The Advance of Democracy: Third French
Republic, United Kingdom, German Empire
Section: 14.74
How did the role of government change from the
Congress of Vienna to the establishment of a Unified
Germany?
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From 1815-1870 liberals agitated for
constitutionalism, parliamentarians, civil
liberties, responsible ministers
• 1871-1914 male suffrage (the Vote) was
extended to the working class
(Republicans)
– Governments extended this own their
own within monarchical/aristocratic
paradigms
•Mass political parties emerged
•Governments in part became more
responsive to counteract the spread of
socialism, became more humanitarian
•Saw the need to assume responsibility to
social/economic problems of
industrialization
•The welfare state began
France: The Establishment of the Third Republic
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Sept. 1870 Napoleon lost the FrancoPrussian War the revolutionaries of
Paris proclaimed the Republic
Their provisional go wanted to
continue the war but it was hopeless
Jan 1871 the siege of Paris ended
In order to make peace with a
legitimate government Bismarck
insisted on free elections for members
of a National Assembly
Elections led to large monarchist presence in the
National Assembly (400 out of 600)
Republicans were distrusted by French people,
especially in rural areas as violent, stupid in
foreign policy, unfriendly to Church, and too
socialistic in property views
Monarchists are again split between two royal
houses and checkmated each other (b/t Bourbons
and Orleanist)
Paris republicans refused to accept the National
Assembly (they had defended France when Nap
surrendered)
Civil war between National Assembly (Versailles)
and the Paris republicans ensued
Paris Commune
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Paris Commune lasted from
(March to May 1871)
Was a revival of Jacobinism
(’93) more than a social
revolution
Republicans characterized
by patriotic, anti-bourgeois,
anti-aristocrats/clergy, pro
price, wage control, and
working condition
supervision
But not sweepingly socialist
Communards burned public
buildings, murdered
archbishop of Paris
National Assemblies armies
finally triumphed
330 thousand were
denounced
38 thousand were arrested
20,000 were executed
7, 500 were deported to
New Caledonia
Third Republic born amidst
class hatred and terror
Some saw socialism rising
within the republicans
This led to fierce reaction,
which is what Marx was
hoping for
Parliamentary Primacy
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Monarchist of the assembly
were evenly divided b/t
Bourbons and Orleanists
Bourbon candidate’s
insistence of the white flag
(of his family) led to
monarchist blocking each
others power
Henri, comte de Chambord
AKA: A Bourbon
Assembly adopted
Constitutive laws in 1875 (not
a constitution)
Basically a new republic was
established
Called for:
President, Parliament (2
chambers)
Senate (indirect suffrage)
Chamber of Deputies (direct
suffrage)
Council of ministers (headed by
a premier)
Parliamentary Primacy Continued
• Roles of these new posts
were clarified in 1877 when
President Marshal MacMahon
tried to dismiss a premier
(who was supported by the
chamber)
• President dissolved the
Chamber but they were
restored in election
– Napoleon’s
authoritarianism still fresh
in their minds
Premier and the council became the
true executive (under eye of the
legislature)
Dozen or more political parties
prevented any president or
premier from dissolving the
Chamber
What emerged was an unstable
coalition government process
What seems like a radical change in
the Third Republic is really a
continuation
The machinery of the state
(ministers, prefectures, courts,
police, army were still centralized
and run the same way Napoleon I
Troubles of the Third French Republic
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Gov had changed so often
since 1789 that they all
seemed temporary
Minor philosophical
questions now seemed like
deep fundamental issues
Monarchy v republicanism
Upper class, Catholics, army
conservatives hated the
republic
Some middle class supported
the Third Republic b/c they felt
bad about the brutal way
Commune was repressed, saw
no other alternative
Republicanism expanded as it
became less revolutionary
Won both houses in 1879
Radicalism was reduced to
founding compulsory schools
that denied clerical influence
Dreyfus Affair (1886-89)
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Republicanism came under assault
for next 25 years
Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish army
officer, was found guilty of treason
and deported to Devil’s Island
Evidence emerged that he was
innocent & that guilty man was
Major Esterhazy, an adventurer with
gambling debts
Army refused to reopen the case &
admit error
Staff officer Major Henry even
forged documents to confirm
Dreyfus’s guilt
anti-Semites, anti-republicans,
royalists, militarist and the “best”
people said that reopening the case
would be unpatriotic
Conservatives and republicans took
sides
Conservatives supported the military
Republicans supported Dreyfus
Dreyfus was pardoned in 1899
Fallout prompted the increase in
republicanism
Series of laic laws in 1905 led to a
Separation of church and state in
France
The Strength and Weakness of the Republic
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Born unwanted and accidentally
Strengths
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it now had loyalty of mass of French
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It became domesticated
republicanism
– showed that republicanism (so
militant before 1870) to be
compatible with law, order,
parliament, prosperity, tolerance
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France was a population of painters,
writers, scholars, scientists, bankers,
bourgeois, and farmers living
comfortably on the savings of
generations
Weaknesses
Not the stuff of leadership for the
modern age (technological, industrial
power)
lagged behind Germany industrially
entrepreneurs not willing to take risks
Plagued by short lived ministries
(political instability)
50 between 1871-1914 (disruptive to
continuity)
The Radical Socialists
• French labor still
discontented
• Still longed for a “social
republic”
• The Radical Socialist Party
were radical republicans
• Patriotic, anti clerical, for
the small shopkeepers,
small propertied people
• Not necessarily pro labor
• Took steps to prevent social
legislation, blocked strikes
and prevented unionization
•Further alienated the
French workers from politics
•Third Republic had to
contend with disgruntled
workforce, monarchists,
church, army interests and
finally GERMANY in WWI
•It survived WWI but was
knocked out in 1940
The British Constitutional Monarchy
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GB was the greatest
example of a peaceable
parliamentary government
Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
and her reign mark era of
material, literary progress,
political stability
Liberal and conservative
(heirs of Whigs and Tories)
took form in the 1850s
Gladstone and Disraeli
Extension of Suffrage
• March of egalitarian democracy
was cautious and slow in GB
• Reform Bill of 1832 gave vote
to just 1/8 adult male pop
• 1867 Reform Bill (the Second
Reform Bill)
– Vote was extended to most
workers
– extended from 1 to 2 mil
– adopted by Disraeli
Conservatives
– Lord Derby called it a “leap in
the dark”
Reform Bill 1884:
Under liberal control vote was
extended to rural areas
enfranchising ¾ of male pop
1918 Universal male suffrage
women over 30 also included
gov is still controlled by the wealthy
not until 1911 were salaries of HOC
paid
But parties actually tried to outdo
one another rather than reverse
each other (healthy politics)
Liberals
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Gladstone (liberal)
Leaned somewhat more on the
industrial and commercial side
More willing to pioneer
Forster Education Act of 1870
developed idea of Public
education
introduced secret ballot, legalized
labor unions, examinations for
civil service posts, eliminated the
sale of commissions in the army,
abolished religions tests in
universities
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Being member of Anglican Church
no longer required
Gladstone did institute some
provisions for workers in his
second ministry (1880-1885)
Workers’ compensation,
Fourth ministry (1892-94) he
campaigned for shorter working
hours
The Conservatives
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Disraeli (conservative)
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Followed in Tory tradition
Leaned somewhat on the
landed aristocracy side
Not supporters of business (or
laissez faire)
Under Disraeli (2nd ministry
1874-80)
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public sanitation improved
workplace conditions
improved
regulation of housing
conditions of the poor
British Political Changes after 1900
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Labor became an
independent political force
Rise of labor caused the
liberal party to pass a social
welfare program
Caused liberals to abandon
laissez-faire, took up policy
of gov intervention and
social legislation for working
class
Sickness, accident, old-age,
unemployment insurance,
right to strike, minimum
wage were their crusades
Liberals (1906-1916) led by Herbert
Asquith (prime minister) & Lloyd
George (chancellor of exchequer) were
in control of the gov
Pushed through major program of
social welfare
Sickness, accident, old age,
unemployment insurance were
adopted
Minimum wage law enacted
Strikes permitted
A War Against Poverty
• Lloyd George called for a progressive
income and inheritance tax forcing the
landed aristocracy to pay
• Called it a “war budget” intended to defeat
poverty
• House of Lords objected
• Parliament Act of 1911
• Deprived H of Lords of all veto power in
money matters and only a delaying power
in all other matters
• Gov also called for salaries for parliament
members
• Conservative
– became party of industry, laissez faire,
Manchester School and landed wealth
• Labor party replaced the liberal party after
the liberal party split (split over Ireland)
– Party of workers, social programs,
government intervention
Government also called for salaries for
parliament members
Conservative
became party of industry, laissez
faire, Manchester School and landed
wealth
Labor party replaced the liberal party
after the liberal party split (split over
Ireland)
Party of workers, social programs,
government intervention
The Irish Question
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Ireland was incorporated into the
UK as a defensive measure
against pro-French Irish during
French Rev.
Irish Reps of Parliament were
obstructionists as a means of
protest
Why?
Irish peasants were defenseless
against landlords and were
obliged to pay tithes to Church of
Ireland (Anglican) even thou they
were Catholic
Gladstone disestablished the
Church of Ireland and initiated
protective laws for Irish peasants
and helped them buy out absentee
landlords
Home Rule
Bismarck and the German Empire, 1871 – 1890
• German Empire was a
federation of 25 German
monarchies under the
Prussian Kaiser
• Did not develop
constitutionalism or
democracy in a strong way
• Bismarck has consolidated
power and leaned on the
National Liberals
He usually tried to have a
majority in Reichstag but still
followed Realpolitik (no
philosophical loyalty except
to the emperor)
Legislative power of the
lower house were very
restricted and upper chamber
(princes) was favored by the
gov
But even they did not favor
his actions (democratic
concessions)
The Catholic Church
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Syllabus of Errors (1864)
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Called all Catholics to support the
interests of the Pope
Denounced government
encroachment in educational and
church affairs
1870 dogma of papal infallibility in
matter of faith and morals
This pronouncements came as
Bis was trying to consolidate
unity of empire (to be subordinate
to empire)
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Remember Absolutism!! And
centralization of power?
Catholics in the south had organized a strong
Center party and upheld church pronouncements
In 1871 Bismarck launched Kulturkampf (Battle for
modern civilization)
He was eagerly supported by liberals
They were anticlerical and disapproved of the
Church influence in public and private life
Jesuits were expelled
Some bishops were arrested or exiled
Restrictions upon Catholic worship and education
(later he backed off)
Knew that he would need the support of Center
party
Realized he had overestimated the danger
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Repression of Socialism
1879 protective tariffs were
established (to the liberals dismay) to
finance the government and placate
the agricultural and industrial
interests
Industrialism in empire also brought
socialism
German Social Democratic party was
founded in 1875
Was a fusion of Marxian socialists
and reformist of Ferdinand Lassale
(Basically a moderate socialism)
Bismarck still equated it with Paris
Commune, violence
2 assassination attempts on the emperor (neither by
SDP) gave him an excuse
Bismarck set out to end socialism (failed)
1878 to 1890 socialism was driven underground
meetings forbidden, newspapers closed down
1880s he also used carrot approach
Reforms were made through social legislations
Workers insurance (for sickness, old age, accidents)
This is years ahead of GB, France, AND US
1890 at 75 Bismarck was forced to retire
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The German Empire after 1890: William II
William I died in 1888
Frederick III (his son) died (of
cancer) three months after
coming to the throne
William II (Fred’s son) 18881918 came to the throne
29 and full of ideas about his
personal power
uncomfortable in presence of
elder statesmen (Bismarck)
whom he saw respectfully as
an old fogy
argued with Bismarck about
anti- socialist legislation,
foreign affairs
Bismarck ordered ministers not
to meet with him unless he was
present
1890 he retired
Bismarck was known as
“dropping the pilot”
Kaiser Replaced Bismarck as
the dominant political figure
(and led Germany to WWI)
Young Wilhelm
A New Course
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Wilhelm I led Germany on new course
colonial expansion
Naval expansion
– GB won’t like this
aggressive diplomatic policy
dropped the antisocialist laws
expanded the social welfare system
Social Democrats elected 110 members
to the Reichstag
Retained none of the highest government
offices
Imperial Germany was moving toward a
conflict with constitutional interests and
democracy
German Naval Power
Developments Elsewhere, general
Observations
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Political scene in Italy
Had become a constitutional
monarchy in 1860 and completed
unification in 1870
Unsteady trasformismo (crossing
over)
Deputies moved from one party to
another for favors
Popes refused to recognize the Italian
kingdom and forbade Catholics to
participate (but they did anyway)
Vote was extended to the working
class
Poverty and illiteracy remained
problems (south)
Direction of the future was unclear
Austria-Hungary
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Emperor-King Francis Joseph
ruled through ministries
responsive to both legislatures
Francis Joseph dominated
foreign affairs and military
questions and help broaden
powers of decree
Socialism was repressed and
offset by social provisions
Most serious problem was
agitation by various nationalities
Austria introduced universal male
suffrage
In Hungary the Magyars resisted
universal male suffrage as it
would undermine the Magyar
political position
Democratic Advances
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Other countries introduced universal
male suffrage
Vote for women was less advanced
Europe as a whole remained
monarchical
Parliaments were largely restricted
United States, Britain, and France were
the most advanced democracies
Expansion of the vote was leading to mass
political parties
Socialist
Religious
Constitutionalism and democracy was
replacing older political organizations
Criticism of corporations, financial
institutions, and European ideas and attitudes
provoked opposition
Socialism was a growing force
criticisms of imperialism began
critics eventually influenced many outside
Europe