Republicanism, War and Democracy: The Ligue du Midi in France's War Against Prussia, 1870-1871
2003; Oxford University Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/fh/17.1.48
ISSN1477-4542
Autores Tópico(s)French Historical and Cultural Studies
ResumoThe Ligue du Midi was a patriotic republican organization founded in Marseille in September 1870 during the Franco‐Prussian War, under the leadership of Alphonse Esquiros. This article explores the conflicts between the Ligue and the republican Government of National Defence, which underscored the inherent difficulty faced by ‘Jacobin’ republican political culture in accommodating any substantial measure of local autonomy in nineteenth‐century France. These conflicts also draw attention to the difficult relationship between civilian and military authorities, the problems between the government and its own prefectoral administrators, and finally the strains between the ‘central’ government and local republican elected bodies and political groups. Although the Ligue was a failure in the short run, its emergence illustrated the dynamism and creativity of republican political culture on the eve of the Third Republic – most notably in its conception of active citizenship and patriotism, and its commitment to a municipalist form of republican decentralization.
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