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The founding fathers of the Third Republic made active propaganda efforts aimed at the rural population and set out to prove that they were the “friends of agriculture.” Caught between monarchists and radicals, the Opportunists discovered allies among the rural electorate even as peasants became conscious of their own importance as a result of competition within the French agrarian movement to win their support. French peasants learned to vote, especially during the 1880s, in ways that forced the Republican government to adopt the agricultural policies they wished for, namely protection against foreign competition.