The Third Republic was born in the wake of a bloody military defeat that raised the question of which political regime to adopt. Hesitations between republic and monarchy persisted throughout the 1870s before the Republic finally established itself durably. The military defeat of 1870 led to the advent of the Third Republic.
The Causes of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870
The Third Republic was a direct consequence of the French’s crushing defeat by Prussia. Initially, France supported the German unification policy led by Bismarck, the Prussian chancellor, under the authority of Emperor Wilhelm I. However, in 1868, a dispute arose between the two powers, marking a turning point in diplomatic relations between Napoleon III and Bismarck, which suddenly became tense. A confrontation seemed inevitable.
Indeed, Napoleon opposed the candidacy of a Prussian prince, Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, to the Spanish throne, as the emperor feared an encirclement of France by Prussian power. After tough negotiations, the French prevailed in early 1870. But Napoleon III didn’t stop there: he demanded an official and public renunciation from Wilhelm I of his candidate’s claims to the Spanish crown. Wilhelm I rejected the French ambassador’s requests for an audience to obtain this renunciation three times. At the third refusal, the Prussian emperor sent a telegram, the Ems Dispatch, to Bismarck. The latter then used this document to provoke German and French public opinion with the aim of starting a war.
Indeed, Prussia wanted to avenge the defeat at the Battle of Jena (1806) and consolidate its military supremacy after its victories against Austria and Denmark. Bismarck skillfully played with the telegram’s content to provoke indignation in German public opinion over the French ambassador’s inappropriate insistence, and to arouse anger in French public opinion over the emperor’s refusal to receive their ambassador. On July 19, 1870, Napoleon III declared war on the Prussian coalition with the agreement of the legislative body; Bismarck had achieved his goal.
The coalition army, which united the North German Confederation and the independent German states under a single command, was much better prepared and, above all, more numerous than the French army. The latter was heavily defeated at Sedan on September 1, 1870; Napoleon III was captured, France was invaded by the Prussian coalition forces, and the Second French Empire did not survive. The Third Republic was proclaimed on September 4, 1870.
The Consequences of the French Defeat
The invasion and occupation of France by the Prussian army led to the formation of a Government of National Defense. While Gambetta wanted to continue the war, this was not the case for the rural world and the moderate wing of the government. This trend was confirmed at the polls during the legislative elections of February 1871: the peace advocates, the monarchists, won the majority of votes. They appointed Adolphe Thiers as head of the executive. Peace was definitively concluded with the Treaty of Frankfurt on May 10, 1871. The treaty confirmed the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine to Prussia and forced France to pay a war indemnity of over 5 million francs.
The Commune: An Insurrectional Climate in the Heart of Paris
During the invasion of France, the Prussians laid siege to Paris. Until then, the city walls and bastions had been left abandoned. Faced with the Prussian threat, the fortifications were hastily repaired, heavy armament was urgently repatriated, and armament factories were installed within the walls. Men mobilized in a rush after learning of the defeat at Sedan and organized as best they could. Parisians did not want to cease the war; they wanted to continue the confrontation. Fighting began between Prussian and French forces and only ended in January 1871 when an armistice convention and a ceasefire were signed on the evening of January 28.
Cut off from the rest of the country during this entire period, Parisians were quickly rationed. They had to contend with the biting cold of winter, diseases, incessant Prussian bombardments, and hunger. They organized autonomously and formed vigilance committees. Gradually, a gap widened between the social aspirations of the Parisian people and the bourgeois government led by Thiers. The memory of the Republic confiscated by the bourgeois elites in 1848 was still vivid. On March 18, 1871, Parisian workers and artisans rose in insurrection. They installed themselves in the Paris City Hall and proclaimed the Paris Commune. The objective was to establish a social republic that would combine a liberal democracy with a policy of reducing social inequalities. It relied on direct democracy. Paris seceded.
The Thiers government, which had fled to Versailles, sent an army to repress the insurrection. Mac Mahon took command and crushed the insurrectionary movement during the Bloody Week between May 21 and 28, 1871. The workers’ movement was severely affected. The last Communards were executed and shot in front of the Wall of the Federates at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
It was in this context of defeat and insurrection that the Third Republic was born. In 1871, it remained fragile and under the threat of a monarchist restoration. The affirmation of the great republican principles occurred gradually, and the regime was not definitively consolidated until 1879.