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| 1880s |
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| Opportunist Republicans increasingly dominated, lacking major issues of principle. | 1 |
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| 1880–82 |
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| Educational reform. Camille Sée established the government's secondary education program for girls, which emphasized women's roles as wives and mothers and sought to strengthen those roles by providing appropriate education (Dec. 21, 1880). | 2 |
| The Ferry Laws (June 16, 1881 and March 28, 1882) provided free, compulsory, public elementary education without religious content under the aegis of municipal commissions. | 3 |
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| 1881, March–May |
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| French occupation of Tunis (Treaty of Bardo, May 12) (See 1881, April 24). | 4 |
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| 1882 |
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| Brousse's Le Commune et le Parti ouvrier was published. It articulated Brousse's anarchism and especially his belief that local activities by workers could allow them to gain substantial control without necessarily overthrowing the state. | 5 |
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| 1884, March 21 |
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| Trade unions were legalized. | 6 |
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| July 27 |
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| Divorce was legalized. However, it remained expensive, and the law still excluded divorce on the grounds of incompatibility or by mutual consent. | 7 |
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