"Vers la revanche"

[Antonio the Sixth]

You clearly made thorough researchs on your topics and know this topic very well. I fully agree with your conclusion, but also learnt a lot about the mindset of the times with the quotes you provided.

Another interesting thing to note about french nationalism (but maybe it was slightly off-topic), is its gradual drift from the left to the right. From the French Revolution to the end of XIXth Century, "patriotism" was the core value of republicans and bonapartists, as opposed to the foreign-backed monarchists. With the Boulangist crisis (how comes you didn't talk about it, BTW ?), and later the Dreyfus affair, nationalism became a sign of opposition to republican parliamentarism, accused of being too "soft" and "corrupt", as well as of a rejection of rationalist values. This 180° shift is quite fascinating.