Gaston Foveaux: Lille and the War of Two Frances

Abstract

The crisis sparked by the Flamidien Affair shows the powerful interplay of national, regional and local forces. Nowhere was this more evident than in the field of education. At the national level, the republican government set out from the late 1870s to create a comprehensive secular school system. But their efforts ran into fierce Catholic opposition, particularly in the North, where a strong and well-financed network of supporters allowed the Church to resist. Lille, the capital of a region that was an economic powerhouse, was an ideal stage for this school war, boasting a wealthy Catholic elite but also a strong republican movement as well as a rising socialist force. This long history of conflict is essential to understand the clash of 1899.