. pp. 71–141.
- Newman, E.L.; Simpson, R.L., eds. (1987). Historical Dictionary of France from the 1815 Restoration to the Second Empire. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-3132-2751-6.
- O'Brien, Patrick; Caglar, Keyder (2011). Economic growth in Britain and France 1780-1914: two paths to the Twentieth Century.
- Pilbeam, Pamela (1990). The Middle Classes in Europe, 1789-1914: France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. Lyceum books.
- Plessis, Alain (1985). The rise and fall of the Second Empire, 1852-1871.
- Price, Roger (1987). A social history of nineteenth-century France.
- Spitzer, Alan B. (2014). The French generation of 1820.
- Tombs, Robert (2014). France 1814-1914.
- Weber, Eugen (1979). Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernisation of Rural France, 1870-1914. London: Chatto and Windus.
- Wright, Gordon (1995). France in Modern Times. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-3939-5582-6.
- Zeldin, Theodore (1977). France, 1848-1945.
Historiography
- Sauvigny, G. de Bertier de (Spring 1981). "The Bourbon Restoration: One Century of French Historiography". JSTOR 286306.