The schism of 1882 inaugurated an era of sectarian competition between the Broussists and the Guesdists, competition so intense that the French embarrassed international socialism by holding rival congresses to found the Second International at Paris in 1889. At the same time, still more socialist parties were emerging. In 1889, the Comité Révolutionnaire Central (CRC) came under the leadership of Edouard Vaillant and began to emerge as a socialist party in its own right. In 1890, the Broussist FTSF split in two, leading to the creation of Jean Allemane's Parti Ouvrier Socialiste Revolutionnaire (POSR). Finally, during the 1890s, the socialists who considered themselves ‘independent’ of the organised parties became an important current and began to form their own party, under the inspiration of Jean Jaurès.

The sectarianism of the 1880s nevertheless prepared the basis for socialist success. In the first place, the sectarian parties clearly distinguished socialism from republicanism, even radical republicanism, by virtue of their distinct organisation, working-class orientation, and insistence on public ownership of the means of production. In the second place, the socialist sects organised at the local level, trained militants and diffused propaganda. These pure and untainted little parties had the advantages of faith and enthusiasm. They spread the socialist message throughout the country, which paid off in the 1890s.

The industrialisation of France, in full swing since the Second Empire, was gradually swelling the ranks of propertyless workers who could find a more relevant approach to their problems in socialist analysis than in that of the radical republicans.