The Technological Divide

Not everyone shared technological enthusiasm. Rural France, where most French still lived, experienced the Belle Époque differently. Electricity reached villages slowly. Automobiles remained urban curiosities. The railroad connected rural areas to cities but also drained them of youth seeking modern opportunities.

Even within Paris, technology's benefits spread unevenly. The 16th arrondissement glowed electrically while the 20th remained gas-lit. Bourgeois women commanded telephones while working women queued at public call offices. The same technology that liberated some enslaved others—factory workers serving machines, telephone operators chained to switchboards, Métro drivers underground all day.

This divide created political tensions. Socialists promised technological benefits for all. Anarchists bombed symbols of industrial oppression. Conservatives worried that technology undermined traditional values. The Catholic Church struggled to accommodate evolution, electrical miracles, and medical advances that challenged divine prerogatives.