Boulangisme Triumphant

Teleology

Banned
Say Boulanger, after becoming Deputy of Paris, doesn't pass up his opportunity for a coup in 1889. What would that mean for France and the world?
 
Say Boulanger, after becoming Deputy of Paris, doesn't pass up his opportunity for a coup in 1889. What would that mean for France and the world?

EdT has a TL with this, although the Boulanger dictatorship isn't the main point. It would probably be a really unstable proto-fascist type thing (Boulanger was popular by appealing to just about everyone, which isn't the most comfortable line to walk). But it might be a little less revanchist than the Third Republic - Boulanger wasn't a great general by any stretch, but was probably bright enough to realize one-on-oneing Germany wouldn't work out well for France.
 
Say Boulanger, after becoming Deputy of Paris, doesn't pass up his opportunity for a coup in 1889. What would that mean for France and the world?

As Zyzzyva mentions, In my TL "Fight and Be Right" (link in signature) I examine in some detail France under Boulanger. You may find it interesting. In broader terms though, if you don't mind I'll copy and paste my response the last time this topic came up here;

"Well it probably wouldn't end well, that's for starters- for all his other qualities, Boulanger was a pathologically indecisive man who tried to appeal to everyone, no matter how mutually exclusive his promises. I don't think he genuinely wanted to lead France, and if he does get into power he will have little idea what to do beyond stave off disaster for as long as possible.

Best case scenario? He pulls off an old-style Roman 'dictator' role. Boulanger comes in, acts as a new broom (and he was a very competent reformer), promulgates a new constitution with more power handed to the executive and stability the watchword, and then steps down to allow new elections before he's rumbled. Similar in some ways to De Gaulle.

More likely, he'll dither between appeasing the Left and Monarchist Right, eventually be forced to plump for one or the other (probably the Right, given the financial and press support they obtained him) and then will have to take increasingly desperate steps to remain in power. If he hasn't blundered into a war to unite the nation or been assassinated by a anarchist gunman by the mid 1890s, he'll have run off to Belgium as per OTL and blown his head off as a means of escape.

His time in office will also be full of corruption- not his own, but that of ministers. Parallels can probably be drawn to the Grant administration in the States on this one- plus, there's the Panama Scandal building up...

In foreign policy terms? Well, Boulanger made his name as a revanchist, but he's sensible to know that France can't take on Germany alone so he'll probably pursue an alliance with Russia earlier than OTL. I suspect that as it becomes increasingly apparent that war with Germany would end disasterously he'll pursue colonial adventures, although through pure calculation and for crowd-pleasing reasons rather than any personal enthusiasm.

I suppose you could argue that he might even try taking a concillatory line towards Germany on the Nixon-China basis, although I doubt the public could swallow that.

Oh, one interesting knock on effect- no Dreyfuss affair. Boulanger, for all his sins and for all that his regime will probably end up being very repressive, was no anti-semite- if he gets wind of such a promising young artillery officer being framed, he will purge the conspirators mercilessly. "
 
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