Division and Democracy in France Sec. 3 Bellwork #3 We saw sis who was racing around the store trying to find a pair of shoes unfortunately she found none she liked

Georges Clemenceau ► Napoleon III had surrendered to the Prussians, and now the Prussian forces are about to advance on Paris. Can the city survive? ► Clemenceau was a young doctor turned politician, he passionately urged Parisians to resist the Prussian onslaught. ► For four months, Paris did resist the German siege. Surrounded by Prussian troops, starving Parisians were reduced to catching rats and slaughtering circus animals for food. The siege did not end until January 1871, when the French government at Versailles accepted Prussia’s terms. Clemenceau would later play a part in shaping modern France.

France under Napoleon III ► 1860s the emperor began to lift some censorship and gave the legislature more power. On the eve of the disastrous war with Prussia, he even issued a new constitution that extended democratic rights. ► Economic Growth- At mid-century France prospered. During this period, a French entrepreneur, Ferdinand de Lesseps, organized the building of the Suez Canal to link the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and thus the Indian Ocean.

Foreign Affairs ► Napoleon III’s worst failures were in warfare and diplomacy. ► 1860s, he attempted to place Maximilian an Austrian Hapsburg prince, on the throne of Mexico. Mexican patriots resisted fiercely and the United States protested. Maximilian was overthrown and shot by Mexican Patriots. ► A humiliating defeat- Franco-Prussian War was a disaster for France. After his humiliating surrender at Sedan, Napoleon III was overthrown. In 1871, the newly elected French national Assembly accepted a harsh peace with Germany.

The Paris Commune ► The war brought another catastrophe. In 1871, while Prussians still occupied eastern France, an uprising broke out in the French capital. The rebels set up the Paris Commune, its goal was to save the Republic from royalist control. ► Communards, as the rebels were called, included workers and socialists as well as bourgeois republicans. ► Radicals dreamed of a new socialist order and hoped to rebuild France into a loose federation of Communes. For weeks civil war raged. As government troops advanced the rebels toppled great Paris monuments and slaughtered hostages. Government forces butchered some 20,000 Communards. The suppression of the Paris Commune left bitter memories that deepened social divisions within France.

The Third Republic ► It had two house legislature. The lower house, or Chamber of Deputies, was elected by universal male suffrage. Together with the Senate, it elected the president of the Republic. The real political power was in the hands of the prime minister. ► Coalition Governments- With so many parties, no single party could win a majority in the legislature. In order to govern, politicians had to form Coalitions, or alliances of various parties. ► This system allows citizens to vote for a party that most nearly matches their own beliefs.

The Dreyfus Affair ► 1894, an army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was unjustly convicted of spying. The Dreyfus affair scarred French politics and society for decades. He had access to many military secrets. Most of the military elite detested Dreyfus because he was the first Jew to reach a high position in the French army. He was condemned to lifetime confinement on Devil's island, a tiny tropical isle off the coast of South America.

“I Accuse” ► Ferdinand Esterhazy, was soon charged as a spy. ► He was guilty of the crime for which Dreyfus had been convicted. The reason why Esterhazy got off he was a member of the French nobility. Despite strong evidence, a secret military court cleared him of all charges. Esterhazy then fled the country. ► In 1898, Emile Zola put his pen into action. “J’Accuse!” blazed the newspaper headline. Zola charged the army and government officials with suppressing the truth and falsifying evidence. ► Finally, in 1906, his conviction was overturned. Alfred Dreyfus was reinstated in the army and awarded the legion of Honor.

Calls for a Jewish State ► 1896, Theodor Herzl, a Hungarian Jewish journalist living in France, published The Jewish State. In it, he called for Jews to form their won separate state, where they would have the rights and freedoms denied to them in European countries. ► Women Rights- 1909, Jeanne Elizabeth Schmahl founded the French Union for Women’s Suffrage. She argued that women should be allowed to vote because they had become better educated and more independent.