Second french republic flag

Provisional Government of the Second French Republic


Provisional Government of the Second French Republic was the product of the Parisian revolution of February 1848. It came into existence on February 24, the last of the three days of fighting that brought down the monarchy of King Louis Philippe, which was itself the product of the three July Days of 1830. The Provisional government was actually only the first of three different provisional executives that succeeded one another in France in 1848, until the election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as constitutional president in December, 1848.

The provisional government was made up of eleven men, most of whom were named on lists drawn up at the offices of the two leading republican newspapers, Le National and La Réforme, shortly before the abdication of Louis Philippe at noon on February 24. But the actual selection was made by acclamation of insurgents during that afternoon in two different places, the chamber of deputies and the Hôtel de Ville. The first and larger group consisted of deputies acclaimed by jubilant crowds in the assembly hall immediately after the failure of Orleanists to create a regency for the grandson of Louis Philippe. The insurgents roared their approval of seven names read out by the aged Jacques Charles Dupont de l'Eure, a veteran of the first republic, and Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin, a young firebrand deputy who also directed La Réforme. Besides these two, the new provisional government included Alphonse de Lamartine, Françoise Arago, Louis Antoine Garnier-Pagès, Alexandre Marie, and Adolphe Crémieux, all well-known republican or independent opposition deputies. But during the same afternoon activists at the offices of La Réforme named a provisional government consisting of most of the same deputies (who had been on the list of Le National) together with the journalists Louis Blanc, Armand Marrast and Ferdinand Flocon, as w

French Second Republic

Republican government of France between 1848 and 1852

The French Second Republic (French: Deuxième république française or La II République), officially the French Republic (République française), was the second republican government of France. It existed from 1848 until its dissolution in 1852.

Following the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo, France had been reconstituted into a monarchy known as the Bourbon Restoration. After a brief period of revolutionary turmoil in 1830, royal power was again secured in the "July Monarchy", governed under principles of moderate conservatism and improved relations with the United Kingdom.

In 1848, Europe erupted into a mass revolutionary wave in which many citizens challenged their royal leaders. Much of it was led by France in the February Revolution, overthrowing King Louis-Philippe. Radical and liberal factions of the population convened the French Second Republic in 1848. Attempting to restore the First French Republic's values on human rights and constitutional government, they adopted the motto of the First Republic; Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. The republic was plagued with tribalist tendencies of its leading factions: royalists, proto-socialists, liberals, and conservatives. In this environment, Napoleon's nephew, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, established himself as a popular anti-establishment figure and was elected president in 1848.

Under the Second Republic's constitution, the president was restricted to a single term. Louis-Napoléon overthrew the republic in an 1851 self-coup d'état, proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III, and created the Second French Empire.

Revolution of 1848

Main article: French Revolution of 1848

France's "February Revolution" of 1848, was the first of the Revolutions of 1848. The events of the revolution led to the end of the 1830–1848 Orleans Monarchy and led to the creation of the Second Republic

List of French flags

FlagDatePartyDescription 1880–presentThe Presidential and Prime Minister Standard of FranceA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1). 1880–present The Presidential and Prime Minister Standard of France (variant) A vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 3:2). 1887–1894Presidential standard of Sadi CarnotA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "C". 1894–1895Presidential standard of Jean Casimir-PerierA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "CP". 1895–1899Presidential standard of Félix FaureA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "FF". 1899–1906Presidential standard of Émile LoubetA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "EL". 1906–1913Presidential standard of Armand FallièresA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "AF". 1913–1920Presidential standard of Raymond PoincaréA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "RP". 1920Presidential standard of Paul DeschanelA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden"PD". 1920–1924Presidential standard of Alexandre MillerandA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "AM". 1924–1931Presidential standard of Gaston DoumergueA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "GD". 1931–1932Presidential standard of Paul DoumerA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "PD". 1932–1940Presidential standard of Albert LebrunA vertical tricolour of blue, white, and red (proportions 1:1) with the golden "AL".
1940–1944Presidential standards of Philippe PétainA vertical tricolo
  • Second french empire

    • The flag of the Zouaves regiment of the Imperial Guard, 1854 model

    From one Empire to another

    After the fall of the Empire in 1815, Napoleonic emblems were banned. The Eagle and the Tricolour flag were no longer to be brandished by the army, to be replaced by the Fleur de lys and the white flag of the Bourbons. During the July Monarchy, the Tricolour was rehabilitated in order to promote national harmony, and the “Coq gaulois” [Gallic Rooster] (in place of the Eagle or Fleur de lys) went on top of  the military standards. In 1848, the red flag [which had been the symbol of martial law during the French Revolution] was briefly envisaged before being replaced by the bleu-blanc-rouge  (blue-white-red) flag of the Revolution and the Empire. The Rooster, which had become the symbol of a bourgeois monarchy, was replaced by the Spearhead and an ammunition case stamped with the letters “R.F.”

    The Second French Empire, in memory of victories past, brought back the Eagle as the symbol of the State and the Army.

    Description

    The three colours – with blue closest to the pole, followed by white and red – are arranged in vertical bands. The standard is made of a single piece of silk brocade measuring 90 x 90 cm, with three strips sewn together for the coloured lines. The silk is framed vertically by large embroideries made of gold “cannetilles” [gold thread twisted around a central metal thread] representing, on each side: an imperial crown, an “N” surrounded by laurels and a palmette [small motif representing a stylised palm tree]. These vertical bands arranged symmetrically, are joined at the top and the bottom by a frieze of embroidered bees and two more “N”s with laurels. In the centre of the flag is a five-line embroidered inscription: GARDE IMPERIALE/L’EMPEREUR NAPOLEON III/AU REGIMENT/DE/ZOUAVES [IMPERIAL GUARD/THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON III/TO THE REGIMENT/OF/ZOUAVES].

    Historical Context

    As soon as he came to power, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, then Pr

  • French third republic
  • Fourth french republic
  • First french republic