1872 French general election (FCF)

The 1872 French general election was held on April 28, 1872 to elect the first National Assembly of the newly reorganized French Republic after the creation of the Federation of French Communes. In the wake of the foundation of the Federation, the previous National Assembly dissolved itself, allowing for new elections to the reformed body. This was the first election where the rift between federalism and centralism became an important issue.

The election resulted in a victory for federalist and republican politicians, which was problematic as parties that were similar on one issue were not on the other. The big winners were the Federalists, a loose coalition of rural conservative politicians that wanted more decentralization, allying with both the monarchists and the Radicals and Socialists from one decision to another.

Electoral system
The 1872 election was held using a new electoral system, with the 366 députés elected via proportional representation from each of the eighty-six departments, whose deputation varied from 1 to 22 députés. The number of seats by department was assigned using the 1866 census.

Background
The victory of centralist forces in the previous election led to resentment from the general population as a large portion of French people wanted to establish a federal system. Inspired by the socialist communes, many rural towns and villages declared themselves as autonomous and took on a vast amount of powers that were previously reserved to the national government. By November 1871 the National Assembly effectively lost control over the country as the now quasi-independent communes began organizing themselves into departmental federations, opting for cooperation in certain areas. In February, representatives from the departmental federations and trade unions created the Federation of French Communes, a new framework for a federal France. Seeing the writing on the wall, the previous National Assembly voted to dissolve itself and new elections were called.

At the same time, France found itself internationally isolated as the Great Powers preferred Adolphe Thier's Algerian government-in-exile as France's legitimate government. Seizing the opportunity, these powers also divided France's colonial empire among themselves. Additionally, the political chaos in the country prevented it from paying war indemnities to Germany, which was still occupying large parts of its territory.