Tonight is our regular graduate End of Term dinner in college. The theme is 'la belle epoque', so I just looked that up on Wikipedia for inspiration. I was struck to read that:
In the Belle Epoque, France was one of the first countries in the world to let all men have the right to vote, in 1871. In 1905, it granted suffrage to Blacks, Asians, and Jews.
Am I to assume that between 1871 and 1905 the only blacks, Asians and Jews in France were women?
I'm no kind of expert on the history of French electoral law, but I think this wikipedia entry is confused.
ReplyDeleteThe key legislation of 1905 is the separation of church and state -- virtually all discussions of laicité in France refer to 1905 extensively.
I don't know off-hand of any relevant suffrage law from the same year. (Which is not to say that there isn't one.)