The first and second Republics were part of the Europe-wide struggle between the ancien régime and liberalism. France even went through a period of liberal parliamentary democracy, and the pendulum swung from authoritarian monarchy (or empire) to republic twice. It's only the third republic that was consciously based on civic nationalism and the instillation of republican values through education in a (relatively successful) attempt to erase the divisions within French society that played a role in the upheavals of 1789-1870.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides