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Throughout the 19th century, France experienced repeated changes of government, shifting between monarchies, republics and empires. This instability was largely a consequence of the French Revolution of 1789, which challenged the traditional monarchy and introduced ideas of popular sovereignty, constitutional government and republicanism. However, France struggled to agree on what its political system should look like.

After Napoleon Bonaparte's defeat in 1815, the monarchy was restored under the Bourbon dynasty. Louis XVIII and later Charles X ruled until the July Revolution of 1830 overthrew Charles X and brought Louis-Philippe to the throne. This new regime, known as the July Monarchy, was a constitutional monarchy, but growing dissatisfaction with political inequality and restrictions on voting eventually led to another revolution in 1848.

The revolution of 1848 established the Second French Republic, but it lasted only four years. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I, was elected president. In 1851, he carried out a coup d'état, and in 1852 declared himself Emperor Napoleon III, establishing the Second French Empire. His empire lasted until France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, when he was captured by Prussian forces and the imperial system collapsed.

France then established the Third Republic in 1870, which survived the political crises of the following years and lasted until 1940. The frequent changes happened because monarchists, republicans, Bonapartists and different social groups competed over who should govern France and how much political power ordinary citizens should have. By the end of the 19th century, republican government had finally become firmly established.
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