Totalitarianism and France
In this talk I will briefly examine the issues of totalitarianism, socialism and the workers movement and foreign policy as they related to France in the period of 1850 - 1913Totalitarianism was not particularly relevant to France during this period. Totalitarianism had not been a force since 1871, when the French people revolted against Napoleon III in the wake of French military defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. After this the French people overthrew the Emperor and established a provisional republic, which became known as the Third Republic. A national assembly was elected in 1871 and in 1875 approved a new constitution for the continued existence of the Republic. This republic was still France's form of government at the turn of the 20th Century. It was a democratically elected body under the leadership of President Raymond Poincare.Communism was not a force within France per se until after the First World War. However, socialist elements and the movement towards trade unionism were highly prominent in France under the Third Republic. After the Franco-Prussian War, the new provisional republic had to contend with Civil-war. The
The subsequent siege and bitter fighting lead to 20,000 casualties for the workers of Paris before their revolt was put down. The British diplomatic support of the French in procuring Morocco as a protectorate in the face of German aggression consolidated the entente. The next section I will look at is French foreign policy around the turn of the 20th Century. Sabotage, boycotts and riots were also endorsed by the militant French unions. Bismarck, in his quest to unify the German states, had encouraged France to seek colonial possessions and had formed alliances with the other states that would allow him to diplomatically isolate the French government. In 1879, a 'Workers Party' was formed, under the leadership of Jules Guesde; it was Marxist and composed of both political groups and trade unions. In the two decades after 1871, French diplomats were aiming to break out of the isolationism that was imposed on them by Bismarck. Both France and Britain were scared of the military capabilities of the newly unified Germany and so formed the Entente Cordial in 1904. The CGT believed the general strike to be the primary tool in the arsenal of the proletariat in their fight to transform France into a worker's state. France went out into the world to seek an empire to replace the lost territories of Alsace-Lorraine that were annexed by Germany. French foreign policy in the period 1850-1913 was dominated by Germany. Unwillingly they turned to France and formed an understanding in 1891 for mutual consultation in crisis, and a more formal military alliance in 1895 that promised aid to either party if attacked by Germany. In 1895, the trade unions came together in order to form one centralised workers confederations, known as the Confederation General du Travail. This movement rejected the political pathways taken by socialist parties in favour of more direct action.
Common topics in this essay:
Franco-Prussian War,
Guesde Marxist,
Third Republic,
Entente Cordial,
Germany Bismarck,
,
Entente Britain,
Unwillingly France,
World War,
Triple Alliance,
trade unions,
third republic,
foreign policy,
formal military alliance,
provisional republic,
franco-prussian war,
formal military,
1871 french,
france period,
workers movement,
french foreign policy,
france third republic,
france third,
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Acceptance Essays
