History of laïcité  

1789: Secularism first took root during the French Revolution when the Ancien Regime (the political and social system of the Kingdom of Franch) was abolished, thus ending the feudal system.  

• This change reaffirmed the universal human freedoms and limited the powers of the church to make political and governmental decisions by introducing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. 

18th Century: Jules Ferry (France’s Minister of Public Education at the time) created laws around education making it free from religious instruction/instructors.  

• 1881: the first law made public, primary education a free and universal thing for all 

• 1882: The second law made primary education compulsory for all children and established it as secular.  

19th Century: secularization laws continued to free the state from its ties to the Catholic Church, creating new ways of governance through republican universalism (the idea that before someone belongs to a category of race or religion, they are a citizen of France).  

• The Third Republic (a system of governance that had been adopted in 1870) made national any healthcare, education, or public institution not yet handled by the state.  

• Jules Ferry Laws were pushed further 

• 1905: Law passed on the separation of Church and State by the Chamber of Deputies. This prohibited the state from subsidizing any religious denominations and enshrined the constitutional right of freedom from religious values.