Editing Charente-Maritime (section)

====Charente-Inférieure during the Third Republic (1870-1940)====
===== The Slow Establishment of the Republican Idea =====
Charente-Inférieure remained Bonapartist post-1870, with Baron [[Eugène Eschassériaux]] leading conservatives until 1893.<ref name=":30">{{Cite web |date=October 9, 2008 |title=Les républicains en Charente-Inférieure de 1870 à 1914 |trans-title=Republicans in Charente-Inférieure from 1870 to 1914 |url=http://pagesperso-orange.fr/lespelletan/Muel1.htm |access-date=May 25, 2010 |website=pagesperso-orange.fr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081009205614/http://pagesperso-orange.fr/lespelletan/Muel1.htm |archive-date=9 October 2008 |language=fr}}</ref> Republican gains came in 1876 with [[Jules Armand Dufaure|Jules Dufaure]] as President of the Council (1876-1879).<ref name=":65">{{Harvtxt|Combes|2001|p=385}}</ref> [[Phylloxera]] devastated vineyards from 1872, dropping production from 7 million to 70,000 hectoliters by 1880; Saintonge rebuilt vineyards, while Aunis shifted to dairy, led by Eugène Biraud’s 1888 cooperative.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Boutinet|2001|p=74}}</ref> Coastal resorts like Royan boomed with rail access by 1875, hosting figures like [[Émile Zola]] during the [[Belle Époque]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 28, 1886 |title=La Gazette des bains de mer de Royan-sur-l'Océan |trans-title=The Gazette of the sea baths of Royan-sur-l'Océan |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6674855j.item |access-date=March 17, 2025 |website=Gallica |language=fr}}</ref> In 1895, [[Alfred Dreyfus]] was held in Saint-Martin-de-Ré before deportation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alfred |first=Dreyfus |date=February 3, 2010 |title=Lettre d'Alfred à Lucie Dreyfus sur un formulaire administratif |trans-title=Letter from Alfred to Lucie Dreyfus on an administrative form |url=http://www.dreyfus.culture.fr/en/pedagogie/pedago-doc-lettre-alfred-a-lucie-dreyfus.htm |access-date=May 25, 2010 |website=dreyfus.culture.fr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100203233009/http://www.dreyfus.culture.fr/en/pedagogie/pedago-doc-lettre-alfred-a-lucie-dreyfus.htm |archive-date=3 February 2010 |language=fr}}</ref>

===== The Belle Époque: Radical Domination =====
Radicals dominated post-1898, with [[Émile Combes]] of Pons as President of the Council (1902-1905), pushing the 1905 Church-State separation law.<ref name=":66">{{Harvtxt|Vallée|Nury|2007|p=250-251}}</ref> In 1910, a rail crash at Saujon killed 38 and injured 80.<ref name=":31">{{Cite book |last=Le Dret |first=Yves |url=https://www.patrimoine-nouvelle-aquitaine.fr/Default/doc/BiblioMed/561bb4eb-ec51-4488-9183-5f6e7b47493a/le-train-en-poitou-charentes-tome-1-la-naissance-du-chemin-de-fer-en-poitou-charentes?_lg=fr-FR |title=Le train en Poitou-Charentes, Les Chemins de la Mémoire Éditeur, tome 1 : La naissance du chemin de fer en Poitou-Charentes |publisher=Les Chemins de la Mémoire |year=2004 |isbn=2-84702-111-6 |location=Saintes |page=39 |language=fr |trans-title=The train in Poitou-Charentes, volume 1: The birth of the railway in Poitou-Charentes}}</ref>

===== A Great War Is Seen from Afar =====
World War I mobilization began on August 1, 1914; Charente-Inférieure supported the war effort with converted factories and U.S. bases like Saint-Trojan-les-Bains (1917).<ref name=":67">{{Harvtxt|Vallée|Nury|2007|p=260-261}}</ref> The unfinished Talmont port project halted with the 1918 armistice.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Mounier|2004|p=38-39}}</ref>

===== Between the Wars =====
Post-war population dropped from 451,044 (1911) to 418,310 (1921), worsened by a 1920 oyster epizootic.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Papy|1940|p=310}}</ref> The Rochefort arsenal closed in 1927, but La Pallice port expanded by 1930.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Deveau|1974|p=119}}</ref> The [[Great Depression]] hit in 1931, ending the [[Années folles|Roaring Twenties]]. Radicals held strong in 1936 (42%), with strikes following the [[Popular Front (France)|Front Populaire]] victory.<ref name=":33">{{Harvtxt|Boutinet|2001|p=79}}</ref>