The French Republic: Symbols, History and Values

1
The French RepublicSymbols, History and Values

• Course developed in the frame of the Interact EU
  France-Turkey University Dialog
• by
• Prof. Dr. Jean Marcou
• October 2008

2
General Scheme

• 1- The Symbols of the Republic (11 slides).
• 2- Waiting the Republic (7 slides).
• 3- The establishment of the Republic (7 slides).

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The Symbols of the Republic

• Marianne
• Marianne is the allegorical figure of the
  Republic.
• The first representation of Marianne wearing the
  Phrygian cap appeared during the French
  Revolution.
• The origins of this name are not clear.
  Marie-Anne was one of the most popular feminine
  forename in the campaigns at the end of the 18th
  century. That is why Marianne refers firstly to
  the people. But such a reference could have also
  a pejorative dimension because the aristocracy
  used the name derisively.

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The Symbols of the Republic

• Marianne
• This symbol is not a States symbol which the
  Constitution refers to (as the motto, the flag or
  the anthem). But under the Third Republic
  (1870-1939) the busts of this proud and
  determined woman were disseminate in the
  town-halls all over France. Maurice Agulhon
  speaks of a Mariannes Cult at the end of the
  19th Century. Today, busts of Marianne continue
  to be disseminated mainly in Town-halls and
  Schools.
• It has become a quasi-official assimilated figure
  which expresses a popular support for the
  Republic and which appears now on official
  documents, stamps, coins. Marianne can be
  described in fact as an anonymous power, which
  contrasts today with official portrait of the
  President also shown in official places.
• The most recent designs of Marianne uses the
  features of celebrities like Brigitte Bardot,
  Catherine Deneuve or Laetitia Casta.

5
The Symbols of the Republic

• The Phrygian Cap
• It is the symbol of liberty, which used to be
  worn by freed slaves in Greece and Rome.
  Mediterranean seamen and convicts manning the
  galleys also wore a similar type of cap, and
  revolutionaries from the South of France are
  believed to have adopted the headgear.
• As Marianne, it is not a States symbol but it is
  a popular symbol of the Revolution and Republic.
• Generally, it is associated to Marianne but it is
  interesting to observe that sometimes, since the
  Third Republic, as this cap could be regarded as
  a call of revolt, it was replaced by a wreath or
  a tiara to give Marianne a greater character of
  wisdom.

6
The symbols of the Republic

• The tricolour Flag Blue, White, Red
• It is a States emblem which the Constitution
  refers to (art. 2)
• These 3 colours were brought together in the form
  of a cockade during the first events of the
  French Revolution and meant the Union of the
  colour of the King (White) with the colours of
  Paris (Blue and Red). So, the origins of the flag
  are not really republican
• At the beginning of the Revolution, these 3
  colours were in fashion in Paris because they
  were also the colours of the American Flag and
  some of the French first revolutionaries had
  before participated to the War of Independence of
  the US.

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The Symbols of the Republic

• The Tricolour Flag
• In 1794, during the First Republic, this emblem
  became officially the national flag. It was
  replaced by the white flag at the beginning of
  the restoration but after the Revolution of 1830,
  Louis-Philippe, breaking with the most
  conservative royalists (the légitimistes)
  adopted the tricolour flag.
• During the Revolution of 1848, the tricolour flag
  was challenged by the red flag brandished by the
  people on the barricades, but finally it was
  saved by Lamartine who invoked the revolutionary
  past of the emblem.
• Under the Third Republic a consensus emerged
  around the three colours and the tricolour flag
  was confirmed as the national flag.
• The Constitutions of 1946 ad 1958 instituted the
  blue, white and red flag as the national emblem

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The Symbols of the Republic

• The Motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
• As a legacy of the Age of Enlightenment, this
  motto appeared during the Revolution.
• The Revolution and the First Republic mainly
  focused on Liberty and Equality
• Then, the motto felt into disuse during the
  Empire and the Restoration.

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The symbols of the Republic

• The motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
• It reappeared during the Revolution of 1848
  marked with a religious dimension priests
  celebrated the "Christ-Fraternité" and blessed
  the trees of liberty that were planted at the
  time.
• Discarded again under the Second Empire, this
  motto definitively established itself under the
  Third Republic but solidarity was sometimes
  preferred to equality (which implies a
  levelling of society), and the Christian
  connotation of fraternity was not accepted by
  everyone.
• Anyway, since the Third Republic the motto is
  usually inscribed on the public buildings and the
  public documents.
• The motto appears also officially in the
  Constitutions of 1946 and 1958.

10
The Symbols of the Republic

• The National Anthem  La Marseillaise 
• This air was composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de
  Lisle, captain in the Engineering corps
  garrisoned in Strasbourg, during the night of 24
  to 25 April 1792, at the beginning of the war
  launched by Austria against the French
  Revolution. The song, entitled Chant de Guerre
  pour lArmée du Rhin (War song of the Rhines
  army), was taken up throughout the country and
  used by the Marseille volunteers as a marching
  song. These volunteers were singing it as they
  entered Paris on 30 July 1792, and the Parisians
  dubbed it the  Marseillaise .
• Under the First Republic, the anthem was one of
  the most popular civic songs and was declared
   National Song  in 1795.

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The symbols of the Republic

• The National Anthem  La Marseillaise 
• Then, it was forbidden during the Empire and the
  Restoration, but during the 19th Century it
  became a very popular revolutionary song not only
  in France but also in the world. For example, the
  Russian revolutionaries used to sing it and in
  1917 and the Bolcheviks adopted it as their first
  anthem. But finally they preferred first another
  French revolutionary song the  International 
  (composed during the Commune of Paris in 1871)
  and then a Soviet anthem which is still the
  Russian anthem today.
• Indeed in 1879,  La Marseillaise  had become
  the national anthem and was associated to a
   bougeoise  République.
• At last the Marseillaise was made the official
  national anthem by the constitutions of the
  Fourth and Fifth Republics (Article 2 of the
  Constitution of 4 October 1958)

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The Symbols of the Republic

• The National Feast The 14 July
• 14th of July 1789 is the first important
  revolutionary day in Paris. The storming of the
  Bastille signalled the first victory of the
  people of Paris against a symbol of the Old
  Regime. This fortress was the prison where the
  King used to send the opponents. At the beginning
  of the 18th Century, Voltaire stayed near 1 year
  in the Bastille. Thats why the edifice was
  razed to the ground in the months that followed
  the storming.
• On July 14, 1790, the first Anniversary of the
  insurrection was celebrated with great pomp and
  named  La Fête de la Fédération  ("Feast of the
  Federation).

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The symbols of the Republic

• The National Feast The 14 July
• The commemoration of July 14th was abandoned in
  the following years. Under the Third Republic,
  however, republican leaders (Gambetta especially)
  cast about for ways to celebrate the foundations
  of the regime. A Deputy for the Seine Department,
  Benjamin Raspail, moved that July 14 be named the
  national holiday of the Republic, and Parliament
  passed an act to that effect on July 6, 1880.
• Nowadays, July 14th is as popular as ever and
  celebrated with a mixture of solemn military
  parades (on the Champs Elysées) and easygoing
  dancing and fireworks.
• In 1994, German soldiers serving in the Eurocorps
  took part in the parade on the Champs-Elysées,
  symbolizing the reconciliation between the two
  Nations.

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Waiting for the Republic

• The First Republic (1792-1804) and the Revolution
• The Revolution didnt established a Republic at
  the beginning but installed a Constitutional
  Monarchy set up by the Constitution of 1791 (the
  first French constitution)
• As the Revolution was growing up and the war
  raging between France and Austria, the Palace of
  Louis XVI was stormed in August 1792. After the
  deposition of the King the Republic was
  proclaimed for the first time on September 1792.
• Constitutionally the First Republic subdivided
  into 3 periods
• The National Convention (1792-95), itself
  subdivided into 3 periods girondine (1792,
  moderate), montagnarde (1793-94), Reign of
  terror, Robespierre) and thermidorian (1794-95)
• The Directory (1795-1799) regime which attempted
  a strict separation of powers specially to end
  the domination of the Assembly
• The Consulate (1799-1804) installed after the
  Coup of 18 Brumaire by Napoleon Bonaparte which
  prepared the establishement of the First Empire

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Waiting for the Republic

• The First Restoration (1815-1830)
• After the defeat of Napoleon I the Allies
  restored the Bourbon Dynasty dispelled by the
  Revolution in 1792.
• The 1815-1848 is known as the Restoration in
  the French History and can be described as the
  major attempt to establish a constitutional
  Monarchy in France.
• From 1815 to 1830, the first period of this
  attempt took place with the reigns of 2 kings
  Louis XVIII (the brother of the decapitated Louis
  XVI) and Charles X. The second one tried renew
  with the traditions of the Old Regime.

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Waiting for the Republic

• The Revolution of 1830
• In July 1830, the dissolution of the Chamber of
  Deputies and the Ordinances which set up a rigid
  legislation to control the press and a
  restriction of the suffrage resulted in the July
  Revolution (known as  Les Trois glorieuses )
  and later in the July Monarchy.
• Indeed the liberal Chamber of Deputies declared
  the French throne vacant, and elevated Louis
  Philippe (of the House of Orléans, the second
  branch of the Bourbon dynasty).

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Waiting for the Republic

• The July Monarchy (1830-1848)
• Known as the Bourgeois Monarch or the King
  Citizen, Louis-Philippe accepted the tricolour
  Flag assumed the Title of  King of the French 
  and tried to establish a moderate constitutional
  monarchy explicated by his famous statement in
  January 1831 "We will attempt to remain in a
  juste milieu (the just middle), in an equal
  distance from the excesses of popular power and
  the abuses of royal power.
• The regime of Louis-Philippe failed for political
  reasons in particular, its refusal to establish
  the universal suffrage. In response to the demand
  of the people to abolish the census suffrage,
  Guizot (the PM of Louis Philippe) is said to have
  answered There will be no reform. Get rich
  enrichissez-vous- and then you can vote !

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Waiting for the Republic

• The Revolution of 1848 and the Second Republic
  (1848-1852)
• The regime also failed for social reasons. During
  July Monarchy (1830-1848), France experienced
  rapid industrialization which resulted in the
  development of an important working class and in
  grave social problem.
• The February 1848 Revolution ended the July
  Monarchy and led to the creation of the Second
  Republic (1848-1852). The Two major goals of this
  Republic were Universal suffrage and Unemployment
  relief (proclamation of the right to work and
  creation of the  National workshops )
• The Revolution of 1848 is mainly known for having
  enacted the male universal suffrage, for the
  definitive abolition of slavery and for the
  rising of social rights.

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Waiting for the Republic

• The Revolution of 1848 and the Second Republic
  (1848-1852)
• In June 1848, after the closure of the National
  workshops, a new revolt occurred and was harshly
  repressed. This marked the end of the hopes of a
  "Democratic and Social Republic and the victory
  of the Moderates over the Radical Republicans.
• These "June Days" uprisings of 1848 were the
  reflect of the class conflict existing since the
  beginning of the Revolution. This reaction to the
  workers rebellion led to the victory of the
  middle class and finally to a moderate Republic.
• Since the Revolution of 1789, Republic was a
  synonym of Revolution, after the repression of
  the June Days it had been demonstrated for the
  first time that a Republic was able to restore
  authority and order.

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Waiting for the Republic

• From the Second Republic to Third Republic
• This conservative tendency continued after the
  repression of the June Days.
• December 1848 Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (The
  First Napoleons nephew) won the Presidential
  election with a huge majority. Then important
  limitations to citizens rights and liberties were
  carried out (limitations to the press liberty,
  restrictive conditions to the universal
  suffrage).
• December 1851 Louis Napoleon organized a coup
  which was quickly ratified by a plebiscite to
  establish the Second Empire.
• 1852-1870 The Second Empire of Napoleon III,
  after an authoritarian period moved to a more
  liberal one. But when Napoleon III was defeated
  by the Prussian in 1870, the Republic was again
  proclaimed (4 September 1870) and this was the
  beginning of the definitive establishment of the
  Republic in France, specially because the other
  experienced regime (constitutional monarchy and
  empire had failed).

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The establishment of the Republic

• The uncertain beginning of the Third Republic
  (1870)
• 4 September 1870 proclamation of the Republic in
  Paris by the Republican after the first defeat
  and capture of Napoleon in Sedan (Eastern
  France).
• The attempt of the new government of National
  Defence finally failed to organize the resistance
  to the Prussians and France had to surrender in
  January 1871.
• The Republican nature of the new regime is not
  sure because its new assembly elected in February
  1871 has a significant royalist majority.

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The establishment of the Republic

• A Conservative Republic versus a social Republic
  The Paris Commune (1871)
• The uncertain Republic led by Adolphe Thiers
  began by crushing a Revolution the Paris
  Commune. This Revolution was the result of the
  social disaster of the war and reflected the
  rising of a socialist movement due to the
  development of an important working class in
  France.
• March to May 1871 The Commune ruled Paris and
  fought the government of Adolphe Thiers located
  in Versailles. This civil war events, related by
  Marx (The civil war in France) was seen by
  communists, left-wing socialists and anarchists
  as a model of how a socialist revolution could
  rise.
• May 1871 The Commune failed and was harshly
  repressed by the Thiers Republic. For the second
  time, a Republican regime had demonstrated that
  it could be conservative, repress a revolution
  and restore order and authority.

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The Establishment of the Republic

• The long establishment of the Third Republic
  (1870-1879)
• It took more than six years to really establish
  the new republican regime because, despite the
  proclamation of the Republic the first assembly
  elected in 1871 was royalist.
• Due to the Comte of Chambords will to maintain
  the symbol of the Old Regime (specially the White
  Flag of the former Kings of France) the royalists
  (divided into 2 tendencies) missed their last
  chance to re-establish a constitutional monarchy.
• The Third Republic never had an actual
  constitution. It was based on the Constitutional
  laws of 1875 and confirmed by the success of the
  Republican to the legislative and senatorial
  elections in 1877 and 1879.
• Firmly installed at the head of the government,
  after 1879, the Republicans began a sort of
  Republicanisation of the uncertain regime born
  after the defeat of 1870-71.

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The establishment of the Republic

• The First decades of Third Republic a key-moment
  of the establishment of the Republic in France
  (1879-1914)
• The 2 last decades of the 19th Century (known
  sometimes as the République des Jules or the
  Radical Republic) are a major republican period.
• The Consecration of the Symbols of the Republic
  la Marseillaise and the Tricolour Flag (1879),
  the motto and the National Feast (1880) and of
  course Marianne
• The Consecration of Republican rights and
  liberties creation of a free, laïque and
  compulsory public education (since 1879 to the
  end of the 1880s), liberty of the Press (1881),
  social rights and right to strike (1884),
  decentralization and establishment of a local
  power (1871 and 1884), liberty to create
  associations (1901), separation of State and
  religions (1905).

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The Establishment of the Republic

• The Two faces of the established Republic
  (1879-1914)
• This Republic based on the symbols of liberty of
  the French Revolution shows less Republican
  aspects
• Scandals and corruption (The scandal of the
  medals 1887, scandal of Panama 1892, affaire des
  fiches 1904)
• Populism with the Boulanger crisis (1887)
• Nationalism and militarism with the preparation
  of the revenge (La Rechange) against Germany
  (strong nationalist education at school, creation
  of a compulsory military service of 3 years in
  1905).

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The establishment of the Republic

• The Two faces of the established Republic
  (1879-1914)
• Other non-republican aspects
• Antisemitism with the famous Dreyfus Affair
  (1894-1906). A French Jewish artillery officer
  was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason.
  All the accusations set up by counter-intelligence
  officers were demonstrated to be baseless but
  high-level military officials ignored the
  evidence which exonerated Alfred Dreyfus.
  Finally, he was exonerated and reinstated as a
  major in the French Army in 1906.
• Colonialism with the development of a huge
  colonial empire by the Republican politicians
  during the two last decades of the 19th Century.

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The establishment of the Republic

• The End of Third Republic (1914-1940)
• After the victory of WW1, probably the peak of
  Third Republic (Georges Clémenceau), the
  political debate is still not dominated by fights
  between Royalists and Republicans but mainly by
  the Right-Left Bipolarisation.
• Between the 2 wars, the Popular Front reflects
  this evolution. This Front (Union of Radicals,
  Socialists and Communists) won the May 1936
  legislative elections. Headed by the socialist
  Léon Blum, it engaged in various social reforms.
  The worker movement welcomed this electoral
  victory by launching a general strike in May-June
  1936, resulting in the negotiation of the
  Matignon agreements, one of the cornerstone of
  social rights in France which enacted the law
  mandating 2 weeks each year of paid vacations for
  workers and the law limiting the workweek to 40
  hours.

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Conclusion

• The Suicide of the Third Republic (1914-1940)
• During the 2 wars the Third Republic, unable to
  balance its parliamentary system, stumbled from
  crisis to crisis.
• The defeat of June 1940 was a result of a poor
  military preparation and strategy and of the
  political instability which the regime has to
  faced since the 20s.
• This defeat is a black page in the history of the
  Republic not only because France was forced to
  come to terms with Nazi Germany in an humiliating
  armistice signed on June 22d 1940, but also
  because, on July 10th 1940, the Republican
  Parliament gave full powers to Marshall Petain
  who proclaimed the following days the regime of
  Vichy.
• The Republic in fact was not definitively
  established... But this is another story

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The End

• Edited by Jean Marcou- 2008