Absolutism In The 19th Century

The long nineteenth century was undoubtedly the most unstable periods of French history which saw numerous varying regimes govern over the French people. However, as a result of a constant inability to represent the interests of its people, these regimes came and went in perhaps the most bloodiest of means, whether that was the horrifying events of la Terreur or the disastrous defeat by the new German state during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Arguably, the most interesting of these regimes were the First Consulate (1799-1804) and the Third Republic (1870-1940). In this essay I shall discuss to what degree these two regimes were able to represent the interests of la nation by analysing their position towards internal and foreign affairs, …show more content…
In the early days of the French revolution of 1789, the term itself was repeatedly linked to republican ideologies and Locke’s principal of social contract between the people and the state. Before this, the term often referred to “the state”; the word itself originates from the Latin verb ‘nescere’ meaning ‘to be born’, suggesting perhaps that members of the state were born with the divine rights to rule over the people. Indeed, over the period in question, this definition of “la nation” developed as a result of changing concepts and philosophies towards the notion of ‘la nation’, as evident by the works of French academics Fustel de Coulanges and Ernest Renan. Ernst Renan in particular characterised this notion subjectively as being “le désir de vivre ensemble [ainsi que] la volonté de continuer à faire valoir l’héritage qu’on a recu indivis.” In this essay, I shall interpret “representing the interests of ‘la nation’” as having a regime in which governors, whether entirely democratically elected or not, nominally speak and predominantly govern in the interests of their citizens. However, where relevant, I shall specify exactly who would likely benefit from it more between the state and the