The Sacred Union's Fragile Unity

The Union Sacrée, proclaimed in August 1914, temporarily suspended France's bitter political divisions. Socialists who had denounced militarism joined governments they had opposed. Catholics and anticlericals served together. Royalists defended the Republic they hoped to overthrow. This unity, born of external threat, created unprecedented social mixing.

In the trenches, class distinctions initially persisted. Officers, predominantly bourgeois or aristocratic, maintained separation from working-class soldiers. Separate messes, different uniforms, and formal military hierarchy preserved social stratification. Yet combat created its own democracy. Under bombardment, the Parisian lawyer and Breton peasant shared identical chances of death.

Lieutenant Jacques Meyer, from banking family, wrote: "Our sergeant, a Lille factory worker, saved my life at Verdun. He knew warfare better than I knew banking. Social position means nothing to shrapnel. We learned to judge men by courage and competence, not birth or wealth."

The officer corps itself transformed. Prewar, 60% of officers came from aristocratic or haute bourgeois backgrounds. Massive casualties forced promotion from ranks. By 1918, former NCOs commanded battalions. Marcel Cachin, socialist deputy visiting the front, observed: "The army has become more democratic through death than the Republic achieved through laws."

Yet tensions persisted. Soldiers resented staff officers' privileges—better food, safer positions, regular leave. The term "embusqué" (shirker) expressed contempt for those avoiding front-line service through connections. Class resentment, suppressed by patriotic unity, would explode postwar in strikes and political radicalization.