The Great War (All 8 Volumes). Various Authors

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СКАЧАТЬ as at that time were the Prusso-English relations, and inactive as England remained during the war, it still managed to impress the French nation with a strong feeling of gratefulness for the apparently friendly attitude which England felt toward France. In a way this is very remarkable, for after the fall of the empire, England extended its hospitality to ex-Empress Eugenie and her young son, and then, later, after Napoleon Ill's release from German captivity, to the ex-emperor himself.

      In 1876 France had sufficiently recovered from its apparently complete breakdown of a few years ago to be able to dispose of the largest revenue that had ever been at the disposal of any French Government, and this fact is of interest to us chiefly because it is one of the most definite and most significant proofs of the remarkable inherent strength of the French country and people.

      In spite of this quick recovery, France for the next few years played an absolutely inactive and comparatively unimportant part in European affairs. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1876, for instance, the republic declared and maintained a strict neutrality. Internally, the republic continued to have to contend with many difficulties. Again and again strong opposition to the republican form of government showed itself, expressed at one time by the followers of the Bonapartist party, at another by those of the Royalist party. However, all of these dissensions had no actual result, and in spite of them the republic continued to progress and to flourish to such an extent that, only seven years after one of the most disastrous defeats that any European nation had ever suffered, France was able, in 1878, to invite the rest of the world to witness at Paris the most wonderful international exposition that had ever been staged in the history of mankind. Early in the following year President MacMahon resigned, having been practically forced to this step by public sentiment which disapproved of and feared his monarchistic leanings. M. Grévy was elected as his successor. The early summer of this year (1879) brought death to the only son of Napoleon III while he was fighting under the English flag during the campaign against the Zulus in South Africa, and this event practically ended all danger of a Napoleonic restoration, because the representatives of the Napoleonic family left were neither closely enough related to Napoleon III nor possessed the necessary ability to accomplish a change of government.

      The year 1880 brought the beginning of a strong anti-Catholic movement in France. At first this movement was directed only against the Jesuits, but it rapidly spread and in a way may be considered the forerunner of the radical legislation along this line which was passed in recent years. Throughout these years the life of the different ministries was very short and in most instances measured by months rather than by years. To go deeper into the causes for this condition is not necessary; but one of its results undoubtedly was that France continued to refrain from active participation in European politics because it stands to reason that a continuous change of the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs made it more or less difficult, if not impossible, for France to establish a definite foreign policy. However, in 1881 France began again to take a more lively interest in its colonial affairs. It was in that year that Tunis gave up its resistance to French occupation and from that time on dates the preponderating influence which France has held ever since in north Africa. For our purposes it is important only to remember the fact of this preponderancy, although it may be difficult to understand why this condition should exist, for neither then nor during the years to come has France shown any particular adaptability to colonial problems nor was it able to register in its colonies successes such as England and Germany had to show. The colonial expansion of France, however, continued. In 1882 new territory was acquired in Annam and, in 1884, Cambodia. This aggrandizement of France at the cost of China finally resulted in a declaration of war on the part of the latter country against France in August, 1884, lasting until June, 1885, and resulting in the confirmation of the French possessions in the Far East, not, however, until the French troops had suffered severe reverses. In 1885 a protectorate was established over Madagascar.

      The beginning and continuation of French expansion in other parts of the world necessarily brought France into closer and more frequent contact with other countries. French statesmen soon began to see the necessity of making friends amongst the other nations if they hoped to lead France back into the position amongst the great powers which it had a right to occupy on account of its history as well as its extent and ability. Throughout the first twenty years after the Franco-Prussian War, France may be considered to have been on friendly terms with practically all European nations with the possible exception of Germany; but these friendships during that period had not yet ripened into intimacy nor had they even resulted in the establishment of definite alliances with any one of the nations. The feeling against Germany, which was, of course, based on the defeat which France had suffered at the hands of its eastern neighbor, was not particularly pronounced during this period and, unless French interests would finally have resulted in the conclusion of alliances with countries which brought it into commercial and political conflict with Germany, there seemed to be no good reason in the late nineties why France and Germany could not have found a common basis of understanding. In spite of this fact it is true that French statesmen and especially French politicians had never entirely given up the idea of revenging the defeat of 1870, even though in a great many instances the desire for revenge was secondary only, whereas the desire for the reconquest of lost territory was the chief driving power. However, as we have said, in 1889 French relations with the world were pleasant enough to make it possible for the republic to again extend an invitation to all civilized nations to come to Paris for another exhibition which was opened in May of that year, 1889. In the same year a bill was passed making army service universal. In 1890 representatives of the various nations again met at Paris at an international commercial conference. In 1891 the first definite signs of an increasing intimacy with some of the European countries showed themselves. In March, 1891, England and France agreed to arbitrate the Newfoundland fisheries question which had been a long standing cause of difficulties and diplomatic dissensions between the two countries. Some time later in July and August, 1891, a large French fleet paid an official visit to Kronstadt, the port of Petrograd, and was received there with the most remarkable expressions of friendship and good will. This latter event was the beginning of the Franco-Russian alliance. It was followed in October, 1893, by a visit of a Russian fleet to Toulon, which was greeted with similar enthusiasm.

      In 1894 the so-called Dreyfus affair was responsible for a revival of the anti-German feeling, because Dreyfus, who was then a captain in the French army, had been accused and found guilty of selling military secrets to a foreign power which was by everybody considered to have been Germany. However, beyond intensifying the anti-German sentiment nothing resulted, and in May, 1895, France found it possible to join Germany and Russia in demanding from Japan the return of the Liao-Tung peninsula to China.

      The popular sentiment in France during the South African War was strongly pro-Boer, although the official attitude was one of neutrality. In September, 1896, France arrived at an understanding with Italy concerning the former's desires for political supremacy in Tunis. The next month brought a visit from the newly crowned Czar Nicholas who was received in France with great hospitality. The visit was reciprocated in August, 1897, by President Faure and Europe made up its mind then that France and Russia had become allied. In the next month England, too, as Italy had done before, made arrangements to acknowledge French supremacy in Tunis.

      In September, 1898, however, it looked for a short time as if England and France were to go to war with each other on account of further French advances in north Africa. In that month Major Marchand with French troops occupied Fashoda, a town located on the upper Nile in territory which England claimed to belong to its own sphere of interest. Lord, then still Sir Herbert, Kitchener, who was Governor General of the Sudan, demanded the withdrawal of the French troops which demand was refused; but a few months afterward the matter was amicably adjusted and the French withdrew from Fashoda. At that time, however, the popular French feeling certainly was not strongly pro-English; for when Major Marchand returned to France in May, 1899, he was received with the most effusive enthusiasm.

      In February, 1899, President Faure died very suddenly and M. Loubet was elected as his successor. Throughout that year the Dreyfus scandal continued to occupy public opinion in France to the exclusion of almost everything else. A second trial was ordered, СКАЧАТЬ