Law of Three Years

Law of Three Years
Xth legislative Chamber of the French Third Republic
Territorial extent	France
Enacted by	Xth legislative Chamber of the French Third Republic
Enacted	August 7, 2913
Commenced	August 8, 1913
Introduced by	Louis Barthou
Summary
Law of August 7, 1913, amending the laws governing the infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineers, concerning unit strength, and setting the conditions for active army recruitment and the duration of service in the active army and its reserves.
Status: Amended

The Law of Three Years was a French law passed in 1913 to increase the length of military service from two to three years, in order to prepare the French army for a possible war with Germany, which would occur the following year and become World War I.

Since the Tangier crisis (1905) and the Agadir crisis (1911), conflict appeared increasingly inevitable in the eyes of some public opinion, while the nationalist right and part of the republican left demanded revenge against the victor of 1870. Nevertheless, a whole section of the left, from the Radical Socialists to the SFIO, opposed it, in the name of antimilitarism and diplomatic negotiations with Germany to ward off the threat of war. The law was thus one of the major debates of 1913.

Debates

Embrassons-nous, Folleville !  [ fr ] (Let's kiss, Folleville!) « Oublions le passé… Embrassons-nous, veux-tu ? » (“Let's forget the past... Let's embrace, shall we?”) Cartoon from L'Humanité published on May 27, 1913, showing radical Senator Clemenceau and President Poincaré reconciled in joint support for the Law of Three Years.

The bill had first seen the light of day under the Briand cabinet. Once this was overthrown, it was reintroduced by the Barthou government, with the support of the President of the Republic, Raymond Poincaré.

While the SFIO socialists were opposed to the law, the radical Senator Clemenceau supported it. Although far removed from revanchism, he had been particularly concerned about the outbreak of war with Germany since the Tangier crisis of 1905. ^[1] In his newspaper L'Homme libre , he constantly warned public opinion of the danger posed by the German threat (“Pour la défense nationale”, May 21, 1913 ^[2] ; “Vouloir ou mourir”, May 24 ^[3] ; “Ni défendus ni gouvernés”, July 15, etc.).

On May 23, 1913, Poincaré received Clemenceau at the Élysée Palace: this sign was intended for the Chamber of Deputies, warning that if it overthrew the government, Clemenceau, rather than Joseph Caillaux, would be appointed President of the Council. ^[1] L'Humanité got angry, and published a cartoon mocking the reconciliation between these two adversaries. ^[4]

Speech by Jaurès at Pré-Saint-Gervais, during the demonstration against the Law of Three Years, May 25, 1913.

SFIO deputy and pacifist Jean Jaurès was resolutely opposed to the law, relying on workers' internationalism to prevent the outbreak of war, while preferring a diplomatic and long-term solution for Alsace-Lorraine. On May 25, 1913, the SFIO organized a demonstration against the law at Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, attended by between 70,000 (according to Clemenceau's L'Homme libre ^[5] ) and 150,000 (according to L'Humanité ), ^[1] with dozens of speakers, including Jaurès. At the time, antimilitarism was widely shared on the left, partly because of the constant use of the French armed forces to suppress strikes (Draveil in 1908, Languedoc in 1907, etc.). Jaurès defended an alternative proposal, aimed at setting up citizen militias (see below).

Unrest in the barracks

When conscripts of the 1911 class learned that their time of service was to be extended by a year without delay, discontent was rife. From Toul ^[6] to Rodez, ^[7] a wave of unrest swept through French barracks between May 18 and 24. Soldiers protested, sang The Internationale, jostled officers and sometimes tried to leave the barracks collectively. ^[8]

General Paul Pau, in charge of the investigation, attributed this movement to the anti-militarist action of the CGT and anarchists, who strongly opposed the new law. What followed was a wave of searches and arrests in revolutionary circles, the imprisonment of some twenty CGT leaders and a trial in early 1914. Some, like linguist Paul Passy, founder of the Union of Christian socialists, lost their professorships because of their involvement in the protest campaign.

Vote on the Law

The bill was debated in the Chamber of Deputies from June 2, 1913. It was passed on July 19, 1913, ^[9] by 358 votes to 204, with the support of the Right wing against two-thirds of the Radical-Socialist deputies and the SFIO. ^[1] The bill was then debated in the Senate, from July 31 to August 7, at a time when the Balkans were at war again. With Paul Doumer as rapporteur, the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor. ^[10]

Other proposals were discarded: some advocated 30 months' service rather than 36, ^[1] or even 20 months (Louis Briquet's proposal ^[11] ), while Jaurès advocated a kind of militia theory, close to the Swiss example: ^[1] 18 months' service, one day of exercise per month for young people aged 17 to 21, two days of maneuvers for reservists per trimester, and, from October 1916, one year's service, then six months in October 1918. ^[1]

Consequences

The repeal of the Law of Three Years was one of the themes of the April-May 1914 legislative campaign.

The Law increased the number of French soldiers from 480,000 to 750,000, while the German army was 850,000 strong. New regiments were created, such as the 49th artillery regiment. Armament, however, remained old-fashioned.

Conservative Catholic deputy Albert de Mun, committed defender of the law, joined the Finance Committee to defend its application, supporting the plan to borrow 1,400 million francs for this purpose. ^[12]

See also

• French Third Republic

• Sacred Union

• World War I

References

1. Winock, Michel (2007). Clemenceau (in French). Paris: Perrin. pp. 400–402. ISBN   978-2-262-01848-1. OCLC   224937775.
2. "Pour la défense nationale". L'Homme Libre (in French) (17). May 21, 1913.
3. "Vouloir ou mourir". L'Homme Libre (20). May 24, 1913.
4. "Embrassons,nous, Folleville" [Let's kiss, Folleville]. L'Humanité (in French) (3327). May 27, 1913.
5. "Les socialistes manifestant en famille contre les trois ans" [Socialists protesting together against the three years]. L'Homme Libre (in French) (22): 1. May 26, 1913.
6. "Des militaires manifestent à Toul contre le maintien de la classe sous les drapeaux" [Military personnel demonstrate in Toul against keeping the class under the flag]. Le Matin (in French) (10674): 1. May 19, 1913.
7. "À Rodez, ce fut une véritable mutinerie militaire" [In Rodez, a true military mutiny took place.]. Le Matin (in French) (10769): 1. May 24, 1913.
8. "Mai 1913 : Débuts de mutineries dans les casernes" [May 1913: Mutiny breaks out in the barracks]. unioncommunistelibertaire.org (in French). Archived from the original on March 20, 2023.
9. Georges, Édouard; Bonnefous, Édouard (1965). Histoire politique de la Troisième République, vol. 1 : L'avant-guerre (1906-1914)[Political history of the Third Republic, vol. 1: The prewar years (1906-1914)] (in French). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. p. 349.
10. Lorin, Amaury (2013). Une ascension en République: Paul Doumer, 1857-1932, d'Aurillac à l'Élysée (Thesis) (in French). Paris: Dalloz. pp. 170–173. ISBN   9782247126040.
11. "La Proposition Briquet" [The Briquet Proposal]. L'Humanité (in French) (3328): 2. 28 May 1913.
12. "Albert de Nun: Biographie extraite du dictionnaire des parlementaires français de 1889 à 1940 (Jean Jolly)" [Albert de Nun: Biography from the dictionary of French parliamentarians from 1889 to 1940 (Jean Jolly)]. Assemblé Nationale (in French).

External links

• "Lois des Trois Ans". National Assembly (France) (in French). Archived from the original on February 27, 2025. (including access to the legislative dossier: work of the Army Committee, discussions in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate).