Ernest Lavisse on the current situation of France (1894)

Résumé du document

This document was written by Ernest Lavisse, a French historian. His work had a lot of influence in France, and he is considered being the founding father of the positivist conception of history. In this text, he provides us some interesting thoughts on two elements of the French history: the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian after the battle of Sedan (1st September 1870), and its aftermath in the French society that partly led to the World War One. That document has been written in 1894, twenty-four years after the big defeat. Since then, the context in France did not much evolved. Besides the political struggles for the determination of France's regime, the defeat led Germany, and especially Prussia to earn oneself French's hatred.

One good example of such hate is what was taught in the Republican schools: children were often asked to sing songs that were hostile pamphlet against Germany When the author wrote this text, the Republic was still trying to put herself up from the terrible threat that was General Boulanger's nationalist coup attempt. Such nationalism that had emerged with the defeat was about to shake the Republic foundations one more time with the outbreak of the Dreyfus Affair in the late 1894.

In the first part of its text, Lavisse talks about the French humiliation of the defeat. He insists on what has been a deep wound in the French pride: the annexation of the regions of Alsace and Lorraine, which had to become German as a part of the price to pay for the defeat.

Extraits

[...] It was then very unlikely that the disaster of the Great War could have been avoided. Words: 2002 Bibliography Charles Rearick, Festivals in Modern France: The Experience of the Third Republic. Journal of Contemporary History 12 (1977), pp.435-60 F.S.L Lyons, Internationalism in Europe, 1815-1914 (London, 1963) Maurice Agulhon, Marianne au pouvoir, L'imagerie et la symbolique républicaines de 1880 à 1914 (Mayenne, 2001) Robert Tombs, France 1814-1914 (London, 1996) Sidney B. Fay, The Origins of the World War (New York, 1964) Robert Tombs, France 1814-1914 (London, 1996). [...]

[...] That idea is conveyed by the Fair. As above mentioned, it represented the whole variety of the world, through the representation of each part of the world in a pavilion or a place in the world fair, and the progress that it has hitherto known, through the technological discoveries exposed (such as the electricity, for example), or even through the Art Nouveau style. The Fair thus symbolizes both the end of a troubled century, and the hopes for the upcoming century, hopes of a century of progress and discoveries. [...]

[...] Ernest Lavisse on the current situation of France (1894) This document was written by Ernest Lavisse, a French historian. His work had a lot of influence in France, and he is considered being the founding father of the positivist conception of history. In this text, he provides us some interesting thoughts on two elements of the French history: the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian after the battle of Sedan (1st September 1870), and its aftermath in the French society that partly led to the World War One. [...]

[...] Maurice Agulhon, Marianne au pouvoir, L'imagerie et la symbolique républicaines de 1880 à 1914 (Mayenne, 2001) Tombs, France 1814-1914, p51 Ibid., p55 Idem., p53 Charles Rearick, Festivals in Modern France: The Experience of the Third Republic. Journal of Contemporary History 12 (1977), pp.435-60 Ibid., p454 F.S.L Lyons, Internationalism in Europe, 1815-1914 (London, 1963) Sidney B. [...]

[...] This exposition allowed the French people to see a “hopeful assertion of France's strength and power”[7]. The theme of the Fair actually was le bilan d'un siècle, which could be translated as outcome of a century”. The style of the fair was the Art Nouveau. Many exhibitions were technological prowess, such as the moving boardwalk, made famous by Thomas Edison that went through the fair. Moreover, iconic monuments were built for the occasion, and some them still exist and became some famous parts of Paris's heritage, such as the Petit Palais, or the bridge Alexandre III. [...]