Third French Republic
| French Republic | ||||||||||||||
| République française | ||||||||||||||
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Motto "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" (French) "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" |
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Anthem "La Marseillaise" |
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 France in 1939
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 France in September 1939
Dark blue: Metropolitan territory of the Republic Light blue: Colonies, mandates, and protectorates of France |
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| Capital | Paris | |||||||||||||
| Languages | French | |||||||||||||
| Religion | Catholicism, disestablished 1905 | |||||||||||||
| Government | Parliamentary republic | |||||||||||||
| President | ||||||||||||||
| • | 1871–1873 | Adolphe Thiers (first) | ||||||||||||
| • | 1932–1940 | Albert Lebrun (last) | ||||||||||||
| President of the Council of Ministers | ||||||||||||||
| • | 1870–1871 | Louis Jules Trochu | ||||||||||||
| • | 1940 | Philippe Pétain | ||||||||||||
| Legislature | Parliament | |||||||||||||
| • | Upper house | Senate | ||||||||||||
| • | Lower house | Chamber of Deputies | ||||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||||
| • | Proclamation by Leon Gambetta | 4 September 1870 | ||||||||||||
| • | Vichy France established | 10 July 1940 | ||||||||||||
| Population | ||||||||||||||
| • | est. | 35,565,800 | ||||||||||||
| Currency | French Franc | |||||||||||||
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| Today part of |
 France Algeria
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The French Third Republic (French: La Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe République) was the system of government adopted in France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed, until 1940, when France's defeat by Nazi Germany in World War II led to the formation of the Vichy government in France. It came to an end on 10 July 1940.
The early days of the Third Republic were dominated by political disruptions caused by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, which the Republic continued to wage after the fall of Emperor Napoleon III in 1870. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace (keeping the Belfort district) and Lorraine (the northeastern part, i.e. present-day département de la Moselle), social upheaval, and the establishment of the Paris Commune. The early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but confusion as to the nature of that monarchy and who should be awarded the throne caused those talks to stall. Thus, the Third Republic, which was originally intended as a provisional government, instead became the permanent government of France.
The French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic. It consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and a president to serve as head of state. Issues over the re-establishment of the monarchy dominated the tenures of the first two presidents, Adolphe Thiers and Patrice de MacMahon, but the growing support for the republican form of government in the French population and a series of republican presidents during the 1880s quashed all plans for a monarchical restoration.
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