The Boulanger Era

The Begining
General Georges Boulanger (often nicknamed "General Revenge") was a french officer and Minister of War in 1886 and 1887.

In 1888, he managed to group an anti-governmental coalition of monarchists, bonapartists and radical conservative to oppose the ruling republican coaltion. While the members oppinion varied on any future government, they joined up due to some or all of the following:

  a desire for revenge against germany  preference for a strong single leader instead of a democraticaly elected coalition.  subordination of all to the country irrespective of class or occupation  eventual restoration of some type of monarchy (Bourbon or Bonarparte) 

On the 27 of january 1889, he was elected representative of Paris and his supporters of the League of Patriots asked him to overthrow the government during his victory celebration. He did so, simply by marching on the assembly at the head of his followers and declaring himself "Interim President of the Constituant Assembly". Fearing for their safety, many of the representatives resigned or simply fled. Part of this fear came from the immediate support the General received from the lower echelons of the army some of which spontaneously converge on the Constituant Assembly to defend it against a possible backlash.

Now in control, the General began his reforms.

Organisation of the French State
At the head of the state was the General who surrounded himself with a group of advisors. Boulanger derived his legitimacy from referendums taken once in while on national policies. The first such referendum was to get approval on his coup and to disolve the Chamber of Deputies to replace it with a Constituant Assembly.

Below the General is the Constituant Assembly

Attempted Restoration of the Monarchy
While not overtly monarchist himself, the General saw the restoration of a monarch as a mean to legitimise further his own regime and to create a relying point. With the last widely recognised bonapartist claimant death's in 1879, it was felt that a king would be easier for citizens' to accept. As per the 1871 compromise between Legitimists and Orleanists, the crown was offered to the Comte of Paris. While he was willing to accept a role as a constitutional monarch, he quickly realise he would have no real power whatsoever and so declined.

Even without the imprimatur of a king, Boulanger nevertheless managed to appropriate some of the monarchist legacy through the creation of a Civic Order, composed of those who had served the nation, complete with titles, symbols and perks that imitated Napoleonic and Bourbon's nobility. He also has himself being refered to officialy as "Chancellor" after the ancient regime title for a king apointed prime minister.

Social Organisation
The new regime rejected equalitarian principles in favour of a politic of "class cooperation" whereby the various social classes are given rights and responsabilities for which the government act as guarantor.

To do so, the government created "corporations" in effect cartels which grouped together all members of a given profession. These corporations, which in the case of the working class served as a sort of unlected trade union, were meant as intermediaries between their members and the government. On one hand they brought up grievances to the attention of the Constituant Assembly and on the other, ensured that that the later's decrees would be enforced within its ranks.

Religion and the State
In term of religion, Boulanger adopted many of the Gallicanism theory:

  The popes authority extend only over spiritual matters.  The head of state is entitled to call council of clerics and regulate matters pertaining to ecclesiastical matters.  The pope cannot send priest, bishop or legate to france without the consent of the head of state. Similarly, once in place, a member of the catholic church cannot be recalled without the same consent.  No french catholic may be excomunicated if the reason for doing so what due to said person performing an act in the service of France.  The catholic church could not own land but only occupy it at the discretion of the Government. 

That being said, Boulanger did bring back a veneer of religion into the government by, among other things, inviting the french primarch to bless the Constituant Assembly on its inauguration day.

Marc's Notes
The POD is the night of the 27 january 1889. *Here* Boulanger declined the coup and was forced to go into exile when the government realise how big a threat he was and decided to arresthim. Most historians however seem to agree that had he followed his proponent's lead, his success was almost ensured.

This was due to 2 reasons:

1- He made himself extremely popular with the army as Minister of War by improving the life of non-officers (better foods, better equipment, more permission, more prestige, etc...). His stated policy of eventual revenge against germany was also seen as a way to recover their honnours. Although it couldn't legaly participate in political life, the french army in the past had involved themselve on a few occasion to depose or prop up a given regime.

2- The third republic itself was originaly only meant as a temporary measure until monarchy could be restored (the first pretender refused to be a constitutional-monarch, his heir accepted in principle but had to wait for the former's death). Even though people eventualy resigned themselves to being republican, it was, at the time, mostly out of expediency and not for any deep seated beliefs. Part of the appeal of "Boulangism" was a feeling of stability and instants results.

Unfortunatly, *here*, Boulanger comited suicide 2 years after his exile and didn't write anything about his vision for what France would look like under him. Most of his followers did, however, and continued into politic. The philosophies that inspired them and the ones they created themselves ended up inspiring (among others) 2 relevant regimes in the early 20th century: Franco in Spain amd Petain in France. Because of similarity in term of origin (coalition lead by a soldier united mainly in their anti-republicanism) and resulting society (corpocratic), I have used them as sources for inspiration in designing Boulanger's france.

What's next ?
Where it goes from there, I don't realy know. Boulanger would eventualy try to take his revenge on Germany but being a career soldier (and apparently a competent one), he would probably wait for the most opportune time, rearming his army and building alliances (such as Austria). With the later, you might get a WW1 type conflict 2 decades early.

A fair few boulangists *here* became anti-dreyfusard during the Dreyfus Affair and some became members of the Action Francaise. The apparently latent anti-semitism in the boulangist camp might result in the adoption by the regime *there* of AF leader Maurras' "Anti-France" thesis (That jewish, protestants, free-masons and foreigner are opponents of France). Such a proto-nazi regime could either inspire the creation of National-socialistic or fascistic regimes much earlier then *here*. On the other hand, It might actualy completely discredit some of the resultant thesis as being "old fashion" by the 1920s leading to different radical movements in germany, italy and other countries.