1. The Third Republic (1879-1940):

1871: Napoleon III's regime collapsed => third republic:

- presidential powers restricted => increasing power of the
cabinet and the prime minister
- reforms:

1. 1881 - 1885: education system independent of the church => great impact on  the political mobilization of rural areas
2. extension of the railroad system => opening to the countryside to modernization

1880s: agricultural crisis ( phylloxera vine blight) and slowdown of industrial growth => split of the Republican Party facing the political crisis:

a) right republicans
b) moderate (opportunist) republicans (Jules Grevy)
c) radical republicans (Georges Clemenceau)
   > imposed general Boulanger as minister of war => increasing hostility toward Germany

1894: Affaire Dreyfus => increasing anti-Semitism among officer corps, clericals, and right republicans

1897-1899: Dreyfus's rehabilitation  => radical governments dissolved religious orders, took the church off the state payroll, and purged the army

Economic crisis => rise of the working class movement

1905: foundation of the Socialist Party (Jaures)
1905-6: violent strikes suppressed by radicals

2. French Empire:

1840s: French occupation of Algeria  => after 1871, France began her colonial expansion in:
- Africa (Senegal, Tunis, Madagascar)
- Asia (Vietnam)