117-531: François Judith Paul Grévy (15 August 1807 – 9 September 1891), known as Jules Grévy ( French pronunciation: [ʒyl ɡʁevi] ), was a French lawyer and politician who served as President of France from 1879 to 1887. He was a leader of the Moderate Republicans , and given that his predecessors were monarchists who tried without success to restore the French monarchy, Grévy is considered
234-617: A coup d'état . His concessions only increased the boldness of the monarchists, who had only accepted Louis-Napoléon as president in opposition to the Republic and as a step in the direction of the monarchy. A conflict was now inevitable between his personal policy and the majority of the Chamber, who were divided into legitimists and Orléanists in spite of the death of Louis-Philippe in August 1850. Louis-Napoléon exploited their projects for
351-618: A mass revolutionary wave in which many citizens challenged their royal leaders. Much of it was led by France in the February Revolution , overthrowing King Louis-Philippe . Radical and liberal factions of the population convened the French Second Republic in 1848. Attempting to restore the First French Republic's values on human rights and constitutional government, they adopted the motto of
468-646: A community of French Huguenots settled in South Africa . Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony , but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner population. After Champlain's founding of Quebec City in 1608, it became the capital of New France . Encouraging settlement was difficult, and while some immigration did occur, by 1763 New France only had a population of some 65,000. From 1713 to 1787, 30,000 colonists immigrated from France to
585-760: A corruption scandal in 1887, and Grévy had to resign after exhausting the pool of willing politicians to form a fresh government. Born in a small town in the Jura department, Grévy moved to Paris where he initially followed a career in law before becoming a republican activist. He began his political career after the French Revolution of 1848 , as a member of the National Assembly of the French Second Republic , where he became known for his opposition to Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and as
702-628: A lawyer at the Paris bar in 1837, distinguishing himself at the Conférence du barreau de Paris . Having steadily maintained republican principles under the July Monarchy , he started his political activity as a defense attorney in the trial of Philippet and Quignot, two accomplies of Armand Barbès in a failed republican insurrection on 12 May 1839. In 1848, a revolution in France abolished
819-517: A majority of French people had other first languages (local languages such as Occitan , Catalan , Alsatian , West Flemish , Lorraine Franconian , Gallo , Picard or Ch'timi and Arpitan ). Today, many immigrants speak another tongue at home. According to historian Eric Hobsbawm , "the French language has been essential to the concept of 'France'," although in 1789, 50 percent of the French people did not speak it at all, and only 12 to 13 percent spoke it fairly well; even in oïl languages zones, it
936-583: A peaceful issue was at an end. When the questors called upon the Chamber to have posted in all barracks the decree of 6 May 1848 concerning the right of the Assembly to demand the support of the troops if attacked, the Mountain , dreading a restoration of the monarchy, voted with the Bonapartists against the measure, thus disarming the legislative power. Louis-Napoléon saw his opportunity, and organised
1053-406: A reform of society itself, the abolition of the privileged position of property, which they viewed as the only obstacle to equality, and as an emblem hoisted the red flag (the 1791 red flag was, however, the symbol not merely of the French Revolution , but rather of martial law and of order ). The other party wished to maintain society on the basis of its traditional institutions, and rallied around
1170-451: A restoration of the monarchy, which he knew to be unpopular in the country, and which gave him the opportunity of furthering his own personal ambitions. From 8 August to 12 November 1850 he went about France stating the case for a revision of the constitution in speeches which he varied according to each place; he held reviews, at which cries of "Vive Napoléon!" showed that the army was with him; he superseded General Changarnier , on whose arms
1287-477: A strong legislature. On 6 February 1879, shortly after taking office, he made a speech before the Chambers where he explained his vision of the role of President: "Subject with sincerity to the great law of the parliamentary regime, I will never enter into battle against national wishes expressed by its institutional bodies". This interpretation of the office's limited power influenced most of the later presidents of
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#17327720160511404-609: A supporter of lesser authority for the executive branch . During the 1851 coup d'état by Louis-Napoléon he was briefly imprisoned, and afterwards retired from political life. With the downfall of the Second French Empire and the reestablishment of the Republic in 1870, Grévy returned to prominence in national politics. After occupying high offices in the National Assembly and the Chamber of Deputies , he
1521-403: A unique position in French history. For three years, there was an indecisive struggle between the heterogeneous Assembly and the president, who was silently awaiting his opportunity. He chose as his ministers men with little inclination towards republicanism, with a preference for Orléanists , the chief of whom was Odilon Barrot . In order to strengthen his position, he endeavoured to conciliate
1638-620: A wave of similar regime changes across Europe, had put an end to the monarchy of the Bourbon Restoration and installed a more liberal constitutional monarchy under the Orleans dynasty governed predominantly by Guizot's conservative-liberal center-right and Thiers' progressive-liberal center-left. But to the left of the dynastic parties, the monarchy was criticized by Republicans (a mixture of Radicals and socialists ) for being insufficiently democratic: its electoral system
1755-433: Is also widely spoken, arguably the largest minority language in France as of the 21st century (a spot previously held by Breton and Occitan ). Modern French society is a melting pot . From the middle of the 19th century, it experienced a high rate of inward migration , mainly consisting of Spaniards , Portuguese , Italians , Arab-Berbers , Jews , Sub-Saharan Africans , Chinese , and other peoples from Africa ,
1872-623: Is estimated that 20,000 settlers were living in Saigon in 1945, and there were 68,430 European settlers living in Madagascar in 1958. 1.6 million European pieds noirs settlers migrated from Algeria , Tunisia and Morocco . In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 pied noir settlers left Algeria in the most massive relocation of population in Europe since the World War II . In
1989-399: Is happening as part of a background evolution and recent studies confirmed the results of their assimilation, showing that "North Africans seem to be characterized by a high degree of cultural integration reflected in a relatively high propensity to exogamy " with rates ranging from 20% to 50%. According to Emmanuel Todd the relatively high exogamy among French Algerians can be explained by
2106-498: Is my home". Indeed, the country has long valued its openness , tolerance and the quality of services available. Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renunciation of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries (for instance, this is the case with Switzerland : one can be both French and Swiss). The European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in
2223-501: Is named after him. French people France: 67,413,000 French diaspora and ancestry : c. 30 million Asia Middle East Europe North America South America Oceania The French people ( French : Les Français , lit. 'The French') are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture , history , and language , identified with
2340-602: Is such a thing as a "French ethnic group". The discourse of ethno-nationalist groups such as the Front National (FN), however, advances the concept of Français de souche or "indigenous" French. The conventional conception of French history starts with Ancient Gaul, and French national identity often views the Gauls as national precursors, either as biological ancestors (hence the refrain nos ancêtres les Gaulois ), as emotional/spiritual ancestors, or both. Vercingetorix ,
2457-509: Is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes, and influences in conjugation and word order. Today, the last redoubt of Celtic language in France can be found in
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#17327720160512574-638: The Americas , with the exception of the Huguenots , due to a lower birthrate than in the rest of Europe. However, significant emigration of mainly Roman Catholic French populations led to the settlement of the Province of Acadia , Canada (New France) and Louisiana , all (at the time) French possessions, as well as colonies in the West Indies , Mascarene islands and Africa . On 30 December 1687,
2691-525: The Danelaw in the region known today as Normandy in the 9th and 10th centuries. This later became a fiefdom of the Kingdom of France under King Charles III . The Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process. The Normans, two centuries later, went on to conquer England and Southern Italy . Eventually, though, the largely autonomous Duchy of Normandy
2808-532: The First Republic ; Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité . The republic was plagued with tribalist tendencies of its leading factions: royalists, proto-socialists , liberals, and conservatives. In this environment, Napoleon's nephew, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte , established himself as a popular anti-establishment figure and was elected president in 1848. Under the Second Republic's constitution,
2925-865: The French Basque Country , Catalans in northern Catalonia , Germans in Alsace , Corsicans in Corsica and Flemings in French Flanders . France has long been a patchwork of local customs and regional differences, and while most French people still speak the French language as their mother tongue , languages like Picard , Poitevin-Saintongeais , Franco-Provencal , Occitan , Catalan , Auvergnat , Corsican , Basque , French Flemish , Lorraine Franconian , Alsatian , Norman , and Breton remain spoken in their respective regions. Arabic
3042-568: The French Constitution , according to which "French" is a nationality , and not a specific ethnicity. France sits at the edge of the European peninsula and has seen waves of migration of groups that often settled owing to the presence of physical barriers preventing onward migration. This has led to language and regional cultural variegation, but the extent to which this pattern of migrations showed up in population genetics studies
3159-727: The French Revolutionary Army as a volunteer in 1792, rose to become a battalion commander and fought in the Revolutionary Wars until retiring to Mont-sous-Vaudrey under the Consulate . He operated a tile factory on his property. At age 10, Grévy started attending school at the nearby town of Poligny , and continued his studies in Besançon , Dole , and finally at the Faculty of Law of Paris . He became
3276-548: The French West Indies ( French Caribbean ), and in foreign countries with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as the United States ( French Americans ), Canada ( French Canadians ), Argentina ( French Argentines ), Brazil ( French Brazilians ), Mexico ( French Mexicans ), Chile ( French Chileans ) and Uruguay ( French Uruguayans ). To be French, according to
3393-472: The French coup of 1851 . On the night of 1/2 December 1851, the anniversary of his uncle Napoleon's coronation in 1804 and his victory at Austerlitz in 1805, he dissolved the Chamber, re-established universal suffrage, had all the party leaders arrested, and summoned a new assembly to prolong his term of office for ten years. The deputies who had met under Berryer at the Mairie of the 10th arrondissement to defend
3510-475: The Industrial Revolution . The pace of industrial growth attracted millions of European immigrants over the next century, with especially large numbers arriving from Poland , Belgium , Portugal , Italy , and Spain . In the period from 1915 to 1950, many immigrants came from Czechoslovakia , Hungary , Russia , Scandinavia and Yugoslavia . Small but significant numbers of Frenchmen in
3627-691: The Middle East and East Asia , and the government, defining France as an inclusive nation with universal values, advocated assimilation through which immigrants were expected to adhere to French values and cultural norms. Nowadays, while the government has let newcomers retain their distinctive cultures since the mid-1980s and requires from them a mere integration , French citizens still equate their nationality with citizenship as does French law. In addition to mainland France, French people and people of French descent can be found internationally, in overseas departments and territories of France such as
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3744-530: The Palais Bourbon was not victorious over the Hôtel de Ville. It had to consent to a fusion of the two bodies, in which, however, the predominating elements were the moderate Republicans. It was uncertain what the policy of the new government would be. One party seeing that despite the changes in the last sixty years of all political institutions, the position of the people had not been improved, demanded
3861-677: The Saint-Domingue . In 1805, when the French were forced out of Saint-Domingue ( Haiti ), 35,000 French settlers were given lands in Cuba . By the beginning of the 17th century, some 20% of the total male population of Catalonia was made up of French immigrants. In the 18th century and early 19th century, a small migration of French emigrated by official invitation of the Habsburgs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire , now
3978-543: The United States Census , French people are not asked to define their ethnic appartenance, whichever it may be. The usage of ethnic and racial categorization is avoided to prevent any case of discrimination; the same regulations apply to religious membership data that cannot be compiled under the French Census. This classic French republican non- essentialist conception of nationality is officialized by
4095-518: The communards . On 28 December 1885, Grévy was elected for another seven years as president of the Republic. Two years later however, in December 1887, he was compelled to resign due to a political scandal that started after his son-in-law, Daniel Wilson, was found to be selling awards of the Legion of Honour . Although Grévy himself was not implicated in the scheme, he was indirectly responsible for
4212-529: The election of the Constituent Assembly on 4 May 1848. The provisional government having resigned, the republican and anti-socialist majority on 9 May entrusted the supreme power to an Executive Commission consisting of five members: Arago, Pierre Marie de Saint-Georges , Garnier-Pagès , Lamartine , and Ledru-Rollin . The result of the general election, the return of a predominantly moderate, if not monarchical, constituent assembly dashed
4329-399: The petite bourgeoisie , on whose support they thought they could depend. The heads of the more left-leaning conservative-liberal monarchist parties, Louis-Mathieu Molé and Adolphe Thiers , declined to form a government. Odilon Barrot accepted, and Thomas Robert Bugeaud , commander-in-chief of the first military division, who had begun to attack the barricades, was recalled. In the face of
4446-495: The tricolore . As a concession made by Lamartine to popular aspirations, and in exchange for the maintaining of the tricolor flag, he conceded the Republican triptych of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité , written on the flag, on which a red rosette was also to be added. The first collision took place as to the form which the 1848 Revolution was to take. Lamartine wished for them to maintain their original principles, with
4563-559: The "caution money" ( cautionnement ) deposited by proprietors and editors of papers with the government as a guarantee of good behaviour. Finally, an interpretation of the law on clubs and political societies suppressed about this time all the republican societies. The president had only joined the cry of "Down with the Republicans!" in Montalembert in the hope of effecting a revision of the constitution without having recourse to
4680-401: The 1789 French Revolution . It replaced the ancient kingdom of France, ruled by the divine right of kings . The 1870 Franco-Prussian War , which led to the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, was instrumental in bolstering patriotic feelings; until World War I (1914–1918), French politicians never completely lost sight of the disputed Alsace-Lorraine region which played a major role in
4797-590: The 1970s, over 30,000 French settlers left Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime as the Pol Pot government confiscated their farms and land properties. In the 1960s, a second wave of immigration came to France, which was needed for reconstruction purposes and for cheaper labour after the devastation brought on by World War II . French entrepreneurs went to Maghreb countries looking for cheap labour, thus encouraging work-immigration to France. Their settlement
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4914-641: The 7th century BCE or earlier, and non-Celtic peoples including the Ligures , Aquitanians and Basques in Aquitaine. The Belgae , who lived in the northern and eastern areas, may have had Germanic admixture; many of these peoples had already spoken Gaulish by the time of the Roman conquest. Gaul was militarily conquered in 58–51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar , except for
5031-713: The Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France. The other major Germanic people to arrive in France, after the Burgundians and the Visigoths , were the Norsemen or Northmen . Known by the shortened name " Norman " in France, these were Viking raiders from modern Denmark and Norway . They settled with Anglo-Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons from
5148-540: The French Revolution, it divided social classes, with the peasants identifying with the native Gauls while the aristocracy identified with the Franks. During the early nineteenth century, intellectuals began using the identification with Gaul instead as a unifying force to bridge divisions within French society with a common national origin myth . Myriam Krepps of the University of Nebraska-Omaha argues that
5265-555: The Gaulish chieftain who tried to unite the various Gallic tribes of the land against Roman encroachment but was ultimately vanquished by Julius Caesar , is often revered as a "first national hero". In the famously popular French comic Asterix , the main characters are patriotic Gauls who fight against Roman invaders while in modern days the term Gaulois is used in French to distinguish the "native" French from French of immigrant origins. However, despite its occasional nativist usage,
5382-403: The Gaulish identity has also been embraced by French of non-native origins as well: notably, Napoleon III , whose family was ultimately of Corsican and Italian roots, identified France with Gaul and Vercingetorix, and declared that "New France, ancient France, Gaul are one and the same moral person." It has been noted that the French view of having Gallic origins has evolved over history. Before
5499-545: The July Monarchy and led to the creation of the Second Republic , and with it Grévy was appointed Commissioner of the Republic for the department of Jura. In April 1848 he was elected by that department for a seat in the constituent National Assembly . On the signed declaration for his candidacy, Grévy demanded a "strong and liberal Republic, that makes itself loved for its wisdom and moderation". Foreseeing
5616-509: The June Days, the working classes were also alienated from it. The Duke of Wellington wrote at this time, "France needs a Napoleon ! I cannot yet see him..." The granting of universal suffrage to a society with Imperialist sympathies would benefit reactionaries, which culminated in the election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte as president of the republic. The new constitution , proclaiming a democratic republic, direct universal suffrage, and
5733-953: The North and Northeast regions have relatives in Germany and Great Britain . Between 1956 and 1967, about 235,000 North African Jews from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco also immigrated to France due to the decline of the French empire and following the Six-Day War. Hence, by 1968, Jews of North African origin comprised the majority of the Jewish population of France. As these new immigrants were already culturally French they needed little time to adjust to French society. French law made it easy for thousands of settlers ( colons in French), national French from former colonies of North and East Africa , India and Indochina to live in mainland France. It
5850-660: The Republican Party. After the collapse of the Empire in the Franco-Prussian War, Grévy was elected as representative of Jura and Bouches-du-Rhône to the National Assembly of the new Third Republic , in 1871. He served as president of the Assembly from February 1871 to April 1873, when he resigned on account of the opposition from the Right, which blamed him for having called one of its members to order in
5967-469: The Rhine after the fall of the Roman Empire , as well as various later waves of lower-level irregular migration that have continued to the present day. The Norsemen also settled in Normandy in the 10th century and contributed significantly to the ancestry of the Normans . Furthermore, regional ethnic minorities also exist within France that have distinct lineages, languages and cultures such as Bretons in Brittany , Occitans in Occitania , Basques in
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#17327720160516084-412: The Roman army and obtained important commands. Their language is still spoken as a kind of Dutch ( French Flemish ) in northern France ( French Flanders ). The Alamans , another Germanic people immigrated to Alsace , hence the Alemannic German now spoken there. The Alamans were competitors of the Franks, and their name is the origin of the French word for "German": Allemand . By the early 6th century,
6201-452: The Third Republic. In foreign policy he strove for peaceful relations, particularly with the German Empire , resisting revanchist demands for a retribution over the disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, and opposed colonial expansion . Among internal policies his presidency was marked by anti-clerical reforms, particularly under the government of prime minister Charles de Freycinet . In 1880, he passed an amnesty law in favor of
6318-421: The US and the UK) but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration. Historically, the heritage of the French people is mostly of Celtic or Gallic , Latin ( Romans ) origin, descending from the ancient and medieval populations of Gauls or Celts from the Atlantic to the Rhone Alps , Germanic tribes that settled France from east of the Rhine and Belgium after
6435-446: The ban by holding a series of 'banquets' (1847–1848), events where the political debate was disguised as dinner speeches. This movement began overseen by Odilon Barrot's moderate center-left liberal critics of Guizot's conservative government but took on a life of its own after 1846 when the economic crisis encouraged ordinary workers to demand a say over the government. On 14 February 1848, Guizot's government decided to put an end to
6552-443: The banquets, on the grounds of constituting illegal political assembly. On 22 February, striking workers and Republican students took to the streets, demanding an end to Guizot's government, and erected barricades. Odilon Barrot called a motion of no confidence in Guizot, hoping that this might satisfy the rioters, but the Chamber of Deputies sided with the premier. The government called a state of emergency , thinking it could rely on
6669-439: The bourgeois-aligned battalions of the National Guard. Meanwhile, the national workshops were unable to provide remunerative work for the genuine unemployed, and of the thousands who applied, the greater number were employed in aimless digging and refilling of trenches; soon even this expedient failed, and those for whom work could not be invented were given a half wage of 1 franc a day. On 21 June, Alfred de Falloux decided in
6786-447: The centuries to France, creating a variegated grouping of peoples. Thus the historian John F. Drinkwater states, "The French are, paradoxically, strongly conscious of belonging to a single nation, but they hardly constitute a unified ethnic group by any scientific gauge." The modern French are the descendants of mixtures including Romans , Celts , Iberians , Ligurians and Greeks in southern France, Germanic peoples arriving at
6903-474: The colonial link between France and Algeria. A small French descent group also subsequently arrived from Latin America ( Argentina , Chile and Uruguay ) in the 1970s. Most French people speak the French language as their mother tongue , but certain languages like Norman , Occitan languages , Corsican , Euskara , French Flemish and Breton remain spoken in certain regions (see Language policy in France ). There have also been periods of history when
7020-518: The consolidation of the French Third Republic . Grévy was born on 15 August 1807 in Mont-sous-Vaudrey , in the department of Jura , into a republican family. His paternal grandfather, Nicolas Grévy (1736–1812), the son of farmers from Aumont , moved to Mont-sous-Vaudrey during the French Revolution , where he bought the property of la Grangerie . He was a justice of the peace . Grévy's parents were François Hyacinthe Grevy (1773–1857) and Jeanne Gabrielle Planet (1782–1855). His father, who had joined
7137-412: The constitution and proclaim the deposition of Louis Napoleon were scattered by the troops at Mazas and Mont Valérien . The resistance organized by the republicans within Paris under Victor Hugo was soon subdued by the intoxicated soldiers. The more serious resistance in the départements was crushed by declaring a state of siege and by the "mixed commissions." The plebiscite of 20 December ratified by
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#17327720160517254-408: The country of France . The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from northern and central France, are primarily descended from Romans (or Gallo-Romans , western European Celtic and Italic peoples ), Gauls (including the Belgae ), as well as Germanic peoples such as the Franks , the Visigoths , the Suebi and the Burgundians who settled in Gaul from east of
7371-404: The daughter of a tanner from Narbonne . They had one daughter, Alice (1849–1938), who married Daniel Wilson in 1881. He died in his hometown of Mont-sous-Vaudrey on 9 September 1891, following a pulmonary edema . His state funeral was held on 14 September. Initiated at the masonic lodge "La Constante Amitié" in Arras , his masonic activity was inseparable from his policies, especially in
7488-416: The decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture: the Franks , from which the word "French" derives. The Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands and Germany between the 3rd and 7th centuries. Initially, they served in
7605-399: The decree of 24 February, the provisional government had solemnly accepted the principle of the "right to work," and decided to establish " National Workshops " for the unemployed; at the same time, a sort of industrial parliament was established at the Luxembourg Palace , under the presidency of Louis Blanc , with the object of preparing a scheme for the organization of labor; and, lastly, by
7722-433: The decree of 8 March, the property qualification for enrolment in the National Guard had been abolished and the workmen were supplied with arms. The socialists thus formed a sort of state-within-a-state , complete with a government and an armed force. On 15 May, an armed mob, headed by Raspail , Blanqui and Barbès , and assisted by the proletariat-aligned Guard, attempted to overwhelm the Assembly, but were defeated by
7839-425: The definition of the French nation and therefore of the French people. The decrees of 24 October 1870 by Adolphe Crémieux granted automatic and massive French citizenship to all Jewish people of Algeria. Successive waves of immigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries were rapidly assimilated into French culture . France's population dynamics began to change in the middle of the 19th century, as France joined
7956-427: The deputies in a special assembly. It was in vain that Jules Grévy , in the name of those who perceived the obvious and inevitable risk of creating, under the name of a president, a monarch and more than a king, proposed that the head of the state should be no more than a removable president of the ministerial council. Lamartine, thinking that he was sure to be the choice of the electors under universal suffrage, won over
8073-412: The direction of the Church. A conservative electoral law was passed on 31 May. It required each voter to prove three years' residence at his current address by way of entries in the record of direct taxes. This effectively repealed universal suffrage: factory workers, who moved fairly often, were thus disenfranchised. The law of 16 July aggravated the severity of the press restrictions by re-establishing
8190-428: The directly elected National Assembly. The "Grévy Amendment", as it became known, was rejected, and in December 1848 Bonaparte was elected president of France. Grévy was elected vice-president of the National Assembly in April 1849. The same month he protested against the president's decision to launch an expedition against the revolutionary Roman Republic , created as part of the First Italian War of Independence , but
8307-416: The end of the Roman Empire such as the Franks and the Burgundians , and some Vikings who mixed with the Normans and settled mostly in Normandy in the 9th century. According to Dominique Schnapper , "The classical conception of the nation is that of an entity which, opposed to the ethnic group, affirms itself as an open community, the will to live together expressing itself by the acceptation of
8424-650: The ensuing struggle for separation of church and state that marked the beginning of the Third Republic and MacMahon's resignation. In private life, Grévy was an ardent billiards player, and was featured as one in a portrait published in the Vanity Fair magazine in 1879. He is referred to as one of Swann's dinner hosts in Proust 's In Search of Lost Time . There is a type of lilac , Syringa vulgaris 'President Grévy', named after him. Grévy's zebra
8541-695: The fall of the Roman Empire such as the Franks , Burgundians , Allemanni , Visigoths , and Suebi , Latin and Roman tribes such as Ligurians and Gallo-Romans , Basques , and Norse populations largely settling in Normandy at the beginning of the 10th century as well as " Bretons " (Celtic Britons) settling in Brittany in Western France . The name "France" etymologically derives from
8658-514: The final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo , France had been reconstituted into a monarchy known as the Bourbon Restoration . After a brief period of revolutionary turmoil in 1830 , royal power was again secured in the " July Monarchy ", governed under principles of moderate conservatism and improved relations with the United Kingdom . In 1848, Europe erupted into
8775-560: The first article of the French Constitution , is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion ( sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion ). According to its principles, France has devoted itself to the destiny of a proposition nation , a generic territory where people are bounded only by the French language and the assumed willingness to live together, as defined by Ernest Renan 's " plébiscite de tous les jours " ('everyday plebiscite') on
8892-416: The first real republican president of France. During Grévy's presidency from 1879 to 1887, according to David Bell, there was a disunity among his cabinets. Only one survived more than a year. Grévy paid attention chiefly to defense, internal order, and foreign relations. Critics argue that Grévy's confusing approach to appointments set a bad precedent for handling crises. Grévy's son-in-law was implicated in
9009-597: The general movement of reaction, the president demanded that he should set up a Liberal government. The pope's dilatory reply having been accepted by the French ministry, the president replaced it on 1 November, by the Fould -Rocher cabinet. This looked like a declaration of war against the Catholic and monarchist majority in the Legislative Assembly, which had been elected on 28 May in a moment of panic. But
9126-552: The hopes of those who had looked for the establishment, by a peaceful revolution, of their ideal socialist state. but they were not prepared to yield without a struggle, and in Paris itself they commanded a formidable force. In spite of the preponderance of the "tricolor" party in the provisional government, so long as the voice of France had not spoken, the socialists, supported by the Parisian proletariat, had exercised an influence on policy disproportionate to their relative numbers. By
9243-580: The insurrection that had now taken possession of the whole capital, King Louis-Philippe abdicated in favor of his nine-year-old grandson, Prince Philippe, Count of Paris , but under pressure from insurgents who invaded the chamber of the Chamber of Deputies , leaders leaned in favor of the insurrection and prepared a provisional government; a (second) republic was then proclaimed by Alphonse de Lamartine . The provisional government , with Dupont de l'Eure as its president, consisted of Lamartine for foreign affairs, Crémieux for justice, Ledru-Rollin for
9360-566: The interior, Carnot for public instruction, Goudchaux for finance, Arago for the navy, and Burdeau for war. Garnier-Pagès was mayor of Paris. But, in 1830, the republican-socialist party set up a rival government at the Hôtel de Ville (city hall), including Louis Blanc , Armand Marrast , Ferdinand Flocon , and Alexandre Martin , known as Albert L'Ouvrier ("Albert the Worker"), which bid fair to involve discord and civil war. But this time
9477-557: The invasion proceeded and succeeded in restoring Papal rule. In 1851, his fear that Louis-Napoléon intended to perpetuate himself in power was proven true, when the president seized dictatorial power with a coup d'état on 2 December , in which Grévy was arrested and imprisoned in Mazas Prison . He was released shortly after but retired from politics in the subsequent French Empire , under now emperor Napoleon III, and returned to his law practice. Grévy resumed his political career in
9594-509: The island of Saint-Martin hold French nationality even though they do not speak French as a first language, while their neighbouring French-speaking Haitian immigrants (who also speak a French-creole) remain foreigners. Large numbers of people of French ancestry outside Europe speak other first languages, particularly English, throughout most of North America (with Quebec and Acadians in the Canadian Maritimes being notable, not
9711-536: The last eight years advanced sufficiently in the public estimation to be elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1848 by five departments. He owed this rapid increase of popularity partly to blunders of the government of July, which had unwisely aroused the memory of the country, filled as it was with recollections of the Empire, and partly to Louis Napoléon's campaign carried on from his prison at Ham by means of pamphlets of socialistic tendencies. Moreover,
9828-583: The last years of the Empire. In 1868 he was elected to the Corps législatif , where he quickly emerged as a leader of the liberal opposition. Along with Adolphe Thiers and Léon Gambetta he opposed the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War , in 1870, and condemned the socialist insurrection of the Paris Commune . Upon the death of Thiers years later, in 1877, Grévy would become the head of
9945-588: The misuse Wilson had made of the access to the Élysée . Under pressure from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate , Grévy resigned on 2 December and addressed a last message to the two chambers, in which he stated "my duty and my right would be to resist, wisdom and patriotism command me to yield". This political matter was the first to feed anti-Masonic opinion in France. Grévy wrote a two-volume Discours politiques et judiciaires ("Political and Judicial Speeches") in 1888. Grévy married in 1848 to Coralie Frassie ,
10062-453: The monarchists, led by Thiers and the committee of the Rue de Poitiers, were no longer content even with the safe dictatorship of the upright Cavaignac, and joined forces with the Bonapartists. On 10 December the peasants gave over 5,000,000 votes to a name: Napoléon, which stood for order at all costs, against 1,400,000 for Cavaignac. Henri Georges Boulay de la Meurthe was elected vice president,
10179-509: The name of the parliamentary commission on labour that the workmen should be discharged within three days and those who were able-bodied should be forced to enlist in the armed forces. After this, the June Days Uprising broke out, over the course of 24–26 June, when the eastern industrial quarter of Paris, led by Pujol, fought the western quarter, led by Louis-Eugène Cavaignac , who had been appointed dictator. The socialist party
10296-656: The nations of Austria , Czech Republic , Hungary , Slovakia , Serbia and Romania . Some of them, coming from French-speaking communes in Lorraine or being French Swiss Walsers from the Valais canton in Switzerland , maintained for some generations the French language and a specific ethnic identity, later labelled as Banat (French: Français du Banat ). By 1788, there were eight villages populated by French colonists. The French First Republic appeared following
10413-476: The northwestern region of Brittany , although this is not the result of a survival of Gaulish language but of a 5th-century AD migration of Brythonic speaking Celts from Britain . The Vulgar Latin in the region of Gallia took on a distinctly local character, some of which is attested in graffiti, which evolved into the Gallo-Romance dialects which include French and its closest relatives. With
10530-467: The only, exceptions), Spanish or Portuguese in southern South America , and Afrikaans in South Africa . The adjective "French" can be used to mean either "French citizen" or "French-speaker", and usage varies depending on the context, with the former being common in France. The latter meaning is often used in Canada, when discussing matters internal to Canada. Generations of settlers have migrated over
10647-482: The parliament relied for the projected monarchical coup d'état ; he replaced his Orléanist ministry with obscure men devoted to his own cause, such as Morny , Fleury and Persigny , and gathered round him officers of the African army, broken men like General Saint-Arnaud ; in fact he practically declared open war. His reply to the votes of censure passed by the Assembly, and their refusal to increase his civil list
10764-548: The power and prestige of France against that of Austria, as beginning the work of European renovation and reconstruction which he already looked upon as his mission. French troops under Oudinot marched into Rome. This provoked an insurrection in Paris in favour of the Roman Republic , that of the Château d'Eau, which was crushed on 13 June 1849. On the other hand, when the pope, though only just restored, began to yield to
10881-574: The president again pretended to be playing the game of the Orléanists, as he had done in the case of the Constituent Assembly. The complementary elections of March and April 1850 resulted in an unexpected victory for the republicans which alarmed the conservative leaders, Thiers, Berryer and Montalembert . The president and the Assembly co-operated in the passage of the Loi Falloux of 15 March 1850, which again placed university instruction under
10998-509: The president was restricted to a single term. Louis-Napoléon overthrew the republic in an 1851 self-coup d'état , proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III , and created the Second French Empire . France's "February Revolution" of 1848 , was the first of the Revolutions of 1848 . The events of the revolution led to the end of the 1830–1848 Orleans Monarchy and led to the creation of the Second Republic. The Revolution of 1830 , part of
11115-402: The president, who was elected for four years by direct universal suffrage, i.e. on a broader basis than that of the Assembly, and was not eligible for re-election. He was to choose his ministers, who, like him, would be responsible to the Assembly. Finally, a revision of the constitution was made practically impossible; it involved obtaining three times in succession a majority of three-quarters of
11232-518: The reactionary parties, without committing himself to any of them. The chief instance of this was the expedition to Rome voted by the Catholics, to restore the temporal authority of Pope Pius IX , who had fled Rome in fear of the nationalists and republicans. ( Garibaldi and Mazzini had been elected to a Constitutional Assembly.) The pope called for international intervention to restore him in his temporal power. The French president moved to establish
11349-531: The rise of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in that year's presidential election he began to advocate a weak executive branch , and became famous during the debates on the drafting of the Constitution for his opposition to electing the president by universal suffrage , instead proposing that the executive power should be vested on a "President of the Council of Ministers", who would be appointed and dismissed by
11466-421: The rules of a unified public domain which transcends all particularisms". This conception of the nation as being composed by a "will to live together," supported by the classic lecture of Ernest Renan in 1882, has been opposed by the French far-right , in particular the nationalist Front National ("National Front" – FN / now Rassemblement National - "National Rally" - RN) party which claims that there
11583-406: The separation of powers, was promulgated on 4 November 1848. Under the new constitution, there was to be a single permanent Assembly of 750 members elected for a term of three years by the scrutin de liste . The Assembly would elect members of a Council of State to serve for six years. Laws would be proposed by the Council of State, to be voted on by the Assembly. The executive power was delegated to
11700-512: The session of the previous day. On 8 March 1876 Grévy was named president of the Chamber of Deputies , a post which he filled with such efficiency that upon the resignation of Legitimist president Marshal de MacMahon he seemed to step naturally into the Presidency of the Republic, and on 30 January 1879 was elected without opposition by the republican parties. Throughout his presidency, Grévy sought to minimize his powers and instead favored
11817-462: The south-east which had already been conquered about one century earlier. Over the next six centuries, the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture . In the late Roman era, in addition to colonists from elsewhere in the Empire and Gaulish natives, Gallia also became home to some immigrant populations of Germanic and Scythian origin, such as the Alans . The Gaulish language
11934-639: The state sector (though not as trainees in reserved branches, e.g., as magistrates ). Seeing itself as an inclusive nation with universal values, France has always valued and strongly advocated assimilation . However, the success of such assimilation has recently been called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves ( communautarisme ). The 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs ( les quartiers sensibles ) were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts (as appeared before in other countries like
12051-513: The support of the Chamber, which did not even take the precaution of rendering ineligible the members of families which had reigned over France. It made the presidency an office dependent upon popular acclamation. The election was keenly contested; the democratic republicans adopted as their candidate Ledru-Rollin, the "pure republicans" Cavaignac, and the recently reorganized Imperialist party Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte . Unknown in 1835, and forgotten or despised since 1840, Louis Napoleon had in
12168-671: The troops of the National Guard, but instead on the morning of 23 February, the Guardsmen sided with the revolutionaries, protecting them from the regular soldiers who by now had been called in. The industrial population of the faubourgs was welcomed by the National Guard on their way toward the center of Paris. Barricades were raised after the shooting of protestors outside the Guizot manor by soldiers. On 23 February 1848 Premier François Guizot 's cabinet resigned, abandoned by
12285-511: The view of "a unified territory (one land since the beginning of civilization) and a unified people" which de-emphasized "all disparities and the succession of waves of invaders" was first imprinted on the masses by the unified history curriculum of French textbooks in the late 1870s. Since the beginning of the Third Republic (1871–1940), the state has not categorized people according to their alleged ethnic origins. Hence, in contrast to
12402-403: The whole country as supreme, whereas the revolutionaries under Ledru-Rollin wished for the Republic of Paris to hold a monopoly on political power. On 5 March the government, under the pressure of the Parisian clubs, decided in favor of an immediate reference to the people, and direct universal suffrage , and adjourned it until 26 April. This added the uneducated masses to the electorate and led to
12519-522: The willingness to live together, in Renan's 1882 essay " Qu'est-ce qu'une nation? "). The debate concerning the integration of this view with the principles underlying the European Community remains open. France has been historically open to immigration, although this has changed in recent years. Referring to this perceived openness, Gertrude Stein , wrote: "America is my country but Paris
12636-524: The word Francia , the territory of the Franks . The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire . In the pre-Roman era, Gaul (an area of Western Europe that encompassed all of what is known today as France, Belgium, part of Germany and Switzerland, and Northern Italy) was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes . Their ancestors were Celts who came from Central Europe in
12753-545: Was also identified in the fourteenth century, consistent with the timing for the Black Death in Europe. French Second Republic The French Second Republic ( French : Deuxième République Française or La II République ), officially the French Republic ( République française ), was the second republican government of France . It existed from 1848 until its dissolution in 1852. Following
12870-472: Was based on a narrow, privileged electorate of property owners and therefore excluded workers. During the 1840s several petitions requesting electoral reform ( universal manhood suffrage ) had been issued by the National Guard but had been rejected by both of the main dynastic parties. Political meetings dedicated to this issue were banned by the government, and electoral reformers' therefore bypassed
12987-405: Was defeated and afterwards its members were deported. But the republic had been discredited and had already become unpopular with both the peasants, who were exasperated by the new land tax of 45 centimes imposed in order to fill the empty treasury, and with the bourgeoisie, who were intimidated by the power of the revolutionary clubs and disadvantaged by the economic stagnation. By the "massacres" of
13104-531: Was elected president of France in 1879. During his presidency Grévy confirmed his longtime stance by diminishing his own executive authority in favor of the Parliament , and in foreign policy strove for peaceful relations and opposed colonialism . He was reelected in 1885, but two years later was compelled to resign due to a political scandal involving his son-in-law, although Grévy himself was not implicated. His nearly nine years as president of France are seen as
13221-484: Was incorporated back into the royal domain (i. e. the territory under direct control of the French king) in the Middle Ages . In the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , founded in 1099, at most 120,000 Franks, who were predominantly French -speaking Western Christians, ruled over 350,000 Muslims, Jews, and native Eastern Christians. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, France experienced relatively low levels of emigration to
13338-500: Was not usually used except in cities, and even there not always in the outlying districts . Abroad, the French language is spoken in many different countries – in particular the former French colonies . Nevertheless, speaking French is distinct from being a French citizen. Thus, francophonie , or the speaking of French, must not be confused with French citizenship or ethnicity. For example, French speakers in Switzerland are not "French citizens". Native English-speaking Blacks on
13455-641: Was officialized with Jacques Chirac 's family regrouping act of 1976 ( regroupement familial ). Since then, immigration has become more varied, although France stopped being a major immigration country compared to other European countries. The large impact of North African and Arab immigration is the greatest and has brought racial , socio-cultural and religious questions to a country seen as homogenously European, French and Christian for thousands of years. Nevertherless, according to Justin Vaïsse , professor at Sciences Po Paris , integration of Muslim immigrants
13572-406: Was to hint at a vast communistic plot in order to scare the bourgeoisie, and to denounce the electoral law of 31 May 1850, in order to gain the support of the mass of the people. The Assembly retaliated by throwing out the proposal for a partial reform of that article of the constitution which prohibited the re-election of the president and the re-establishment of universal suffrage (July). All hope of
13689-403: Was unclear until the publication of a study in 2019 that used genome wide data. The study identified six different genetic clusters that could be distinguished across populations. The study concluded that the population genetic clusters correlate with linguistic and historical divisions in France and with the presence of geographic barriers such as mountains and major rivers. A population bottleneck
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