III ( THIRD ) REPUBLIC OF FRANCE MEDAL - Medaille d’honneur du travail, 20 ans AU Type: Labour Medal of Honour, 20 years Date: 1922 Metal: silver Silver Contents: 850 ‰ Diameter: 68 mm Engraver BORREL Alfred (1836-1927) Weight: 12,04 g. Edge: smooth + 2 ARGENT horn Puncheon: Horn 2 SILVER OBVERSE ________________________________________ Obverse legend: REPUBLIC - FRENCH. Obverse description: Bust of the Republic on the left, the hair tied in bun with a crown of oak. Signed: ABORREL REVERSE ________________________________________ Reverse legend: MINISTRY. OF. COMMERCE. AND. OF. L'INDUSTRIE // A. M. CLUZEL / 1922. Reverse description: Cartouche on a torch, a caduceus and an oak branch; ribbon inscribed HONOR TRAVAIL. Signed: ABORREL. COMMENTARY ________________________________________ This medal, preserved in its original rectangular box stamped MINISTERE DU COMMERCE ET DE L'INDUSTRIE, is awarded to A. M. Cluzel in 1922. Diameter without the bezel: 27 mm. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ________________________________________ THIRD REPUBLIC (4/09/1870-10/07/1940) The news of the capitulation of Sedan causes the revolution of September 4, 1870 in Paris. Proclaimed at the Hotel de Ville, the Republic has a provisional government called the Government of National Defence. Left threatened by insurrection of the Commune and right by the monarchists, the new regime had a difficult start. Chief executive in the first phase (February 1871), Thiers is responsible for reorganizing the country before deciding on the form of government. He became president in August 1871 and, despite its release action of the territory, to leave his post in March 1873 against the royalist opposition. It is then replaced by MacMahon favorable to the restoration of the monarchy but it is not restored after the flag issue. The law of the seven is then introduced in November 1873 and in 1875 were voted the fundamental laws that serve Constitution of the Third Republic. Parliamentary system, it is characterized by the preponderance of the legislature over the executive. Anticlerical, the Third Republic makes free, secular and compulsory education but continued the colonial policy for its economic, strategic and moral ambitions. The separation of church and state was passed in 1905. The idea of revenge on Germany and an important nationalism are at the heart of the Boulanger crisis, the Panama scandal and the Dreyfus affair years 1886-1899 while foreign policy is very active especially in Morocco and the arms race develops. The First World War is expensive to France which rises until 1920 or 1928 to the currency with the franc "Poincare". The 1929 crisis is felt until 1932 but lasted until 1939, during which the ministerial instability is very important. Vacillating in 1934, the Third Republic is a new cement unit with anti-fascism that allows the rise to power of the Popular Front in 1936. But paralyzed face Germany, France will then get stuck in a "phoney war" and know one of the greatest defeats in its history in June 1940. National Assembly met in Vichy July 10, 1940, Chambers, however, elected in 1936, voted full powers to Petain in a kind of collective suicide by 569 votes for, 80 votes against and 18 abstentions. Please note: This is a private sale and not a commercial transaction, unfortunately I have to exclude any warranty, liability, as well as return of the item according to today's law!