The French Third Republic, 1870 to 1940

From 1789 onwards, the French state had engaged in a vast process of seeking to assimilate the very people it deemed to be assimilable. The Breton's, Ovenyas, Savoyaz, Normans and other provincials made up what the French referred to as Metropolitan France. At the heart of this process of nation-building was the Republican school system and the Republican school teacher, the Usal Noir of Republican legend. Despite the association of the 19th century with the rise of the nation state, the predominant political form remained empire.