The Republicans was a faction of French politics that existed during the early to mid-nineteenth century. The Republicans represented the left wing of French politics at the time of the Bourbon Restoration, the July Monarchy, and the Second French Empire, and they sought to restore democracy and the ideals of the French Revolution to France. The Republicans were opposed to both the absolutist Legitimists and the liberal Orléanists, as they would rather have no monarch at all. The Republicans would succeed in overthrowing the Orléanists in the French Revolution of 1848, establishing the French Second Republic.
During the Napoleonic era, many educated individuals, including writers and thinkers, retained Republican ideals, advocating for civil liberties and political rights. Some segments of the working class, particularly those who had experienced the Revolution, remained committed to Republican ideals but became increasingly disillusioned with Napoleon's autocracy. Republicans were often more vocal in cities, where political discourse was more active. Support was weaker in rural regions, where the influence of local notables and the Empire's stability were more valued.
After the Bourbon Restoration, the Republican movement operated in secrecy, gathering supporters in clandestine societies such as the Charbonnerie and disseminating its ideology through the press. The Republicans were supported by students, the petty bourgeoisie, and the military, and they were eager to return to a regime that honored the army's glory. In 1820, the Republicans failed to overthrow the monarchy through several insurrections, leading to the exile of their leaders or exemplary trials resulting in capital punishment. The Republican movement still experienced significant growth during the early 1820s due to its presence in the press, its ability to rally Bonapartists, and the vogue of liberal ideas. The Republicans played a pivotal role in the July Revolution of 1830, but Adolphe Thiers and the centrist Doctrinaires redirected the revolution to their advantage, resulting in the establishment of the Orleanist July Monarchy rather than a republic. Disappointed republicans launched the June Rebellion in 1832 and other insurrections, but these were suppressed.
The Republicans of the Second Republic were a group of politicians, writers, and journalists close to the newspaper Le National, and they became the official majority group in the Provisional Government after the revolution. Louis-Eugene Cavaignac, Francois Arago, and Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure emerged as the Republican leaders, and they allied themselves to the democratic socialist political group known as "The Mountain". The Moderate Republicans were then torn apart by internal disputes after the revolution, with Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte supporting the Catholic Church and the Concordat of 1801, and the rest of the Republicans opposing the Church. The Republicans and Bonapartists became rivals, culminating in an 1851 coup by Bonaparte that would lead to the downfall of the Second Republic and the establishment of the Second French Empire. Napoleon repressed the Republicans, exiling many of them. With the weakening of the empire in the 1860s, the Republicans returned in the political scene, becoming the official opposition to the Bonapartists with Leon Gambetta's 1869 Belleville Agenda of radical, progressive, laicist, and reformist goals. The Republicans officially ended with the Paris Commune of 1871 and the consolidation of the French Third Republic, when its leaders formed the Opportunists and the Republican Union.
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